Perfectionistic Thoughts, Personal Standards, and Evaluative Concerns: Further Investigating Relationships to Psychological Distress

Abstract

This study investigated relationships between perfectionism and psychological distress in a sample of first year college students further divided between those who were enrolled in an honors curriculum (n = 60) and those who were not (n = 53). Participants completed the Perfectionism Cognitions Inventory (PCI), the Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (MPS), and the profile of mood states (POMS) at the start of the semester and then again 6 weeks later. Results revealed that one dimension of the MPS—maladaptive evaluative concerns (EC)—was positively associated with tension-anxiety and depression-dejection scores, while a second factor—pure personal standards (PS)—was negatively related to distress after extraneous variance was removed. Perfectionism cognitions as measured by the PCI either fully or partially mediated most relationships. Honors students reported higher personal standards than did controls, a difference that was consistent at 6-week follow-up.