The role of dichotomous thinking and rigidity in perfectionism.

Perfectionism is a complex psychological construct that has been defined in many different ways. Recent conceptualisations of perfectionism have involved dividing the construct into positive and negative components. Negative perfectionism is associated with high emotional distress whereas positive p...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Egan, Sarah, Piek, Jan, Dyck, Murray, Rees, Clare
Format: Journal Article
Published: Elsevier Ltd 2007
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/20066
_version_ 1848750205952851968
author Egan, Sarah
Piek, Jan
Dyck, Murray
Rees, Clare
author_facet Egan, Sarah
Piek, Jan
Dyck, Murray
Rees, Clare
author_sort Egan, Sarah
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Perfectionism is a complex psychological construct that has been defined in many different ways. Recent conceptualisations of perfectionism have involved dividing the construct into positive and negative components. Negative perfectionism is associated with high emotional distress whereas positive perfectionism is associated with positive affect and lower levels of distress. Although these distinctions have been made it remains unclear as to how distinct the two aspects of perfectionism are particularly in terms of their cognitive profiles. This study investigated two cognitive constructs that have been theoretically linked to perfectionism. Dichotomous thinking and rigidity were examined in three samples (40 clinical participants, 111 athletes, 101 students). As hypothesised, the clinical sample had the highest score on negative perfectionism, however, no differences were observed between groups on positive perfectionism. Dichotomous thinking emerged as the variable most predictive of negative perfectionism, and was less strongly related to positive perfectionism. These results highlight the importance of dichotomous thinking as a cognitive construct worthy of further research to understand negative perfectionism. Implications for the development of cognitive therapy interventions for negative perfectionism are discussed.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T07:33:08Z
format Journal Article
id curtin-20.500.11937-20066
institution Curtin University Malaysia
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T07:33:08Z
publishDate 2007
publisher Elsevier Ltd
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling curtin-20.500.11937-200662017-09-13T16:04:40Z The role of dichotomous thinking and rigidity in perfectionism. Egan, Sarah Piek, Jan Dyck, Murray Rees, Clare Rigidity Thinking Dichotomous Perfectionism Perfectionism is a complex psychological construct that has been defined in many different ways. Recent conceptualisations of perfectionism have involved dividing the construct into positive and negative components. Negative perfectionism is associated with high emotional distress whereas positive perfectionism is associated with positive affect and lower levels of distress. Although these distinctions have been made it remains unclear as to how distinct the two aspects of perfectionism are particularly in terms of their cognitive profiles. This study investigated two cognitive constructs that have been theoretically linked to perfectionism. Dichotomous thinking and rigidity were examined in three samples (40 clinical participants, 111 athletes, 101 students). As hypothesised, the clinical sample had the highest score on negative perfectionism, however, no differences were observed between groups on positive perfectionism. Dichotomous thinking emerged as the variable most predictive of negative perfectionism, and was less strongly related to positive perfectionism. These results highlight the importance of dichotomous thinking as a cognitive construct worthy of further research to understand negative perfectionism. Implications for the development of cognitive therapy interventions for negative perfectionism are discussed. 2007 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/20066 10.1016/j.brat.2007.02.002 Elsevier Ltd restricted
spellingShingle Rigidity
Thinking
Dichotomous
Perfectionism
Egan, Sarah
Piek, Jan
Dyck, Murray
Rees, Clare
The role of dichotomous thinking and rigidity in perfectionism.
title The role of dichotomous thinking and rigidity in perfectionism.
title_full The role of dichotomous thinking and rigidity in perfectionism.
title_fullStr The role of dichotomous thinking and rigidity in perfectionism.
title_full_unstemmed The role of dichotomous thinking and rigidity in perfectionism.
title_short The role of dichotomous thinking and rigidity in perfectionism.
title_sort role of dichotomous thinking and rigidity in perfectionism.
topic Rigidity
Thinking
Dichotomous
Perfectionism
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/20066