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PERFECTIONISM SCORES FELL IN TREATMENT TRIALS
Perfectionism Is Measured Because Of What It Predicts
The Harm Is Assumed To Come From The High Standards
Longitudinal Studies Point At The Concerns Half Instead
A Single Analysis Pooled Them And Tested Both Directions
One Half Moves With Depression In Both Directions
A Separate Review Looked At Suicide Ideation
Interventions Have Since Been Tested Against Those Scores
This Part Covers The Outcomes The Laboratory And The Trials
THIS NEWSLETTER IS FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. NOTHING IN THIS CONTENT CONSTITUTES MEDICAL, PSYCHOLOGICAL, OR PROFESSIONAL ADVICE. ALWAYS CONSULT A QUALIFIED HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONAL BEFORE MAKING ANY HEALTH RELATED DECISIONS.
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WHAT THE LONG STUDIES FOUND ⏳
Martin Smith And Colleagues Published An Analysis In 2021
Their Search Yielded 67 Longitudinal Studies
The Analysis Appeared In Clinical Psychology Review
Together Those Studies Include 20,583 People
Undergraduates And Community Members Were Among Them
Medical Students And Treatment Seeking Adults Were Too
Patients With Mental Health Problems Appear In The Pool
The Analysis Splits Perfectionism Into Concerns And Strivings
Perfectionistic Concerns And Depressive Symptoms Ran Both Ways
Concerns Predicted Rising Depressive Symptoms Over Time
The Reverse Direction Held As Well
Smith And Colleagues Call That Relationship Reciprocal
Perfectionistic Strivings Behaved Differently
Strivings Predicted Depressive Symptoms Without The Reverse
That Direction Ran One Way Only
The Same Group Published A Suicide Review In 2018
That Review Appeared In The Journal Of Personality
Its Search Yielded 45 Studies And 11,747 People
Suicide Ideation Showed Small To Moderate Links With Concerns
Strivings Showed Links Of The Same Size
Socially Prescribed Perfectionism Predicted Later Ideation
Parental Criticism And Expectations Linked To Attempts Too
The Authors Say Those Pressures May Come First
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INSIDE THE ERROR SIGNAL 🧠
Researchers In Germany Watched Perfectionists Make Mistakes
Mattes And Two Colleagues Ran That Experiment
They Recruited 95 Participants And Analysed 90
Personality Neuroscience Published It In 2023
Mean Age In That Sample Was 25.08 Years
Each Person Learned Eight Symbols Assigned To Eight Fingers
Electrodes Recorded Brain Activity Throughout The Task
One Component Peaks Around 100 Milliseconds After A Response
Researchers Call It The Error Negativity
It Is Usually Larger For Errors Than For Correct Responses
The Study Scored Personal Standards And Concern Over Mistakes
Both Scales Come From The Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale
Higher Concern Over Mistakes Was Associated With More Errors
That Result Is The Opposite Of The Obvious Prediction
High Concern Perfectionists Showed A Reduced Early Signal
Slowing After An Error Was Reduced As Well
The Authors Offer Two Readings Of That Pattern
Avoidance Of Error Processing Is The First
Limited Cognitive Capacity Is The Second
The Data Support Capacity More Than Avoidance
That Experiment Cannot Falsify The Avoidance Reading
Small Effects May Not Have Been Detected At That Sample Size
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WHAT THE TRIALS MOVED 🛠️
A King's College London Team Pooled Eight Trials In 2015
Behavioural And Cognitive Psychotherapy Published That Review
Each Trial Targeted Perfectionism In A Clinical Sample
Scores Were Compared Before And After Each Intervention
Personal Standards Showed Large Effect Sizes
Concern Over Mistakes Reached That Size Too
Self Oriented Perfectionism Moved As Much Again
Socially Prescribed Perfectionism Reached Only A Medium Effect
Medium Pooled Effects Appeared For Anxiety And Depression
Trials Have Kept Testing Whether Those Scores Can Be Lowered
Another Review Followed In 2019
The Journal Of Counseling Psychology Published It
Suh And Three Colleagues Identified 10 Studies
Those Studies Yielded 65 Perfectionism Effect Sizes
Every One Of Them Was A Randomised Controlled Trial
Psychological Interventions Cut Perfectionism Scores
Depression And Anxiety Fell Alongside Them
The Effects Were Medium In Size
Face To Face And Online Delivery Did Not Differ
Control Condition Type Did Not Change The Result
Sample Characteristics Did Not Either
No Split Appeared Between The Two Halves Of Perfectionism
Treatment Did Not Raise One While Lowering The Other
