Maladaptive perfectionism is characterized by high standards and the perception that own performance does not meet these expectations, the discrepancy in perfectionism. It is often accompanied by...Show moreMaladaptive perfectionism is characterized by high standards and the perception that own performance does not meet these expectations, the discrepancy in perfectionism. It is often accompanied by fear of negative evaluation and instable self-esteem. This study used a SELF- speech task and looked at the discrepancy trait of perfectionism specifically to examine how individuals with this trait update their feelings about the self, with the expectation that they would show a negativity bias. Additionally, it was hypothesized that these individuals would show differences in brain activity (mid-frontal theta oscillations) caused by negative feedback. Ninety-five participants, out of which fifty-two were in the high discrepancy group, gave a speech about themselves and received positive and negative feedback about their performance. Results of this study show that individuals learn differently from negative and positive feedback. More specifically, both groups showed a positivity bias indicating that they update their feelings about the self more after receiving positive than negative feedback. Differently than expected, the high discrepancy group did not show negativity bias and had learning rates similar to the low discrepancy group. This study also found that theta power activity was not correlated to the mismatch or valence of the feedback received after the task. Furthermore, no group differences in theta power activity were found. These findings indicate that the discrepancy between one’s expectations and self-perception is not related to a negativity bias or increased mid-frontal theta power oscillations. Future research should focus on other classifications of perfectionism to confirm these findings.Show less
Self-esteem is an accumulation of cognitive and emotional self-reflections. Perfectionism and self-esteem in adolescence are associated to later life (mal)adaptive development. Whereas self...Show moreSelf-esteem is an accumulation of cognitive and emotional self-reflections. Perfectionism and self-esteem in adolescence are associated to later life (mal)adaptive development. Whereas self-oriented perfectionists (SOP) aspire to an ideal standard for themselves, socially prescribed perfectionists (SPP) experience pressure from others. While striving traits of SOP (SOP-S) are associated with healthy adjustment, critical SOP (SOP-C) and SPP tendencies have been associated with maladjustment. It remains unclear whether intellectual giftedness, a high cognitive ability level, serves as a risk factor or a protective factor for self-esteem. Nevertheless, subgroups of gifted individuals seem vulnerable to maladaptive perfectionism. Therefore, this study investigated associations between perfectionism and self-esteem through multiple linear regression. SOP-S was assumed to have a positive relationship to self-esteem, whereas SOP-C and SPP, respectively, were predicted to have a negative relationship to self-esteem. Moreover, giftedness was hypothesized to be a moderator for all three relationships. Gifted and nongifted children, ages 10 through 12, completed the Child and Adolescent Perfectionism Scale (CAPS) and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES). SOP-C was indeed negatively associated with self-esteem. Neither SOP-S or SPP appeared significantly related to self-esteem. No moderation effect of giftedness was found, suggesting a similar effect of SOP-C on self-esteem for gifted and nongifted students. The lack of associations for either SOP-S or SPP with self-esteem was not in line with past literature. The CAPS may have failed to capture the essence the SOP-S dimension and the developmental stage of participants might have influenced their experience of SPP. Future studies should include larger sample sizes and preferably additional measures of perfectionism. Multiple reporters would be beneficial.Show less
Benefits of sleep (e.g., mental health) and detrimental effects of sleep-loss (e.g., impaired academic performance) have been extensively researched and implications are broad. A considerable...Show moreBenefits of sleep (e.g., mental health) and detrimental effects of sleep-loss (e.g., impaired academic performance) have been extensively researched and implications are broad. A considerable amount of research on the relations between perfectionism and sleep exists, where perfectionism negatively affects sleep quality. Mediators, primarily anxiety, affecting sleep quality have been investigated as well. However, within the bounds of conducted literature search, research with a mediatory model of maladaptive repetitive thinking (MRT) on perfectionism and sleep quality in a student population seems to require further exploration. Therefore, current work investigated whether MRT (i.e., worry and rumination) mediates the relationship between perfectionism and sleep quality. Data was analyzed from an overarching main study which, through convenience sampling, recruited 69 healthy university students who filled in online questionnaires (e.g., assessing rumination and sleep quality). In line with previous research, results showed that increased perfectionism was related to worse sleep quality and increased maladaptive repetitive thinking. Furthermore, increases in maladaptive repetitive thinking was related to worse sleep quality. However, the proposed mediation was found to be nonsignificant. Several limitations were at play (e.g., self-report measurements), thus it is recommended to replicate the current work and minimize these limitations. As sleep has a wide array of implications on healthy overall functioning it is recommended to explore the triad further, paving the way to innovations to improve sleep quality and consequently healthy functioning in the student population.Show less
Social performance feedback received from others influences self-feelings and self-evaluations. Recent work provides initial evidence that socially anxious individuals, characterized by a...Show moreSocial performance feedback received from others influences self-feelings and self-evaluations. Recent work provides initial evidence that socially anxious individuals, characterized by a consistent negative self-view, show a negative bias for learning selfrelated information. A social speech task paradigm and a computational model were used to assess the hypothesis of whether a negative social learning bias regarding self-evaluation and self-feelings is present in subclinical socially anxious people. 106 young adults gave a speech in front of 3 judges from whom they received either positive or negative performance feedback. The feedback from the judges was simultaneously presented with the participants' own self-rating on their performance. Immediately after viewing both feedbacks, participants rated how they felt about themselves on a VAS scale. Affective Updating and an adapted Rescorla-Wagner learning model were used to assess how people changed their self-feelings over time in response to received feedback valence. Additionally, the study investigated the association between perfectionism, social anxiety and negative social feedback. Given that perfectionism is strongly related to both social anxiety and social rejection, we tested whether individuals with elevated levels of social anxiety and perfectionism would adjust their selffeelings stronger towards negative social feedback. Results did not indicate a negative social learning bias on self-feelings after receiving negative social feedback in socially anxious individuals. Also, perfectionism was not found to be a moderator between social anxiety and negative social feedback. Overall, results were non-significant, however, our study lies the groundwork and highlights the importance of further studies in this field.Show less
Intellectually gifted children are often characterized as prone to perfectionism and fear of failure (Basirion et al., 2014; Chan, 2012; Cross & Cross, 2015; Speirs Neumeister, 2016). However,...Show moreIntellectually gifted children are often characterized as prone to perfectionism and fear of failure (Basirion et al., 2014; Chan, 2012; Cross & Cross, 2015; Speirs Neumeister, 2016). However, research findings on the association between giftedness and perfectionism seem diverging. In addition, no research on fear of failure among specifically gifted pre-adolescents has been conducted yet. Therefore, the current study investigated the possible differences between gifted pre-adolescents aged 10-12 years old and their non-gifted peers on perfectionistic striving (adaptive perfectionism), perfectionistic concern (maladaptive perfectionism) and fear of failure. An innovative aspect of the current study is that perfectionistic striving was measured with both implicit and explicit measurements. We found that (1) gifted and non-gifted pre-adolescents did not differ in the extent to which they strive for perfectionism, neither implicitly nor explicitly, (2) gifted pre-adolescents showed less perfectionistic concern than their non-gifted peers in the form of socially prescribed perfectionism, and (3) gifted and non-gifted pre-adolescents did not differ in the extent to which they showed general fear of failure. Collectively, the findings suggest that gifted preadolescents should not be characterized as vulnerable to fear of failure and perfectionism, both perfectionistic striving and perfectionistic concern. Additionally, our findings emphasize the importance of using both implicit and explicit measures when investigating perfectionism.Show less
