Perfectionism and Obsessive-Compulsive Symptoms

This study was designed to determine whether perfectionism, as assessed by the revised almost perfect scale (APS-R; R. B. Slaney, M. Mobley, J. Trippi, J. S. Ashby, & D. G. Johnson, 1996), was a significant predictor of obsessive-compulsive (OC) symptoms in a non-clinical sample of 308 university students. Perfectionistic discrepancy emerged as a general predictor of obsessive thought difficulties and compulsive checking behavior. Excessive concerns about making mistakes also emerged as a significant specific predictor of obsessive cognitive but not behavioral symptoms after other dimensions of perfectionism were controlled. An interaction effect indicated that students with high discrepancy but low standards were more likely to experience OC-related washing symptoms than other students. The general effects of perfectionism on OC symptoms, the specific effects of certain perfectionism dimensions over others, and other perfectionism research results, implicate APS-R discrepancy as a core dimension of maladaptive perfectionism and APS-R high standards as either benign or protective in the associations with OC symptoms.