The Perfectionism Cognitions Inventory: Psychometric Properties and Associations with Distress and Deficits in Cognitive Self-management

Two studies were conducted to examine the psychometric properties and correlates of the Perfectionism Cognitions Inventory (PCI) when administered to clinical samples. The PCI is a 25-item measure of automatic thoughts with themes involving perfectionism and beliefs that perfection should be attained. Analyses indicated that the PCI is unidimensional and it has adequate internal consistency. Correlational analyses confirmed that the PCI is associated with psychological distress and deficits in cognitive self-management, including lack of self-reinforcement, lack of a positive self-focus, and perfectionistic inflexibility. Moreover, tests of incremental validity revealed that the PCI accounts for unique variance in levels of anxiety and depression symptoms after removing variance attributable to trait perfectionism dimensions. Overall, the findings suggest that automatic thoughts involving perfectionistic themes can be assessed in a reliable and valid manner in clinical samples. Moreover, it is important to assess perfectionism cognitions as a supplement to trait perfectionism measures when evaluating the role of perfectionism in psychological distress and associated deficits in cognitive self-control. This research was supported by major research grants from Health Canada and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada to the first two authors, and a Canada Research Chair in Personality & Health awarded to the first author. The fourth author, Thomas Martin, is now deceased and this paper is dedicated to his memory.