Perfectionism in Relation to Attributions for Success or
Failure
GORDON L. FLETT, 1 PAUL L. HEWITT, 2 K IRK R. BLANKSTEIN, 3 and
DONNA PICKERING 1
tYork University; 2University of British Columbia; 3Erindale
College, University of Toronto
The present study examined the association between dimensions of
perfectionism and attributions for success and failure. A sample of
124 students (40 males, 84 females) completed the Multidimensional
Perfectionism Scale (MPS) and the Multidimensional
Multiattributional Causation Scale (MMCS). The MPS consists of
three subscales measuring self-oriented perfectionism,
other-oriented perfectionism, and socially pre- scribed
perfectionism. The MMCS measures internal attributions (i.e.,
ability, effort) and external attributions (i.e., luck, contextual
factors) for positive and negative hypo- thetical outcomes in the
achievement and affiliation domains. The main finding of this study
was that socially prescribed perfectionism was associated with a
general ten- dency to attribute outcomes to extemal causes. This
external attribution pattern was obtained for successes and
failures in both the achievement and interpersonal spheres.
Overall, the main results suggest that socially prescribed
perfectionism is associated with perceptions of learned
helplessness. The implications of these findings are dis-
cussed.
Recently, there has been a growing interest in the study of
perfectionism and per- sonal adjustment from an empirical
perspective. This research has shown that perfec- tionism is
associated with low personal adjustment (Frost, Marten, Lahart,
& Rosenblate, 1990; Hewitt & Flett, 1991a, 1993; Hewitt,
Flett, & Turnbull-Donovan, 1992) and related forms of
self-destruction (see Blatt, 1995). The association between
perfection- ism and maladjustment reflects, in part, the fact that
perfectionists tend to experience a great deal of punishment in the
form of failure or stressful experiences. For instance,
self-oriented perfectionists tend to have high self-standards and
motivation to attain perfection (Hewitt & Flett, 1991b). It is
believed that these individuals generate fail- ures for themselves
because they engage in an all-or-none thinking whereby the only
possible outcomes are total successes or total failures (Burns,
1980; Pacht, 1984). The impact of any failure is further magnified
by the self-oriented perfectionists tendency to overgeneralize the
failure and perceive it as characteristic of the entire self
(Hewitt & Flett, 1991b; Hewitt, Mittelstaedt, & Wollert,
1989). In contrast, other-oriented perfectionism involves a focus
on the imperfections of other people rather than their own
imperfections (see Hewitt & Flett, 1991b). Because
other-oriented perfectionism is associated with lack of trust and
feelings of hostility toward others, this perfection- ism dimension
may result in difficult interpersonal relationships. Finally, a
third form of perfectionism, socially prescribed perfectionism, is
associated with imposed failure
Current Psychology: Developmental 9 Learning ~ Personality ~
Social Summer/Fall 1998, Vol. 17, Nos. 2/3, 249-262.
