The Associations Among Perfectionism, Rumination, and Affect After Participation in a Cognitive Failure Task

Abstract

Researchers have not yet: a) studied both maladaptive and adaptive perfectionism, as well as both positive and negative affect simultaneously; b) examined the relationship between both maladaptive and adaptive perfectionism and affect after ruminative and distracting tasks; c) explored the role of maladaptive perfectionism on cognitive impairment when asked to execute a plan; and d) confirmed rumination’s mediating role between maladaptive perfectionism and negative affect in an experimental setting. Data obtained by 71 undergraduates showed that distracting tasks did not significantly change the correlations between both maladaptive and adaptive perfectionism and levels of affect after a ruminative task, but the changes were in the hypothesized directions. The Doubts about Actions component of maladaptive perfectionism did not significantly correlate with cognitive impairment on a failure task, but the correlation was close to significance and in the hypothesized direction. Finally, rumination was found to partially mediate the relationship between maladaptive perfectionism and negative affect.