| Theories of perfectionism as a maladaptive personality factor that predisposes perfectionistic individuals to greater vulnerability to stress and thus greater risk for psychological maladjustment have sparked substantial research interest, but findings from previous studies on the relationship between pathologically conceived perfectionism, stress, and maladjustment are inconsistent. In addition, all previous studies rely on self-report measures of stress, and no study has examined differences between adaptive and maladaptive perfectionists exposed to similar amounts of stress. In the present study, 307 college students provided saliva samples before and after exposure to a controlled stressor. Subsequent analyses revealed changes in the level of salivary cortisol, indicating the magnitude of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis reactivity or physiological response to stress. Participants also completed a series of questionnaires, including a measure used to identify adaptive, maladaptive, and nonperfectionists, the Almost Perfect Scale-Revised (Slaney, Rice, Mobley, Trippi, & Ashby, 2001); a measure of the degree of recently experienced life stress, the Perceived Stress Scale (Cohen, Kamarck, & Mermelstein, 1983); measures of both negative and positive psychological adjustment: the Beck Depression Inventory-II (Beck, Steer, & Brown, 1996), the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (Spielberger, 1983), and the Satisfaction With Life Scale (Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, 1985); and a comprehensive measure of stress coping effectiveness, the Coping Resources Inventory for Stress (Matheny, Curlette, Aycock, Pugh, & Taylor, 1987). Adaptive and maladaptive perfectionists differed significantly from one another across the measures in expected directions. Adaptive perfectionists reported less stress, greater stress coping resources, less dysfunction, and greater life satisfaction than either maladaptive or nonperfectionists. Among male participants, maladaptive perfectionists demonstrated a significantly greater change in salivary cortisol levels before and after exposure to stress, indicating a larger physiological response to stress than adaptive perfectionists obtained. The present findings support the validity and utility of the adaptive perfectionism construct. A discussion of the results includes limitations and practical implications of the study as well as directions for future research. |
