Is setting high personal standard really adaptive?: Adult attachment style is a moderator

Abstract

Perfectionism is usually reported to have adverse affects on psychological health, but recent multidimensional research indicated that a "tendency to set high personal standards" is weakly correlated with reduced depressiveness. The present study categorized subjects using a cluster analysis with factors closely related to psychological health such as adult attachment styles and perfectionism, and examined each factor's contributions to psychological health. Among subjects with high personal standards, the study found a group with a secure attachment style who are psychologically adaptive and another group with a non-secure attachment style who are maladaptive. The results suggest that setting high personal standards by itself does not promote psychological health, but rather that there is an interaction with other factors such as preoccupation with one's mistakes and doubting one's own actions which also influence psychological health.