Theoretical review on maladaptive perfectionism’s cognitive profile

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17162/au.v8i1.177

Keywords:

maladaptive perfectionism, schemas, beliefs, cognition

Abstract

Perfectionism may be understood as the tendency to set high and irrational standards, to stringently self evaluate and to asses self-worth based on achievementor failure. The cognitive model proposes the identification of cognitive profiles comprised of: schemas, beliefs, cognitive distortions, automatic thoughts and coping. The aim of this work was to describe maladaptive perfectionist’s cognitive profile. A non-systematic scientific literature review was made and empiric evidence was found. Maladaptive perfectionist's cognitive profile was described as the presence of schemas belonging to the disconnection/reject domain; beliefs about one’s need to be perfect and beliefs about contingent self-worth; biased interpretation of perfection, attentional bias and dichotomous thinking; perfectionistic automatic thoughts that associate with general negative cognitions, which tend to be maintained through rumination and self-criticism; and an emotion-focused coping style which is unhelpful to neutralize stressful situations. This article brings accessible and updated information which can be, useful to recognize the maladaptive perfectionist’s profile, and to identify goals for preventionor treatment interventions. 

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Author Biography

Sonia Chemisquy, Instituto de Investigaciones Científicas (IDIC), Universidad de la Cuenca del Plata, Posadas, Misiones, Argentina. – CONICET.

Licenciada en Psicología por la Universidad del Salvador (Argentina), Especialista en Docencia Universitaria por la Universidad Nacional de Misiones (Argentina). Doctoranda de la Facultad de Psicología de la Universidad Nacional de Córdoba (Argentina), donde realiza su tesis sobre el perfeccionismo desadaptativo en los niños. Becaria doctoral de CONICET, trabaja en el Instituto de Investigaciones Científicas (IDIC) de la Universidad de la Cuenca del Plata (Argentina), donde también es docente de la cátedra Psicología Evolutiva de la Niñez y Práctica Profesional Supervisada en el área Clínica.

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Published

2018-03-20

How to Cite

Chemisquy, S. (2018). Theoretical review on maladaptive perfectionism’s cognitive profile. Apuntes Universitarios, 8(1), 16–40. https://doi.org/10.17162/au.v8i1.177