Perfectionism, Regret and Psychological Distress

Perfectionism, Regret and Psychological Distress
Preliminary Study in College Students
D Borges, AT Pereira, J Borges, A Primo Cabral, A Macedo
Department of Psychological Medicine Faculty of Medicine,University of Coimbra,Portugal
INTRODUCTION
Counterfactual thinking is a set of mental
representations of alternatives to the past actions.
It has important implications for the psychological
disturbance1 and, when it focuses on personal
decisions, the emotion that results is regret.
PNT is repetitive, intrusive and difficult to
control.8 Several dimensions of perfectionism has
been associated with worry and rumination that
compose the PNT.9
The relationship between perfectionism and
psychopathology is well established in the
literature, being perfectionism a transdiagnostic
process.10 The PNT, mainly cognitive interference
and unproductiveness (IU), is a mediator of the
relationship
between
perfectionism
and
psychological disturbance.11
Regret is defined as an aversive negative emotion2
associated to specific cognitive contents, felt when
we consider that our current situation could be
better, if we had taken a different decision.3 Regret
trait is significantly related to negative affect (NA)
and emotions4 and more strongly associated with
the tendency for comparison and maximizing.5 Objectives: To study for the first time the
Regret can be functional or dysfunctional, relationship between regret, perfectionism, PNT
particularly when associated with perseverative and psychological distress in the form of NA.
negative thinking (PNT)6 and certain personality
traits, such as perfectionism.7
METHOD
Study approved by Ethical Committee of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Coimbra
Participants
>Profile of Mood States15 (POMS) 36 itens
87 college students (64; 73.6% girls, mean age version to access: Depressive Affect (D),
22.74±4.828; not significantly different by gender), Anxiety/Hostility (AH) and Amability/Vigour (AV)
completed the Portuguese validated versions of:
Negative Affect (NA), D + AH
Positive Affect (PA), AV.
>Hewitt & Flett Multidimensional Perfectionism
Scale12 (H&F-MPS) to measure Self Oriented >Perceived Stress Scale16 measures stress
Perfectionism (SOP) and Socially-Prescribed perception (Stress); two items were added with
Perfectionism (SPP).
the same answer scale: Support. perception of
perception of the dependency
>Multidimensional
Perfectionism
Cognitions social support; Pr.
17
of
stress
events.
13
Inventory
(MPCI) measures concern over
mistakes (CM), personal standards (PS) and pursuit >Regret Scale4 (RS), unidimensional, measures
of perfection (PP).
regret trait.
>Perseverative Thinking Questionnaire14 (PTQ) Statistical Analyses
measures repetitive thought (RT) and Cognitive SPSS 20.0 version for Windows was used:
interference and unproductiveness (IU).
correlation, regression and mediation analyses
were performed
EFPT Porto Forum 2015
RESULTS
① Regret trait correlations
Significant** and Positive with:
•Perfectionism - Moderate from .360 (PAO) to .495 (IMCP);
Strong with PP (.545);
•PNT - Strong with PTQ (.505) and IU (.513); Moderate with RT (.451);
•NA - Strong with AH (.538) and NA (.515); Moderate with D (.462);
•Stress - Moderate (.362); Pr - Low (.270);
Table 1: Simple Linear Regression - Predictors of Regret
Predictors
PP
IU
Stress
Support
R
.660
Adjusted
R2
R2
.435
.408
F
Beta
Partial
F(4;82)=15.788**
.376**
.243*
.157
-.135
.412
.241
.190
-.149
Collinearity Statistics: Tolerance: .591-.859; VIF =1.164-1.693; Durbin-Watson=2.056
Significant**, Negative and Moderate with: PA (-.325); Support
Diagram 1: PNT as mediator between Perfectionism and Regret
(-.360).
② Predictors of Regret and Mediation
IU
Acordingly to simple linear regression models, PP (β=.481**), IU
(β=.513**), Stress(β=.324*) and Support (β=-.322*) were
independent predictors of Regret.
IC95% .1204 - .5602
When included in a general model explained 43,5% of variance,
with PP and IU being significant predictors (Table 1).
IU was a partial mediator of the relationship between CM and
Regret trait (Diagram 1).
③ Regret trait as a predictor
Acordingly to simple linear regression models, RS (β=.362*), IU
(β=.319*) and D (β=.368**) were independent predictors of Stress
Perception. When included in a general model explained 18.3% of
variance, with RS as the only significant predictor (Table 2).
RS
CM
Table 2: Simple Linear Regression - Predictors of Stress Perception
Predictors
R
R2
Adjusted
R2
F
Beta
Partial
RS
IU
D
.428
.183
.154
F(3;83)=6.200*
.232*
.045
.231
.212
.035
.182
Collinearity Statistics: Tolerance.494-.712; VIF =1.404-2.024; Durbin-Watson=2.039
LEGEND: *p≤.05; **p<.01
CONCLUSION
•For the first time we demonstrated an association between regret
and perfectionism, PNT, NA, PA, perception of stress and support.
•The correlations between regret trait, perfectionism and PNT were
of higher magnitude when considering their more maladaptive
dimensions (SPP and IU).
•IU is a mediator of the relationship between perfectionism and
regret.
•Regret is a predictor of perception of stress.
•This preliminary study warrants further research of the relationship
between regret, perfectionism, PNT and psychological distress.
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