Perfectionism and Anxiety: A Paradox in Intellectual Giftedness?

PLOS ONE, Dec 2019

Numerous authors reported a prevalence of perfectionism in gifted populations. In addition, an unhealthy form of perfectionism that leads to anxiety disorder has been described. Using self-report measures (CAPS and R-CMAS) with 132 children, we hypothesized that intellectually gifted children express a higher level of perfectionism and anxiety. Our results pointed out a paradox: the gifted group obtained a higher self-oriented perfectionism score than the control group in 6th grade, but present the same level of anxiety. In contrast, the gifted group showed the same level of perfectionism than non-gifted 5th graders, but reported a higher anxiety level. Thus, the interplay between perfectionism and anxiety appears to be more complex than a simple linear relationship in giftedness.

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Perfectionism and Anxiety: A Paradox in Intellectual Giftedness?

Citation: Guignard J-H, Jacquet A-Y, Lubart TI ( Perfectionism and Anxiety: A Paradox in Intellectual Giftedness? Jacques-Henri Guignard 0 Anne-Yvonne Jacquet 0 Todd I. Lubart 0 Aldo Rustichini, University of Minnesota, United States of America 0 1 Centre National d'Aide pour enfant et adolescent a` Haut Potentiel, Centre Hospitalier Guillaume Re gnier , Rennes , France , 2 Laboratoire Adaptation Travail Individu, Universite Paris Descartes, Paris, France , 3 Laboratoire Psychologie de la Perception , Universite Paris Descartes , Paris , France Numerous authors reported a prevalence of perfectionism in gifted populations. In addition, an unhealthy form of perfectionism that leads to anxiety disorder has been described. Using self-report measures (CAPS and R-CMAS) with 132 children, we hypothesized that intellectually gifted children express a higher level of perfectionism and anxiety. Our results pointed out a paradox: the gifted group obtained a higher self-oriented perfectionism score than the control group in 6th grade, but present the same level of anxiety. In contrast, the gifted group showed the same level of perfectionism than nongifted 5th graders, but reported a higher anxiety level. Thus, the interplay between perfectionism and anxiety appears to be more complex than a simple linear relationship in giftedness. - Perfectionism is viewed as a specific mode of functioning that corresponds to a tendency to seek to be or to appear perfect. Todorov and Bazinet conceive perfectionism as a personality characteristic [1] and healthy perfectionism has been distinguished from neurotic perfectionism [2]. In the first case, the individual is able to define realistic objectives and gain satisfaction after having reached these objectives. In the second case, the individual fixes excessively high standards of achievement. Because these personal standards are objectively unreachable, they are associated with the uncomfortable feeling that what has been accomplished is incomplete or imperfect. More recently, perfectionism has been viewed as a multidimensional personality trait related to psychological difficulties, distortions of interpersonal relations and an erroneous relationship to success [3]. According to this model, perfectionism is a three dimensional construct including self-oriented, other-oriented and sociallyprescribed perfectionism. Self-oriented perfectionism reflects ones tendency to define high or unreachable personal standards of achievement. It is linked to various traits and disorders including depression, anxiety and hypomania. Other-oriented perfectionism concerns individuals who have high expectations for those in their social environment. Socially-prescribed perfectionism is related to perceived environmental pressures. Socially-prescribed perfectionists perceive pressure from others to hold excessively high standards of achievement. Authors have reported some findings on psychological distress induced by two forms of perfectionism [4]. They collected data from 114 adolescents (10 to 14 years old) using the Children and Adolescent Perfectionism Scale [5], an auto-evaluation scale that measures self-oriented perfectionism and socially-prescribed perfectionism. The results showed correlations between selforiented perfectionism and two indices of psychological distress: depression and anxiety. In addition, socially-prescribed perfectionism was linked to depression, anxiety, social stress and aggressive behaviours. Perfectionism has been extensively examined in the literature on giftedness [6], [7], [8], [9]. LoCicero and Ashby have explored various dimensions of perfectionism with gifted children (n = 83, m = 13 years old) and a group of non-gifted peers (n = 112) [10]. The authors used a questionnaire measuring personal standards of success (S) and the discrepancy between achieved performances and personal standards of success (D). They divided the distribution of S scores obtained into three classes of equivalent size. The perfectionists had the highest scores on S. The second dimension, D, was used to evaluate the adaptive character of perfectionism. The distribution of the D scores was split at the median forming two groups: adaptive perfectionism (lower half of the distribution) and maladaptative perfectionism (upper half of the distribution). The results indicate that the gifted obtained a higher mean score on S, which shows a tendency of this population to set higher criteria for success. In addition, the gifted show the weakest mean score on D, suggesting that high criteria of success are not necessarily a handicap for gifted children. If perfectionism is a personality facet that can be useful for the expression of talent with high levels of accomplishment, it can also be associated with anxious feelings if ones standards of accomplishment are never met. Thus, strong feelings and involvement, perfectionism, as well as non-challenging schoolwork and parental expectations, were (...truncated)


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Jacques-Henri Guignard, Anne-Yvonne Jacquet, Todd I. Lubart. Perfectionism and Anxiety: A Paradox in Intellectual Giftedness?, PLOS ONE, 2012, 7, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0041043