The role of self-criticism in the relationship of perfectionism and mental health : effect of cognitive defusion

Abstract

In the highly competitive university environment, the pressure towards perfectionist standards is intense. The impact of multi-dimensional perfectionism on mental health and its interwoven association with self-criticism has attracted heated debate in previous decades. The first study of this research sought to examine the relationship of perfectionism and psychological distress, as well as the roles of self-to-self relating styles during setbacks for a sample of 809 university students in Hong Kong. Core features of perfectionism, concern of making mistakes and personal standards were also investigated. Results demonstrated perfectionism or concerns of making mistakes predicted more psychological distress both directly or indirectly through higher self-attacking/ self-criticizing tendencies and lower self-soothing at difficult times. The inclination to set high personal standard predicts more psychological distress only indirectly through higher self-attacking/ self-criticizing but not self-soothing at difficult times. The mediating effects were stronger than the direct effects for predicting psychological distress. Multi-pathway intervention for perfectionists with poor mental health outcomes was implicated and the role of personal standards as part of perfectionism was discussed. The second study was designed to investigate the effectiveness of an alternative cognitive approach, thought. Titchener’s repetition and a newly invented defusion technique for words (“Words as Strokes”) were tested under the Chinese language context. Their efficacies were further explored in a sub-group of participants with elevated self-criticism. A total of 66 local university students participated in a single-session analogue experiment. Preliminary findings supported brief intervention of rapid vocal repetition on self-critical thought as it lowered emotional discomfort and believability of the thought. Though listing strokes of Chinese words succeeded in deliteralizing the thought presented in words, different psychological processes may be involved. Implications on the application of cognitive defusion were discussed.