Perfectionism has been investigated as a set of personality characteristics useful for distinguishing a number of adaptive versus maladaptive behaviors related to emotional and interpersonal functioning. Flett and Hewitt have edited and contributed to a scholarly anthology of work on perfectionism providing a notable resource for those interested in the details of perfectionism research and measurement. The editors have a long tradition of research on perfectionism (coauthoring more than 40 perfectionism-related empirical investigations) and have produced one of the more widely used measures of perfectionism, the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (MPS), published in 1991.

In their anthology, Flett and Hewitt's introductory chapter provides a case for the importance of perfectionism in the experience of maladjustment, and includes a consideration of how perfectionism has been manifest and treated in severely distressed and suicidal individuals. Over the years Flett and Hewitt have helped investigate and document the role of perfectionism in the experience of psychological distress, as well as the relationship of perfectionism to other diverse behaviors and personality characteristics. Perfectionism is a difficult construct to define operationally, and research on perfectionism has been blessed (or cursed) with several competing multidimensional instruments. The editors have relatively evenhandedly included diverse research using several competing perfectionism measures.

A chapter on the assessment of perfectionism provides a comprehensive review of the various measures and scales developed for perfectionism research. This review not only summarizes numerous constructs associated with perfectionism, including a review of the research supporting the division of perfectionism into “adaptive” versus “maladaptive” aspects, but also summarizes associations with the neuroticism, extraversion, and openness of the Big Five Personality Inventory and second-order factor analytic findings. This chapter is especially valuable to an investigator for the descriptions of research using and comparing various perfectionism measures, which had previously been scattered in numerous journal articles. For example, the authors created a table summarizing correlations between the two popular MPS measures from four separately published studies. The following chapter describes the development of the often-neglected Almost Perfect Scale and summarizes research using this instrument.

A strength of the anthology includes two chapters describing models for how perfectionism develops, including parental (e.g., parental contingencies, social learning), environmental, and self-factors, as well as a description of the limited research on perfectionism in children. The cause of perfectionistic personality characteristics remains an interesting but difficult question that Flett and Hewitt (and coauthors) take on themselves. These chapters provide both a scholarly review of relevant findings and admirable efforts to integrate findings theoretically regarding the development of perfectionism and to suggest future research efforts.

Contributing to the breadth of the Flett and Hewitt anthology is a chapter describing the interpersonal aspects of perfectionism. Perfectionism has been associated with perceived interpersonal distress (often in the form of an exaggerated fear of criticism from others), interpersonal problems, negative relationship behavior, and poor social confidence. This original chapter again provides both a summary of relevant empirical research on interpersonal processes and perfectionism, but also provides an organizing synthesis of findings, with suggestions for future research.

The book provides the opportunity for more lengthy presentation of diverse theoretical aspects of perfectionism than space allows in a typical journal article format. For example, an original chapter on perfectionistic self-beliefs describes the creation of subscales from Hewitt and Flett's MPS scales and resulting associations with numerous other personality constructs, including the Big Five. The chapter format provides extensive consideration of the specific facets of MPS self-oriented (e.g., the striving for excellence) and socially prescribed (e.g., approval contingent on excellence) perfectionism that explain the strength of associations with other personality constructs, including goal motivation.

Another original chapter reviews the relationship between perfectionism and shame, guilt, embarrassment, and pride. These “self-conscious emotions” are described in detail; relevant research is reviewed; and the results of correlational analyses are presented, implicating the role of MPS socially prescribed perfectionism with these more negative affective experiences. These chapters do reveal a minor bias toward the inclusion of research that has utilized the popular Hewitt and Flett (1991) MPS measure.

A short chapter by Albert Ellis provides a review of his long-standing interest in perfectionism as a manifestation of irrational and self-defeating cognitions related to emotional distress. Ellis observes that flexible moderate levels of perfectionism can be rational and promote greater ego satisfaction, whereas inflexible and exaggerated perfectionism leads to increased anxiety and negative outcomes. Ellis's observations provide an opportunity for him to use perfectionism as an example of the kind of rigid, misplaced cognitive traps that his Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy has been designed to address.

Similarly, another chapter, coauthored by Gary Brown and Aaron Beck, provides a theoretical rationale for how perfectionism reflects dysfunctional attitudes associated with emotional distress and particularly depression. Brown and Ellis argue that perfectionism (as reflected in the Hewitt and Flett MPS measure, 1991) overlaps considerably with the Dysfunctional Attitudes Scale used for years by Beck and by other researchers to investigate cognitive models of depression. The authors suggest that perfectionistic attitudes often represent dysfunctional attitudes that lead to emotional distress, a view backed by numerous empirical studies described throughout this volume.

In fact, Blatt and Zuroff describe in a separate chapter how perfectionism, as measured by the Dysfunctional Attitudes Scale, was strongly associated with treatment outcome in a national sample of depressed patients. Blatt and Zuroff provide a summary of their previously published analyses of the National Institute of Mental Health-sponsored Treatment for Depression Collaborative Research Program outcome data. Their analyses suggested that regardless of the treatment modality, pretreatment levels of perfectionism in depressed patients predicted less positive outcome on all symptom measures and observer ratings and was negatively associated with therapeutic alliance. Although these particular data may have been previously published in another format, as have a few other studies described in this edited work, the book provides an inclusive, convenient resource in the form of an anthology of research on perfectionism.

Hewitt and Flett provide a chapter addressing the relationship between perfectionism and psychopathology. Although perfectionism has been associated with diverse psychological disorders through numerous associational investigations, Hewitt and Flett propose that perfectionism and stress may play moderating or mediating roles in the development or exacerbation of psychopathology. They proceed to describe theoretical mechanisms for several ways that perfectionism might interact with stress (e.g., perfectionism generating stress, anticipating stress, maintaining stress, or exacerbating stress) to contribute to psychopathology. Support for these models is considered in some detail by describing results from diverse studies consistent with the various roles perfectionism may play in contributing to psychological turmoil. This effort to conceptualize about the relationships among perfectionism, stress, and psychopathology provides a thoughtful framework for future investigators to explore these models.

A chapter with similar aims, by Blankstein and Dunkley, explores the relationship between aspects of perfectionism and variables, such as coping strategies for stress, hassles, psychological distress, and social support. After providing a theoretical rationale, Blankstein and Dunkley present the results of three structural equation models using composite perfectionism scales labeled Evaluative Concerns Perfectionism and Personal Standards Perfectionism (similar to “maladaptive” and “adaptive” perfectionism described by other investigators). These models reflect perfectionism playing a mediating role in the use of strategies to cope with stress and psychological distress, with both negative and positive associations depending on the kind of perfectionism being assessed. Again, results from a number of previous studies have been distilled for the reader in this rich resource for the perfectionism scholar.

The final chapters of the Hewitt and Flett volume describe the role of perfectionism in the manifestation of clinical disorders in detail, including chapters on eating disorders, generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and social anxiety. The chapter on perfectionism and eating disorders provides a very readable review of causal theoretical models for the development of anorexia and bulimia. In pursuit of an overall explanatory model this chapter summarizes much of the considerable research linking perfectionism constructs to eating disorders. The chapter ends with a relatively elaborate model implicating perfectionism as a “setting condition” (like a personality trait) moderating the development of eating disorders. This is another example of a chapter integrating research for the purpose of describing a conceptual model for the consideration of future investigators.

A chapter coauthored by Randy Frost (who developed another Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale with colleagues in 1990) and Marten DiBartolo provides a hearty review of perfectionism research related to GAD, stress, evaluative threat (such as experienced by athletes, performing artists, and public speakers) and OCD. This 30-page summary offers a thoughtful consideration of research on perfectionism and anxiety disorders, deliberately foreshadowing opportunities for future research. This chapter also provides a unique summary of much of Frost's considerable research efforts investigating perfectionism.

A chapter providing a theoretical consideration of the role of perfectionism in the experience of social anxiety begins with a deliberation on factors contributing to social anxiety and culminates with a compelling two-component model of perfectionism. This model proposes orthogonal axes labeled performance expectations and maladaptive self-appraisal. When one has both high performance expectations and high maladaptive self-appraisal, then perfectionism is predicted. When low in both performance expectations and maladaptive self-appraisal, then self-acceptance is predicted (two other cells are described as well). This conceptual framework invites researchers to consider an intriguing theoretical paradigm for the cause of social anxiety, which has both research and clinical implications.

In summary, this book of findings related to perfectionism, authored by many investigators who have made significant contributions to perfectionism research, will clearly be appreciated by scholars and others in- terested in the social, personality, and clinical implications of perfectionism. The book provides an authoritative resource in its multiple topical summaries of perfectionism research, as well as its original theoretical contributions inviting future empirical assessment.