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J Camosun Psyc Res. (2021). Vol. 3(2), pp. 86-97.
Submitted Winter 2021; accepted July 2021.

What Influences the Human Desire to Achieve
Perfectionism?
Authors: Meghan LeBlanc*, Shanaya Carter, and Zoe Bilton
Supervising Instructor & Assistant: Michael Pollock and Kristina Andrew, Psyc 110
(“Experimental Psychology”)
Department of Psychology, Camosun College, 3100 Foul Bay Road, Victoria, BC, Canada V8P 5J2
*Corresponding author email: meghanpallett@icloud.com

ABSTRACT
In this research paper, we sought to understand some of the driving forces behind the
unhealthy struggles of perfectionism. Previous research has shown that perfectionism may be
influenced by factors such as: low self-esteem, social media use, and Social Anxiety Disorder. In
our correlational study, we tested the strength of these relationships by examining naturalistic
daily changes in their variables longitudinally over a two-week period. We measured the levels
of self-esteem, social comparison, social anxiety, and perfectionism by self-report on separate 0100 point scales. Data pooled across participants in our correlational study showed significant
correlations of perfectionism with self-esteem, social comparison, and social anxiety.
1. Introduction

1.2 Literature Review

1.1 Research Problem

In examining the influences of
perfectionism, we considered the association
between perfectionism and low self-esteem
as measured by self-acceptance. In a study
by Flett et al. (2003), 94 students rated
themselves on a 7-point Multidimensional
Perfectionism Scale (MPS), reflecting selforiented perfectionism, other-oriented
perfectionism, and socially prescribed
perfectionism. The students also answered
an Unconditional Self-Acceptance
Questionnaire. This questionnaire contained
statements such as “I believe that I am
worthwhile simply because I am a human
being” and “I feel I am a valuable person
even when other people disapprove of me.”
The study found correlations between all
three perfectionism dimensions and low
levels of unconditional self-acceptance. The

Perfectionism can cause unwanted
suffering and we want to understand what
influences this in some people. Foremost,
we seek to understand if low self-esteem
manifests as perfectionism. In addition, we
want to know if social media influences
perfectionism and to identify any possible
relation between perfectionism and social
anxiety. Therefore, we wish to know the
influences of perfectionism so that we may
discover any emotional tools to help prevent
further damage that this mental state often
causes.

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strongest of these correlations was between
low unconditional self-acceptance and
socially prescribed perfectionism. In
conclusion, this study found that although
the highest connection was between socially
prescribed perfectionism and low selfacceptance, all dimensions of perfectionism
occur almost exclusively with low levels of
self-acceptance.
Additionally, another possible element
that was found to influence perfectionism
was social media use, specifically upwards
comparison to Instagram models. In an
experiment with 142 female York university
students, Mccomb (2019) had participants
use a visual analogue scale (VAS) to record
their personal sense of confidence, levels of
depression, and weight/appearance
dissatisfaction before and after viewing
photos of models on Instagram; Scores of
the participants were calculated, by the
researchers, before and after viewing the
Instagram photos. It was found that the
weight and appearance dissatisfaction
scores, along with depression scores, both
increased, whereas confidence scores
decreased. The results imply that viewing
these photos had a negative effect on the
young women’s body image, and
confidence, while simultaneously increasing
levels of depression. These factors were
shown to have a direct relation to physical
appearance perfectionism, through the
changes in body image and mood. Based on
the results of this study, Mccomb (2019)
illustrated that there is a direct, measurable,
effect on a person's perception of themselves
from observing and comparing idealistic
body images off Instagram, thus resulting in
a form of physical appearance
perfectionism.
A possible answer concerning the
relationship between Social Anxiety
Disorder (SAD) and its influence on
Perfectionism could be the fear of being

negatively evaluated which in turn causes
the need to achieve perfection or avoid
failure in the presence of others. A study
done in 2014 consisted of 180 participants
with SAD diagnosis (Levinson 2014). They
were instructed to answer questions on two
different scales: Social Interaction Anxiety
Scale (Mattick & Clarke 1998) and the
Almost Perfect Scale-Revised (Slaney, Rice,
Mobley, Trippi, & Ashby, 2001). The APSR measured “maladaptive” and “adaptive”
elements of perfectionism on a scale from 1
(strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree).
These scales asked participants to evaluate
their responses regarding anxiety related
interactions and “maladaptive” and
“adaptive” components of perfectionism.
The results of this study (Levinson 2014)
concluded that those with SAD considered
themselves to have low personal standards,
but others actually considered those
standards to be high. Thus, it is suggested
that clinical perfectionism may be
influenced by SAD.
1.3 Hypotheses
Based on the above literature review, we
predicted the following hypotheses:
● Hypothesis #1: If self-esteem
decreases then perfectionism will increase.
● Hypothesis #2: If social comparison
increases then perfectionism will increase.
● Hypothesis #3: If Social Anxiety
Disorder symptoms increase then
perfectionism will increase.
2. Methods
2.1 Participants
The three authors of this paper served as
the participants in its studies. The
participants ranged in age from 25-46 years
old, with an average age of 32 years, and all
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identified as women. The participants were
all undergraduate students at Camosun
College who completed the current studies
as an assignment for Psyc 110- D02
(“Experimental Psychology”) and were
grouped together due to their mutual interest
in perfectionism. Each participant identified
themselves as perfectionists.
2.2 Materials and Procedure
We first performed a correlational study
to test concurrently all of our hypotheses by
examining naturalistic daily changes in their
variables longitudinally. Each participant
kept a study journal with them at all times
over this study’s two-week period in order to
record self-observations of the following
four variables: (1) self-esteem, (2) social
comparison, (3) social anxiety, and (4)
perfectionism.
To measure levels of self-esteem,
participants recorded their symptoms on a 0100 point scale, with 0 indicating no
symptoms, 50 indicating moderate
symptoms, and 100 indicating severe
symptoms at the end of each day. The
symptoms considered measurable on this
scale were feelings of worthiness, feelings of
capability, feelings of pride, feelings of selfrespect, and feelings of positivity towards
oneself.
To measure social comparison
participants recorded the amount of time on
Instagram spent comparing themselves, on a
0-100 point scale, at the end of each day.
The following anchors were used on the
100-point scale: 0 = no time on Instagram
spent comparing oneself, 50 = half of the
time on Instagram spent comparing oneself,
100 = entire time on Instagram spent
comparing oneself. From these records, the
average proportion of self-comparison on
Instagram was calculated.

For social anxiety symptoms, the
participants measured themselves on a 0-100
point scale, with 0 indicating no symptoms
were felt, 50 indicating moderate levels of
symptoms felt, and 100 indicating extreme
levels of symptoms felt after social
interactions they experienced throughout the
day. The symptoms that were considered
measurable on this scale include physical
symptoms such as blushing, nausea,
sweating, trembling, difficulty speaking, and
increased heart rate, and psychological
symptoms such as worrying about
embarrassment during interaction with one
or more people, feeling overwhelmed in
crowded places, and stress and anxiety felt
during common tasks such as interacting
with a clerk in a store, phone calls, sending
an email, eating in public, or posting on
social media.
To measure feelings of perfectionism,
each participant rated on a 0 to 100 scale the
degree of perfectionism feelings felt at the
end of the day. The symptoms that were
considered measurable on this scale were
feelings of failure, self-criticism,
procrastination, struggling to relax,
controlling of personal and professional
relationships, obsession with rules, lists, and
work, or extreme apathy. The following
response anchors were used on this
perfectionism scale: 0 = no feelings of
perfectionism, 50 = moderate feelings of
perfectionism, 100 = extreme feelings of
perfectionism. From this scale the average
level of perfectionism feelings of each
participant was calculated at the end of the
given day.
To assess the strength and statistical
significance of associations between
variables predicted by our three hypotheses,
we performed Pearson product moment
correlations of their predictor variables (selfesteem, social comparison, social anxiety)
with their outcome variable (perfectionism).
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For testing Hypothesis #1, we correlated the
participants levels of self-esteem with their
average feelings of perfectionism at the end
of the given day. For testing Hypothesis #2,
we correlated the daily amount of social
comparison on Instagram, with the
participants average feelings of
perfectionism at the end of the given day.
For Hypothesis #3 we recorded the daily
levels of social anxiety in participants in
addition to the participants' average feelings
of perfectionism. We performed all of the
above correlations separately for each
participant as well as using data pooled
across all of the participants. For the
correlations using pooled data, in addition to
using the raw data, we also performed
correlations after we had first transformed
the data from each participant into z-scores
in order to standardize differences in
averages and variability seen between the
participants in their data and thus make them
more comparable. A correlation coefficient
was considered statistically significant if the
probability of its random occurrence (p) was
< .05 (i.e., less than 5% of the time expected
by chance alone).
3. Results
As shown in Table 1, self-esteem, social
comparison, and social anxiety were all
significantly correlated with perfectionism.
Self-esteem was statistically significant with
perfectionism using both pooled raw data (r
= -.64, p = 2.711E-06; see Figure 1A) and
pooled standardized data (r = -.71, p =
2.256E-08; see Figure 1B). Additionally,
social comparison and perfectionism was
statistically significant using pooled raw
data (r = .52, p = .0002706; see Figure 2A)
and pooled standardized data (r = .56, p =
6.894E-05; see Figure 2B). Finally, social
anxiety was significantly correlated with
perfectionism using pooled raw data (r =

.61, p = 1.189E-05; see Figure 3A), or
pooled standardized data (r = .67, p =
3.177E-07; see Figure 3B). Based on a
comparison of the correlation coefficients
using either the pooled raw data, or the
pooled standardized data, self-esteem
showed the strongest correlational with
perfectionism.
4. Discussion
4.1 Summary of Results
Based on previous research we
hypothesized that a decrease in self-esteem
would increase perfectionism (Hypothesis
#1), and that an increase in social
comparison (Hypothesis #2), and an increase
in social anxiety (Hypothesis #3) would both
result in an increase in perfectionism. Data
pooled across participants in our
correlational study supported the predicted
relationships between all three variables.
4.2 Relation of Results to Past Research
The findings of our correlational study to
predict the relationship between self-esteem
and perfectionism is consistent with
previous research. Flett et al. (2003) found
that the lower levels of self-acceptance
reported by participants was associated with
an increase in levels of perfectionism. Flett
et al. (2003) had participants assess levels of
self-acceptance and perfectionism, while in
our study we used symptoms of self-esteem.
We found enough similarity exists between
self-acceptance and self-esteem to suggest a
strong relationship exists between selfesteem and perfectionism.
The relationship found in our
correlational study between social
comparison and perfectionism is consistent
with the results of previous research.
Mccomb (2019) found that upwards
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comparison on Instagram resulted in
elevated levels of physical appearance
perfectionism. Mccomb (2019) got
participants to rate themselves on a visual
analogue scale after a short, single, period of
viewing photos of models on Instagramwhere as, we longitudinally measured the
overall effect of social comparison, on
Instagram, on a daily basis. The similarity of
both conclusions, despite using different
time references, displays that there is a
general relationship between social
comparison and perfectionism.
The relationship between social anxiety
and perfectionism as suggested in previous
research (Levinson 2014) is similar to the
conclusion of our study. In the cited study
(Levinson 2014) social anxiety was related
to having unreasonably high expectations of
oneself which is a symptom of
perfectionism. Our study concluded that
when participants reported experiencing
symptoms of social anxiety, their
perfectionism symptoms increased as well.
Although the studies varied slightly in
method, the conclusions both signify a

relationship between social anxiety and
perfectionism.
References
Flett, G, Besser, A., Davis, R., & Hewitt, P.
(2003). Dimensions of perfectionism,
unconditional self-acceptance, and
depression. Journal of Rational-Emotive
and Cognitive-Behavior Therapy. 21,
119-138. 10.1023/A:1025051431957.
Levinson C, Rodebaugh T, Shumaker E,
Menatti A, Weeks J, White E, Heimberg
R, Warren C, Blanco C, Schneier F,
Liebowitz M. (2014). Perception matter
for clinical perfectionism and social
anxiety. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 29,
61-71.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2014.11.
002
Mccomb, S. (2019). Body image and mood
following upwards comparison to
Instagram models: the role of physical
appearance perfectionism and cognitive
emotion regulation [Master of Arts thesis,
York University]. Retrieved from
https://yorkspace.library.yorku.ca/xmlui/
handle/10315/36675

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Table 1
Correlation coefficient (r) values, with number of daily trials (n) per correlation in brackets.

Participant
#3

Pooled
raw data

Pooled
standardized
data

-.75*(14)

-.49(14)

-.64*(14)

-.71*(14)

.36(14)

.87*(14)

.47(14)

.52*(14)

.56*(14)

.80*(14)

.44(14)

.78*(14)

.61*(14)

0.67*(14)

Variables
correlated

Participant
#1

Participant
#2

Self-esteem &
perfectionism

-.91*(14)

Social
comparison &
perfectionism
Social anxiety &
perfectionism

*p < .05.

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Figure 1
Scatterplot of self-esteem and perfectionism using pooled (A) raw and (B) standardized data
across participants.
A.

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B.

Marker color indicates which participant data is from: red = participant #1, orange = participant
#2, and yellow = participant #3. Some data might not be visible in the figure due to overlapping
markers.

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Figure 2
Scatterplot of social comparison and perfectionism using pooled (A) raw and (B) standardized
data across participants.
A.

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B.

Marker color indicates which participant data is from: red = participant #1, orange = participant
#2, and yellow = participant #3. Some data might not be visible in the figure due to overlapping
markers.

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Figure 3
Scatterplot of social anxiety and perfectionism using pooled (A) raw and (B) standardized data
across participants.
A.

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B.

Marker color indicates which participant data is from: red = participant #1, orange = participant
#2, and yellow = participant #3. Some data might not be visible in the figure due to overlapping
markers.

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