Preliminary Investigation of the Reliability and Validity of the Clinical Perfectionism Questionnaire in a Clinical Sample

What is it about?

This study evaluates a self-report assessment of clinical perfectionism (Clinical Perfectionism Questionnaire, CPQ: Fairburn, Cooper, & Shafran, 2003) that clinicians can use with patients to measure their level of clinical perfectionism. The sample were individuals seeking treatment for perfectionism that was impairing their life in some way. This study supports the reliability and validity of the CPQ, and scores decreased over the course of treatment, suggesting that the CPQ is a sensitive instrument that can help clinicians to assess if patients' perfectionism is improving over time. These preliminary results support the utility of the CPQ.

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Why is it important?

Perfectionism is a complex personality trait that has been linked to both positive (achievement, conscientiousness) and negative (anxiety, depression, eating disorders, procrastination) outcomes for the individual. With the proliferation of experimental studies testing treatments for clinical perfectionism, as well as at the clinical level clinicians with patients whose perfectionism contributes to their problems, assessments are needed that capture the "clinical" aspects of perfectionism only, and not the benign or positive aspects. Just as one measures the severity of symptoms over time to see how well a treatment is working, one can also measure clinical perfectionism over time to monitor if treatment is helping.