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Why Perfectionism
Isn't Perfect
Stress Hormone Rises Higher in Perfectionists Under
Pressure
By Miranda Hitti
WebMD Medical News
Perfectionism may be an exhausting pressure-cooker,
a new study shows.
The
study demonstrates that in trying situations,
perfectionists tend to get more stressed than people
with more attainable standards.
The
study comes from Swiss and German researchers
including Petra Wirtz, PhD, of the clinical
psychology and psychotherapy department at
Switzerland's University of Zurich.
They
studied perfectionism in 50 physically and mentally
healthy men who were 42 years old, on average.
In a
lab, the men completed psychological and personality
surveys including a 35-item perfectionism
questionnaire about personal standards and concern
over mistakes.
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Are you a
perfectionist?
According to
Psychosomatic Medicine, "Perfectionists
are more sensitive to psychosocial
stresses than their more relaxed peers,
and this greater responsiveness to
stress may have health consequences, a
new study shows. Perfectionists secreted
more of the stress hormone cortisol
while public speaking and more symptoms
of vital exhaustion, defined as a sense
of feeling fatigued, irritable, and
demoralized."
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The
perfectionism questionnaire shows that 24 men were
highly perfectionistic. They tended to be more
anxious, neurotic, and exhausted than the remaining
26 men, who had low levels of perfectionism.
The
men also provided blood and saliva samples. The
researchers measured saliva levels of the stress
hormone cortisol and blood levels of other
stress-related chemicals.
No
major differences were seen in the men's blood and
saliva samples -- but that changed when the
researchers put the men in two stressful situations.
Perfectionism Under Pressure
The
men took two stressful tests: a mock job interview
and a five-minute oral math quiz in front of an
audience of a man and a woman.
The
researchers monitored the men's blood pressure and
heart rate during the tests.
Afterward, the men spent an hour in a quiet room,
providing blood and saliva samples several times
during that hour.
Saliva cortisol levels in highly perfectionistic men
rose higher during the test and kept rising for 20
more minutes, peaking about 10 minutes later than
the less-perfectionistic men.
An
hour after the tests, the highly perfectionistic men
still had higher saliva cortisol levels than the
mellower men.
Perfectionism wasn't linked to any other
stress-related chemicals, according to the study,
which appears in Psychosomatic Medicine.
The
researchers don't rule out the possibility that
factors other than perfectionism influenced the
results.
They
call for future studies to track ties between stress
response, long-term health, and perfectionism.
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