تاثیر واسطه ای امید بر روی کمال گرایی چند بعدی و افسردگی

This study investigated the relationship between perfectionism and depression, and the mediating effects of the components of hope – agency and pathways. Participants were 152 undergraduate students who completed an online survey that included measures of perfectionism, hope and depressive symptoms. It was hypothesised that adaptive perfectionists would have higher levels of agency and pathways, and lower levels of depression than maladaptive and non-perfectionists. Further, that agency and pathways would mediate the relationship between both adaptive and maladaptive perfectionism and depression. These hypotheses were supported, however, contrary to expectations maladaptive perfectionists demonstrated higher levels of agency than non-perfectionists. The results demonstrate that both components of hope are important to the psychological outcomes of perfectionists.

Initially, perfectionism was understood to be a negative trait where the actions of striving for excessively high standards were thought to lead to emotional distress (Burns, 1980 and Hollender, 1965). Over the past two decades, a multidimensional model of perfectionism has been established (Dunkley et al., 2003 and Slade and Owen, 1998). According to this view, not everyone who has high standards experiences distress. Rather, it is those who attach not achieving their high standards to failure, who are inclined to experience anxiety, worthlessness and depression. Therefore, maladaptive perfectionists are those who experience negative affect over discrepancy between desired high standards and achieved results. Adaptive perfectionists also have high standards for their set goals, however, they do not experience the same intensity of anxiety related to any perceived discrepancy. Finally, non-perfectionists are distinct from both of these perfectionist types as they lack the same desire for high standards (Rice & Mirzadeh, 2000). Adaptive and maladaptive perfectionism have been found to correlate with a variety of behavioural and affective outcomes (Stoeber & Otto, 2006). Depression, in particular, has been an outcome of interest (e.g., Black and Reynolds, 2013 and Gnilka et al., 2013). A strong positive relationship has been reported between maladaptive perfectionism and depression in both clinical and non-clinical samples (Argus and Thompson, 2008 and Bieling et al., 2003). This has been explained in terms of the developmental environment of maladaptive perfectionism. According to Enns, Cox, and Clara (2002), typically maladaptive perfectionists have grown in settings where there is harsh and critical parenting. This can cause a dysfunctional belief that a person is worthless if they cannot achieve high standards, which in turn causes depression. In line with this, a maladaptive perfectionist may suffer from depression because they believe there is a large disparity between their ‘actual self’ (who they are) and their ‘ought self’ (who they believe they should be; Einstein, Lovibond, & Gaston, 2000). The relationship between adaptive perfectionism and depression is not as clear. Adaptive perfectionists have been reported to have lower levels of depression than both maladaptive and non-perfectionists (Mobley et al., 2005 and Rice and Mirzadeh, 2000). Conversely, there is some evidence that adaptive perfectionism positively correlates with depression (e.g., Bieling, Israeli, & Antony, 2004). One explanation for this inconsistency is that there is an overlap in variance between adaptive and maladaptive perfectionism in terms of depression. Indeed, when maladaptive perfectionism has been controlled for, a consistent negative relationship between adaptive perfectionism and depression has been reported (Stoeber and Otto, 2006 and Stoeber and Rambow, 2007). Clearly, further studies would benefit from controlling for the effects of maladaptive perfectionism on adaptive perfectionism when examining associations with depression. Several investigators (e.g., Mobley et al., 2005 and Rice et al., 1998) have speculated that with adaptive perfectionism, a mediator might act as a buffer against depression. A potential mediator that has recently been examined is hope (Ashby, Dickenson, Gnilka, & Noble, 2011). Previously perfectionism had only been linked with hopelessness (Beevers & Miller, 2004). Given developments in the conceptualisation of positive aspects of perfectionism (Slade & Owen, 1998), it is prudent to investigate whether perfectionism can be related to a gain rather than a loss of hope. Also, the view of hope as a person’s belief that they can meet their set goals (Snyder et al., 1991) appears to have relevance for perfectionists given their apparent mental schema concerning achieving their high standards. Ashby et al. (2011) conducted a study of hope and perfectionism using a sample of 153 middle school students. The students completed self-report measures that included the Children’s Hope Scale (Snyder et al., 1997). It was found that compared to maladaptive and non-perfectionists, the adaptive perfectionists had higher levels of hope. Hope mediated the relationship between maladaptive perfectionism and depression, and a significant indirect effect of hope was found between adaptive perfectionism and depression, where adaptive perfectionism was related to depression only through hope. Ashby and colleagues posited that the reason hope had an effect on this relationship was because of an aspect of hope, known as agency. According to Snyder (2002), agency is one of the two key components that constitute hope, the other being pathways. Snyder conceptualised hope as a cognitive process that revolves around achieving goals. The first component of hope, pathways, refers to the ability a person has in identifying and developing new ways of attaining their goals. The second component, agency, relates to the ability a person believes they have to act on or follow their pathways to attain their goal. Ashby et al. (2011) suggested that maladaptive perfectionists place their standards so high that they do not have the agency to attain their goal and that this can result in depression. However, there has been contrasting evidence regarding whether agency or pathways is the main contributing factor to depression (Arnau et al., 2007, Chang, 2003 and Elliot et al., 1991). Unfortunately, Ashby et al. (2011) did not examine the components of hope separately. An investigation of the separate components of hope would be worthwhile to clarify if one component has a greater influence on the relationship. The current study aims to expand upon previous research regarding the relationship between perfectionism, hope and depression. In particular, it will investigate the mediating effects of hope in terms of its two components, agency and pathways. It is hypothesised that adaptive perfectionists will report lower levels of depression, and higher hope scores (i.e., agency and pathways) than both maladaptive and non-perfectionists. Furthermore, it is hypothesised that maladaptive perfectionists will report higher levels of depression than non-perfectionists, but that non-perfectionists will report higher hope scores (i.e., agency and pathways). Finally, hope scores (i.e., agency and pathways) are expected to mediate the relationship between perfectionism (i.e., adaptive and maladaptive) and depression.