The relation between perfectionism, anxiety, and self-consciousness was studied in a normal sample. The perfectionism dimensions of Concern over Mistakes, Doubts about Action, and Socially Prescribed Perfectionism showed a pattern of correlations not only with measures of social anxiety, but also with measures of agoraphobic fears, and fears of bodily injury, death and illness. Public self-consciousness also correlated with various measures of anxiety, but these correlations disappeared when the relevant dimensions of perfectionism were controlled for. It is concluded that perfectionism is a more relevant construct in the study of anxiety than is public self-consciousness. The results are discussed in terms of possible causal relationships between perfectionism and anxiety.

Social phobics were compared to patients with panic disorder with agoraphobia and normal controls on perfectionism and self-consciousness. On concern over mistakes and doubts about action, social phobics scored higher than patients with panic disorder. Social phobics also demonstrated a higher level of public self-consciousness than patients with panic disorder and when this difference was controlled for the significant differences on perfectionism disappeared. Within each patient group, however, perfectionism was more robustly related to social anxiety than was public self-consciousness, which replicates the findings of Saboonchi and Lundh [Saboonchi, F. & Lundh, L. G. (1997). Perfectionism, self-consciousness and anxiety. Personality and Individual Differences, 22, 921–928.] from a non-clinical sample. The results are discussed in terms of public self-consciousness being a differentiating characteristic of the more severe kind of social anxiety which is typical of social phobia.

Perfectionism is normally viewed as a multidimensional personality trait. In the present experimental study, perfectionism was treated as a state in which transient changes were produced through manipulation of 2 factors: being observed by others and verbal priming. The experiment was carried out in 2 different situations: a social encounter situation and a problem-solving situation. Partial support for the hypothesis that both priming and observation cause elevated degrees of perfectionism was found in the social encounter situation. In the problem-solving situation, observation produced some effects, although partly in an unexpected direction. A significant interaction effect between priming and observation was found on estimating performance on a memory task in the problem-solving situation. The state approach to perfectionism and the stability of perfectionism across situations are discussed on the basis of the findings.

The associations between perfectionism, anger, somatic health, and positive affect were examined in 184 Swedish adults from a randomly selected population sample. Somewhat unexpectedly, trait anger was found to be associated with self-oriented perfectionism rather than with socially prescribed perfectionism. Both socially prescribed perfectionism and self-oriented perfectionism showed weak positive correlations with self-reported somatic complaints, particularly symptoms of tension and fatigue, and more clearly in women than in men, whereas other-oriented perfectionism appeared as a predictor of whether the participants were undergoing medical treatment or not. Finally, the results did not support the notion of self-oriented perfectionism representing a positive, adaptive dimension of perfectionism; on the contrary, this dimension was found to be negatively associated with positive affect.