Patient perfectionism and clinician impression formation during an initial interview

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Clinical Psychology
• Psychotherapy Research

Background:

• Pre-treatment patient perfectionism negatively affects therapeutic alliance and outcomes.
• Understanding how perfectionism influences the development of the therapeutic alliance is crucial.
• This study examines the impact of perfectionism components on clinician perceptions during initial interviews.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the influence of trait and self-presentational perfectionism on clinician perceptions of patients.
• To explore the relationship between different facets of perfectionism and clinician-rated hostility and impressions.
• To identify how patient perfectionism indirectly affects therapeutic impressions through hostility.

Main Methods:

• Re-analysis of data from 90 treatment-seeking adults interviewed by clinicians.
• Patients completed self-report measures of perfectionism and symptom distress pre-interview.
• Clinicians rated patient impressions, distress, and hostility post-interview.

Main Results:

• Other-oriented perfectionism and non-display of imperfection correlated positively with clinician-rated hostility.
• Self-oriented, socially prescribed perfectionism, and non-disclosure of imperfection negatively related to clinician impressions.
• Path analysis indicated hostility mediated the link between perfectionism facets and less favorable clinician impressions.

Conclusions:

• Evaluating and addressing perfectionism components early in therapy is important.
• Patient perfectionism, particularly other-oriented and non-display of imperfection, can influence clinician perceptions via hostility.
• Assessing patient perfectionism and hostility early in therapeutic contact is recommended.