Dynamic-Relational Group Treatment for Perfectionism

Informant Ratings of Patient Change

Hewitt, Paul L.
Qiu, Tianyou
Flynn, Carol A.
Flett, Gordon L.
Wiebe, Stephanie A.
Tasca, Giorgio A.
Mikail, Samuel F.

Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia
Department of Psychology, York University
Department of Psychology, Saint Paul University
School of Psychology, University of Ottawa
Mental Health, Sunlife Assurance, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

This research was supported by grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC; 435-2015-0412) and from the Society for Psychotherapy Research awarded to Paul L. Hewitt.

Paul L. Hewitt, Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z4 [email protected]

Received September 12, 2018

revised January 14, 2019

Accepted March 14, 2019

Psychotherapy 57(2):p 197-205, June 2020. | DOI: 10.1037/pst0000229

Although now there is accumulating research on the effectiveness of psychotherapy for perfectionism, this research has been based almost exclusively on self-report data. In this article, we describe analyses from the University of British Columbia Perfectionism Treatment Study assessing close other informant ratings of change in perfectionism traits and perfectionistic self-presentation. A total of 61 close other informants of patients who participated in a 10-week dynamic-relational treatment for perfectionism completed measures of patient trait and self-presentational facets of perfectionism at pretreatment, at posttreatment, and at a 4-month follow-up. In support of the effectiveness of the treatment, we found that close other measures of patients’ self-oriented perfectionism, other-oriented perfectionism, and all three facets of perfectionistic self-presentation were significantly reduced at posttreatment and follow-up. Close other measures of patients’ socially prescribed perfectionism did not show change over the course of treatment and follow-up. The findings are discussed in terms of the effectiveness of the dynamic-relational treatment of perfectionism and the utility of extending research by including close other measures of change in treatment-outcome research.