Self-Critical Perfectionism and Daily Affect: Dispositional and Situational Influences on Stress and Coping David M. Dunkley and David C. Zuroff McGill University Kirk R. Blankstein University of Toronto at Mississauga This study of university students (64 men and 99 women) examined both dispositional and situational influences of self-critical (SC) perfectionism on stress and coping, which explain its association with high negative affect and low positive affect. Participants completed questionnaires at the end of the day for 7 consecutive days. Structural equation modeling indicated that the relation between SC perfectionism and daily affect could be explained by several maladaptive tendencies associated with SC perfectionism (e.g., hassles, avoidant coping, low perceived social support). Multilevel modeling indicated that SC perfec- tionists were emotionally reactive to stressors that imply possible failure, loss of control, and criticism from others. As well, certain coping strategies (e.g., problem-focused coping) were ineffective for high-SC perfectionists relative to low-SC perfectionists. In the past decade, numerous investigators have studied perfec- tionism as a multidimensional personality attribute and have made a distinction between perfectionism dimensions that have positive/ adaptive aspects and perfectionism dimensions that are primarily negative/maladaptive (e.g., Adkins & Parker, 1996; Blankstein & Dunkley, 2002; Frost, Heimberg, Holt, Mattia, & Neubauer, 1993; Rice, Ashby, & Slaney, 1998; Terry-Short, Owens, Slade, & Dewey, 1995). We refer to these two dimensions as personal standards (PS) perfectionism and self-critical (SC) perfectionism, respectively. PS perfectionism involves the setting of high stan- dards and goals for oneself. On the other hand, SC perfectionism— reminiscent of Blatt’s (1974; Blatt, D’Afflitti, & Quinlan, 1976) self-criticism construct—involves constant and harsh self-scrutiny, overly critical evaluations of one’s own behavior, an inability to derive satisfaction from successful performance, and chronic con- cerns about others’ criticism and expectations. Measures that re- flect SC perfectionism, in contrast to measures that represent PS perfectionism, are consistently related to depressive symptoms (e.g., Dunkley & Blankstein, 2000; Enns & Cox, 1999; Flett, Hewitt, Garshowitz, & Martin, 1997; Sto ¨ber, 1998). Further, self- criticism has been associated with high daily negative affect and low daily positive affect over periods of 1 week or more (Mon- grain, 1998; Mongrain & Zuroff, 1995; Zuroff, Moskowitz, & Cote ´, 1999; Zuroff, Stotland, Sweetman, Craig, & Koestner, 1995). If one is interested in why SC perfectionists experience chronic dysphoria, one needs to understand how they typically respond to minor stressors that occur on a daily basis, as opposed to major life events that occur infrequently. Moreover, research has suggested that minor stressors or hassles account for greater variance in distress than do major life events (e.g., Pillow, Zautra, & Sandler, 1996). Both SC perfectionists and PS perfectionists are assumed to generate or instigate stress for themselves by engaging in stringent self-evaluations and focusing on the negative aspects of events such that even ordinary events can be interpreted as threatening stressors (see Hewitt & Flett, 1993). However, although individ- uals who are PS perfectionists may experience increased levels of stress, the negative impact of possessing this maladaptive charac- teristic might be offset by the tendency of these individuals to engage in active, problem-focused coping (see Dunkley, Blank- stein, Halsall, Williams, & Winkworth, 2000). In contrast, SC perfectionists are assumed to respond to stressful situations with a helplessness orientation (see Dweck & Sorich, 1999) that undermines efforts at problem-focused coping (see Flett, Hewitt, Blankstein, Solnik, & Van Brunschot, 1996). Spe- cifically, SC perfectionists are theorized to quickly blame and condemn their abilities and personal qualities, which they view as fixed and deep-seated. SC perfectionists become preoccupied with their deficiencies and their inability to handle the stressful situation to the extent that they lack the motivation to engage in active coping with the situation, engaging instead in avoidance of threat- ening stimuli. SC perfectionists’ self-blame and denigration also explain their perceptions of low efficacy and expectations of criticism from others in their dealing with the stressful situation, David M. Dunkley and David C. Zuroff, Department of Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Kirk R. Blankstein, De- partment of Psychology, University of Toronto at Mississauga, Missis- sauga, Ontario, Canada. This article is based on a dissertation submitted by David M. Dunkley to McGill University under the supervision of David C. Zuroff. This research was supported by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (Canada) Grant Sub-Committee Sponsored Graduate Student Award to David M. Dunkley and a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (Canada) General Research Grant awarded to David C. Zuroff. We gratefully acknowledge Virginia Fenwick for her efforts in the data collection. We thank Jennifer Archambault, David D’Alessandro, and Veronika Huta for their helpful comments on drafts of this article. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to David M. Dunkley, who is now at the Yale University School of Medicine, Yale Psychiatric Research at Congress Place, 301 Cedar Street, 2nd floor, P.O. Box 208098, New Haven, Connecticut 06520-8098. E-mail: david.dunkley@yale.edu Journal of Personality and Social Psychology Copyright 2003 by the American Psychological Association, Inc. 2003, Vol. 84, No. 1, 234 –252 0022-3514/03/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/0022-3514.84.1.234 234