Toward Person-Focused Assessment and Understanding the Human Need to Be Perfect: Commentary and Introduction to the Third Special Issue on Perfectionism

In the current introductory article, we discuss the importance of balancing the variable-centered research in the perfectionism field with a person-focused approach. We examine the utility of a person-centered approach in assessment, research, and theory and the need to revisit overlooked themes central to understanding people who are extreme perfectionists. Our analysis focuses on addressing the core unaddressed issue of why perfectionists as unique individuals absolutely need to be perfect. We describe measures to assess individual differences in this need to be perfect and themes reflecting the need to be perfect that require investigation. The papers in this third special issue on perfectionism are then introduced and considered as examples of the merits of a broad approach that goes beyond trait perfectionism to also include perfectionistic self-presentation and the cognitive experience of perfectionism. We conclude by examining how certain variable-centered studies described in the current special issue yield insights about perfectionists as people when individuals are considered from a person-focused perspective.