title: How personal standards perfectionism and evaluative concerns perfectionism affect the error positivity and post-error behavior with varying stimulus visibility.
abstract: Error detection is required in order to correct or avoid imperfect behavior. Although error detection is beneficial for some people, for others it might be disturbing. We investigated Gaudreau and Thompson's (Personality and Individual Differences, 48, 532-537, 2010) model, which combines personal standards perfectionism (PSP) and evaluative concerns perfectionism (ECP). In our electrophysiological study, 43 participants performed a combination of a modified Simon task, an error awareness paradigm, and a masking task with a variation of stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA; 33, 67, and 100 ms). Interestingly, relative to low-ECP participants, high-ECP participants showed a better post-error accuracy (despite a worse classification accuracy) in the high-visibility SOA 100 condition than in the two low-visibility conditions (SOA 33 and SOA 67). Regarding the electrophysiological results, first, we found a positive correlation between ECP and the amplitude of the error positivity (Pe) under conditions of low stimulus visibility. Second, under the condition of high stimulus visibility, we observed a higher Pe amplitude for high-ECP-low-PSP participants than for high-ECP-high-PSP participants. These findings are discussed within the framework of the error-processing avoidance hypothesis of perfectionism (Stahl, Acharki, Kresimon, Völler, & Gibbons, International Journal of Psychophysiology, 97, 153-162, 2015).
authors.affiliation: Chair of Industrial Sales Engineering, Ruhr-University Bochum, Bochum, Germany. Jessica.Drizinsky@ise.ruhr-uni-bochum.de.|Department of Psychology, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany. Jessica.Drizinsky@ise.ruhr-uni-bochum.de.
authors.forename: Jessica
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Drizinsky
authors.affiliation: Chair of Industrial Sales Engineering, Ruhr-University Bochum, Bochum, Germany.
authors.forename: Joachim
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zülch
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany.
authors.forename: Henning
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Gibbons
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany.
authors.forename: Jutta
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Stahl
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001364:Awareness / Q000502:physiology; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials; D030141:Feedback, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D000072639:Perfectionism; D011594:Psychometrics; D011930:Reaction Time; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Error detection; Error positivity; Evaluative concerns perfectionism; Event-related potentials; Personal standards perfectionism