Manifestation and Operation of Perfectionism in Asian Culture

An Individual’s psychological process is heavily influenced by one’s culture (Markus & Kitayama, 1991). Relatedly, culture shapes a range of personality traits and their developmental process (Trandis & Suh, 2002). As manifestation and operation of a personality trait differ across cultures, exploring if the link between personality traits with other mental distress indicators varies in diverse cultures should be of particular interest to those
oriented to culturally sensitive research. Investigation on the cultural variations of a psychological construct also aligns with the effort to enhance cultural competence among therapists. For instance, findings from such a study will offer (a) invaluable opportunities to learn about diverse cultures; (b) awareness of their preconceived notions on the operation of psychological constructs; and consequently (c) a chance to hone their clinical skills. In fact, therapists’ cultural competence is one of the salient factors that predict client’s improvement (Hayes et al., 2016; Owens et al., 2011); thus studies that foster therapists’ cross-cultural competence take a significant position in the mental health field. Our projects accompany this mission by investigating and revealing how operation of perfectionism—a personality trait— could differ in its relation to mental health indicators across different cultural groups, to offer imperative research and practice implications.