Shafran, Cooper & Fairburn (2002) · Perfectionism (transdiagnostic)
Shafran, Cooper & Fairburn (2002)
Self-Worth Tied to Striving & Achievement
The core of the model — over-evaluation of striving and achievement: judging self-worth predominantly, or only, in terms of meeting demanding personal standards (at work, study, sport, appearance, parenting). Everything else flows from, and feeds back into, this.
Inflexible, Demanding Standards
Inflexible, excessively high personal standards, pursued relentlessly and held to despite significant cost to wellbeing, relationships or health.
Striving, Checking or Avoidance
Performance-related behaviour driven by the standards — over-working, repeated checking, correcting and redoing — or, where failure feels likely, procrastination and avoidance. Both are attempts to manage the demand.
Dichotomous Judgement of Performance
Dichotomous (all-or-nothing) evaluation of performance, with selective attention to shortfalls: anything short of the standard is counted as failure, and successes are scrutinised for flaws.
Self-Criticism / Discounting Success
Self-criticism when standards are not met; when they are met, the achievement is discounted ('that wasn't good enough') or the standard is judged too low and raised. Both routes reinforce the over-evaluation of achievement and restart the cycle.
The published model, shown for reference. Switch to “Blank” to see the empty template you complete with a client.
Having high standards isn't a problem in itself. Clinical perfectionism is different: it's when your sense of worth depends almost entirely on meeting demanding standards — and the bar keeps rising however hard you try. This model shows how that trap works.
Because so much rides on achieving, you set rigid, exacting standards and push to meet them. That can look like over-working, checking and redoing things — or, when the pressure feels too great, putting things off and avoiding them altogether.
Whatever happens then tends to be judged in black and white: anything less than the standard counts as failure.
And so it keeps itself going. Fall short, and you criticise yourself harshly. Meet the standard, and you brush it off — 'that wasn't good enough', or 'the bar must have been too low' — and raise it. Either way, the message that your worth depends on achieving is confirmed, and the cycle turns again.
How to introduce the model, guided-discovery questions, treatment targets and a behavioural experiment are available to signed-in therapists.
This diagram is a reconstruction of the published model for clinical and educational use, grounded in the sources above.
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