Perfectionism as Imposed by Family and Fear of Intimacy among Young Adults

Abstract

Perfectionism is defined as ‘the practice of demanding of oneself or others a higher quality of performance than is required by the situation’ (Hollender, 1965).  Intimacy can be defined as ‘relational event in which trusting self-disclosure is responded to with communicated empathy’ (Dandeneau & Johnson, 1994).  Halgin and Leahy (1989) said that perfectionists ‘avoid intimate relationships because they fear that becoming open to others would result in vulnerability, derision, and ultimate rejection’. This study aims to establish the relationship between perfectionism as imposed by family and fear of intimacy among young adults. The sample size (N) is 80 between the age 18 and 30 years. Family Almost Perfect Scale developed by Wang K. T. (2010) will be used to measure individual’s perceptions of the attitudes, beliefs, and values one’s family has and conveyed to them. The fear of Intimacy will be measured using Fear of Intimacy scale developed by Michelle D. Sherman, Mark H & Thelen (1996). One-way Anova was used to assess the degree of relationship between perfectionism and fear of intimacy. The p value was found to be 0.037 at 0.05 level of significance. Results showed that the non-perfectionists had increased fear of intimacy and the fear of intimacy was high in people who were not in romantic relationship.