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The notion that perfectionism may have important implications for health and well-being has begun to capture the attention of researchers worldwide. Indeed, research has indicated that perfectionism plays a critical role in early mortality and in the etiology and maintenance of numerous forms of psychopathology. Clearly, this is an area of research that merits our attention. In the introductory chapter to the first edited volume dedicated to the topic of perfectionism, health, and well-being, we present an overview of the issues concerning the conceptualizations of perfectionism, health, and well-being that sets the stage for understanding the complexities and controversies surrounding the role of perfectionism in health-related outcomes that are the focus of this book. After providing a comprehensive summary of the major themes and definitional issues surrounding perfectionism, we present a historical and contemporary introduction to different conceptualizations of health and well-being, highlighting the areas of relevance for understanding potential linkages to perfectionism dimensions. We next present an overview of the structure and organization of the book, summarizing how each chapter provides the latest perspectives and research on perfectionism, health, and well-being. It is our hope as editors that bringing together these contributions in the fields of perfectionism, health, and well-being into one volume will provide a unique and useful resource for readers that will stimulate further research, theory, and debate.

The contributions in this volume attest to the relevance of studying individual differences in perfectionism in relation to health and well-being. It is evident that the field has moved beyond simply examining whether perfectionism is associated with health and well-being or not to testing conceptual models that may help further our understanding of when, how, and why perfectionism may be implicated in health and well-being. In this final chapter, we discuss four key themes emerging from these works that we believe merit greater consideration because they have the potential to provide a platform for future research for the next generation of scholars in the field. Specifically, we discuss (1) issues in the conceptualization and measurement of perfectionism, (2) the pervasiveness of perfectionism, (3) the adaptive versus maladaptive perfectionism debate, and (4) issues in measuring health and well-being in relation to perfectionism. These themes afford us new insights into links among perfectionism, health, and well-being that can guide scholars to new and exciting questions to further propel the field forward. We conclude by offering several directions for future research.

The role of perfectionism in the practice of health-promoting behaviors is an understudied area of perfectionism and health research that has yielded limited and equivocal findings. Drawing from self-regulation theory and current research on perfectionism and self-regulation, this chapter presents a self-regulation resource model (SRRM) as a new conceptual framework for understanding how and why perfectionism dimensions may be differentially linked to the practice of health-promoting behaviors. After highlighting the importance of health behaviors for health outcomes, and the value of taking a self-regulation perspective for understanding why people succeed or fail at engaging in health behaviors, I outline how the SRRM is potentially useful for organizing and bringing a conceptual clarity to the issue of perfectionism and health behaviors. Preliminary evidence is presented to support the proposed roles of emotions as potential self-regulation resources or liabilities that distinguish perfectionism dimensions, and illustrate how their dynamic and reciprocal relations with temporal orientations may further promote or prevent engaging in positive health behaviors. The chapter concludes with a discussion of how the SRRM may be applied to better understand the role of perfectionism in health behaviors across different settings and populations to guide future research in this area.