The structure of perfectionism towards the spouse with a grounded theory approach: a qualitative study

perfectionism has dimensions. One dimension is perfectionism towards the spouse, which plays an important role in marital conflicts. The purpose of this study was to present the structure and components of perfectionism towards the spouse in order to provide a suitable platform for research in this field.

Considering that in previous studies, the structure of perfectionism towards the spouse has not been presented independently, in this study, the method of interviewing individuals was used to collect data and the underlying theory approach was used to analyze the data. For this purpose, first, by purposeful sampling method, among the clients of counseling centers, people who had low marital satisfaction and perfectionism at the discretion of the family counselor were selected and interviewed. The interviews continued until data saturation was achieved, and finally 34 people were interviewed. The data were then coded and analyzed using the underlying theory approach.

The research findings showed that the structure of perfectionism towards the spouse has three main components and ten sub-components: 1) Self-centeredness: high expectations from the spouse, domination of the spouse, lack of differentiation from the spouse. 2) Inflexibility: inability to forgive, lack of attention to .