Perfectionism and Cognitive Emotion Regulation: The Mediation Role of Behavioral Activation and Inhibition

The aim of present study was to develop a model of cognitive regulation of emotion based on perfectionism with the mediation of the behavioral activation and inhibition system.

The research was descriptive-correlation and structural equation modeling. The statistical population included all undergraduate students of Bu-Ali Sina University in Hamadan city who were studying in this university in the academic year of 1400-1401, according to the size of the population (7685) and using Morgan's table, 382 students (258 female and 124 male) were selected by available sampling method and considering the research criteria.The research tools included the cognitive emotion regulation scale by Garnofsky et al. (2001), the perfectionism scale by Terry Short et al. (1995), and the behavioral activation and inhibition system scale by Carver and White (1994). SPSS version 22 software was used for data analysis and Lisrel version 8.8 software was used to test the relationships between variables and final hypotheses.

The results showed that the explanatory model of the cognitive regulation of emotion based on perfectionism with the mediating role of the behavioral activation and inhibition system has a favorable fit (p<0.01). Also, behavioral activation and inhibition systems play a significant mediating role between perfectionism and cognitive emotion regulation (p<0.01). The findings of this research indicate that Perfectionism and factors such as behavioral activation and inhibition system play an important role in the cognitive regulation of emotion.