Multidimensional perfectionism and narcissism: Grandiose or vulnerable?

Multidimensional perfectionism is related to grandiose narcissism, with other-oriented perfectionism showing the strongest, most consistent relationships. The relationships with vulnerable narcissism, however, are unclear. Our study investigated how three forms of perfectionism--self-oriented, other-oriented, and socially prescribed perfectionism (Hewitt & Flett, 1991)--are related to narcissistic grandiosity and vulnerability. A sample of 375 university students completed the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (Raskin & Terry, 1988), Hypersensitive Narcissism Scale (Hendin & Cheek, 1997), and Pathological Narcissism Inventory (Pincus et al., 2009) capturing various facets of narcissistic grandiosity and vulnerability. Multiple regressions were conducted controlling for the overlap between the three forms of perfectionism and gender. Other-oriented perfectionism showed unique positive relationships with key facets of grandiose narcissism. In contrast, socially prescribed perfectionism showed positive relationships with all facets of vulnerable narcissism. Self- and other-oriented perfectionism showed positive relationships with individual facets only. Other-oriented perfectionism appears to represent a form of perfectionism predominantly related to narcissistic grandiosity, whereas socially prescribed perfectionism is predominantly related to narcissistic vulnerability. As the first study to examine perfectionism in relation to narcissistic grandiosity and vulnerability, our research both extends and clarifies the nomological network of the perfectionism construct in important ways

Physical appearance perfectionism explains variance in eating disorder symptoms above general perfectionism

Physical appearance perfectionism is a domain-specific form of perfectionism comprising two components: hope for perfection and worry about imperfection (Yang & Stoeber, 2012). Previous studies found that physical appearance perfectionism is related to eating disorder symptoms, particularly the worry about imperfection component, but did not address the question of whether physical appearance perfectionism explains variance in eating disorder symptoms above general perfectionism. The present study investigated the question examining 559 female university students. Physical appearance perfectionism explained an additional 9-17% of variance in eating disorder symptoms above the 11-20% variance explained by general perfectionism. The findings suggest that physical appearance perfectionism plays an important role in disordered eating beyond general perfectionis

Multidimensional sexual perfectionism and female sexual function: A longitudinal investigation

Research on multidimensional sexual perfectionism differentiates four forms of sexual perfectionism: self-oriented, partner-oriented, partner-prescribed, and socially prescribed. Self-oriented sexual perfectionism reflects perfectionistic standards people apply to themselves as sexual partners; partner-oriented sexual perfectionism reflects perfectionistic standards people apply to their sexual partner; partner-prescribed sexual perfectionism reflects people’s beliefs that their sexual partner imposes perfectionistic standards on them; and socially prescribed sexual perfectionism reflects people’s beliefs that society imposes such standards on them. Previous studies found partner-prescribed and socially prescribed sexual perfectionism to be maladaptive forms of sexual perfectionism associated with a negative sexual self-concept and problematic sexual behaviors, but only examined cross-sectional relationships. The present article presents the first longitudinal study examining whether multidimensional sexual perfectionism predicts changes in sexual self-concept and sexual function over time. A total of 366 women aged 17-69 years completed measures of multidimensional sexual perfectionism, sexual esteem, sexual anxiety, sexual problem self-blame, and female sexual function (cross-sectional data). Three to six months later, 164 of the women completed the same measures again (longitudinal data). Across analyses, partner-prescribed sexual perfectionism emerged as the most maladaptive form of sexual perfectionism. In the cross-sectional data, partner-prescribed sexual perfectionism showed positive relationships with sexual anxiety, sexual problem self-blame, and intercourse pain and negative relationships with sexual esteem, desire, arousal, lubrication, and orgasmic function. In the longitudinal data, partner-prescribed sexual perfectionism predicted increases in sexual anxiety and decreases in sexual esteem, arousal, and lubrication over time. The findings suggest that partner-prescribed sexual perfectionism contributes to women’s negative sexual self-concept and female sexual dysfunction

Perfectionism and the Big Five: Conscientiousness predicts longitudinal increases in self-oriented perfectionism

Findings from cross-sectional studies on the relationship between perfectionism and the Big Five personality traits demonstrate that conscientiousness shows significant positive correlations with self-oriented perfectionism, and neuroticism with socially prescribed perfectionism. The question is whether conscientiousness and neuroticism also predict longitudinal changes in self-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism. A sample of 214 adolescents aged 14-19 years completed measures of the Big Five and perfectionism twice over a period of 5 to 8 months. As was expected, conscientiousness predicted longitudinal increases in self-oriented perfectionism. Neuroticism, however, did not predict any longitudinal increases in perfectionism—neither in self-oriented nor in socially prescribed perfectionism. Providing support for McCrae and Costa’s dynamic personality theory (McCrae & Costa, 1999) which holds that broad personality traits play a part in the development of lower-level personality characteristics, the findings suggest that conscientiousness is a trait that plays a role in the development of self-oriented perfectionism

The Interaction Between Perfectionism and Rumination Predicting State Self-compassion

Recent research has revealed self-compassion to be associated with many aspects of mental wellness. The present study investigates the relationship between perfectionism and rumination in predicting state self-compassion separately for both conscientious and self-evaluative forms of perfectionism. We hypothesized that perfectionism would interact with rumination in predicting state self-compassion such that there would be a negative association between occurrence of rumination and state-self compassion that would be more prominent in those with lower levels of perfectionism in regards to self-evaluative, but not conscientious perfectionism. To test these predictions, participants filled out a perfectionism inventory and completed a four minute ruminative (or non-ruminative) writing task before completing a sate self-compassion questionnaire. Although we found no significant interaction between self-evaluative perfectionism and rumination, our results reveal self-evaluative perfectionism to be inversely related to state self-compassion such that people with lower levels of self-evaluative perfectionism generally experienced greater momentary states of self-compassion

Perfectionism and burnout in canoe polo and kayak slalom athletes: The mediating influence of validation and growth-seeking

Recent research suggests that validation-seeking and dimensions of perfectionism may be antecedents of athlete burnout. The present investigation examined whether validation and growth-seeking mediate the relationship between selforiented and socially prescribed perfectionism and burnout. One-hundred and fifty canoe polo and kayak slalom athletes recruited from the top two divisions in the UK completed measures of validation and growth-seeking (GOI), perfectionism (HMPS), and athlete burnout (ABQ). Analyses supported the mediating role of validation-seeking in the relationship between socially prescribed perfectionism and burnout. However, while bivariate correlations indicated that self-oriented perfectionism was positively related to both validation and growth-seeking, neither mediated the self-oriented perfectionism-burnout relationship. The findings suggest that validation-seeking may be an important psychological factor in the development of burnout for athletes exhibiting high levels of socially prescribed perfectionism. The relationship between self-oriented perfectionism and athlete burnout remains unclear because of its association with multiple motives and with socially prescribed perfectionism

A short empirical note on perfectionism and flourishing

Flourishing describes an optimal state of mental health characterized by emotional, psychological, and social well-being. In a recent publication, Flett and Hewitt (2015) suggested that perfectionism prevents people from flourishing. Perfectionism, however, is a multidimensional personality characteristic, and its various dimensions show different relationships with indicators of subjective well-being. In the first empirical study of perfectionism and flourishing, we examined the relationships of multidimensional perfectionism (self-oriented, other-oriented, and socially prescribed perfectionism) and self-reported flourishing in the past two weeks. Results from the sample of 388 university students revealed that only socially prescribed perfectionism showed a negative relationship with flourishing, whereas self-oriented perfectionism showed a positive relationship. These results were unchanged when positive and negative affect were controlled statistically. Our findings indicate that not all dimensions of perfectionism undermine flourishing and that it is important to differentiate perfectionistic strivings and concerns when regarding the perfectionism–flourishing relationship

The Consequences of Perfectionism Scale: Factorial structure and relationships with perfectionism, performance perfectionism, affect, and depressive symptoms

This study investigated the Consequences of Perfectionism Scale (COPS) and its relationships with perfectionism, performance perfectionism, affect, and depressive symptoms in 202 university students using confirmatory factor analysis, correlations, and regression analyses. Results suggest that the COPS is a reliable and valid measure of positive and negative consequences of perfectionism

Positive and Negative Perfectionism and the Shame and Guilt Dichotomy: Their Relationship and Their Relationship to Adaptive and Maladaptive Characteristics

Past studies have suggested that perfectionism is a maladaptive behavior. Also, studies have linked shame to several maladaptive traits and to perfectionism as it has been recently measured, which supports current theories of shame but not the current theories that suggest guilt is an adaptive emotion. Using Terry-Short’s PNP scale designed to measure negative and positive perfectionism, this research demonstrated that perfectionism could be adaptive as well as maladaptive. Negative perfectionism was positively correlated to state shame and guilt, shame-proneness, with guilt-proneness demonstrating a less significant relationship but with a similar trend. Anxiety and hostility were positively correlated to negative perfectionism, state shame and guilt, and shame-proneness. Positive perfectionism demonstrated a positive correlation with pride and negative correlations to state shame and guilt

Self-oriented perfectionism and socially prescribed perfectionism: Differential relationships with intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and test anxiety

Previous studies suggest that self-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism show differential relationships with intrinsic–extrinsic motivation and test anxiety, but the findings are ambiguous. Moreover, they ignored that test anxiety is multidimensional. Consequently, the present study re-investigated the relationships in 104 university students examining how the two forms of perfectionism are related to intrinsic–extrinsic motivation and multidimensional test anxiety (worry, emotionality, interference, lack of confidence, and total anxiety). Regarding motivation, self-oriented perfectionism showed positive correlations with intrinsic reasons for studying, and socially prescribed perfectionism positive correlations with extrinsic reasons. Regarding test anxiety, only socially prescribed perfectionism showed positive correlations with total anxiety. Moreover, socially prescribed perfectionism showed positive correlations with interference and lack of confidence, whereas self-oriented perfectionism showed positive correlations with worry, but negative correlations with interference and lack of confidence. The findings confirm that socially prescribed perfectionism is a maladaptive form of perfectionism associated with extrinsic motivation for studying and higher anxiety in exams. Self-oriented perfectionism, however, is an ambivalent form associated with intrinsic motivation for studying and with both higher and lower anxiety (higher worry, lower interference, lower lack of confidence) in exams