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Positive and Negative Perfectionism and the Big Five Personality Factors

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 May 2015

Sarah J. Egan ,
Jan P. Piek  and
Murray J. Dyck
Sarah J. Egan*
Affiliation:
School of Psychology and Speech Pathology, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
Jan P. Piek
Affiliation:
School of Psychology and Speech Pathology, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
Murray J. Dyck
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, Griffith University, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
*
Address for correspondence: Sarah J. Egan, School of Psychology and Speech Pathology, Curtin University, GPO Box U1987, Perth, Australia. E-mail: s.egan@curtin.edu.au
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Abstract

Perfectionism has been argued to have both positive and negative aspects. Negative perfectionism has a robust positive correlation with psychopathology. This study explored the personality pattern of a group of clinical participants and a group of athletes in relation to positive and negative perfectionism. The results indicated negative perfectionism is related to neuroticism and agreeableness in both clinical and non-clinical groups. Negative perfectionism was most strongly associated with low agreeableness but had no significant relationship with conscientiousness or extraversion in the clinical sample. In the athlete sample, higher negative perfectionism was most strongly related to higher neuroticism but was also associated with lower extraversion and conscientiousness. In order to more fully understand these relationships and their clinical implications, more studies using validated measures of positive and negative perfectionism with larger samples are required. It would be useful to determine if personality factors of agreeableness and competence could be increased in order to ameliorate the distress associated with negative perfectionism.

Keywords

perfectionismpersonalityneuroticismagreeableness
Type
Standard Papers
Information
Behaviour Change , Volume 32 , Issue 2 , June 2015 , pp. 104 - 113
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2015 

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