Hostname: page-component-77f85d65b8-9nbrm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-03-29T07:37:22.798Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

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
Get access

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

Information

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

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

American Psychiatric Association. (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.) Washington, DC: Author.Google Scholar
Beck, A.T., Steer, R.A., & Brown, G.K. (1996). Beck depression inventory manual (2nd ed.). San Antonio: Harcourt Brace & Company.Google Scholar
Bieling, P.J., Israeli, A.L., & Antony, M.M. (2004). Is perfectionism good, bad, or both? Examining models of the perfectionism construct. Personality and Individual Differences, 36, 1373–1385.Google Scholar
Costa, P.T., & McCrae, R.R. (1992). Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) and NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) professional manual. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources.Google Scholar
Costa, P.T., McCrae, R.R., & Dye, D.A. (1991). Facet scales for Agreeableness and Conscientiousness: A revision of the NEO Personality Inventory. Personality and Individual Differences, 12, 887–898.Google Scholar
Cruce, S.R., Pashak, T.J., Handal, P.J., Munz, D.C., & Gfeller, J.D. (2012). Conscientious perfectionism, self-evaluative perfectionism, and the five-factor model of personality traits. Personality and Individual Differences, 53, 268–273.Google Scholar
Derogatis, L.R., & Melisaratos, N. (1983). The Brief Symptom Inventory: An introductory report. Psychological Medicine, 13, 595–605.Google Scholar
Dunkley, D.M., Blankstein, K.R., & Flett, G.L. (1997). Specific cognitive-personality vulnerability styles in depression and the five-factor model of personality. Personality and Individual Differences, 23, 1041–1053.Google Scholar
Dunkley, D.M., Blankstein, K.R., Zuroff, D.C., Lecce, S., & Hui, D. (2006). Self-critical and personal standards factors of perfectionism located within the five-factor model of personality. Personality and Individual Differences, 40, 409–420.Google Scholar
Dunkley, D.M., Sanislow, C.A., Grilo, C.M., & McGlashan, T.H. (2004). Validity of DAS perfectionism and need for approval in relation to the five-factor model of personality. Personality and Individual Differences, 37, 1391–1400.Google Scholar
Egan, S.J., Piek, J.P., Dyck, M.J., & Kane, R.T. (2011). The reliability and validity of the positive and negative perfectionism scale. Clinical Psychologist, 15, 121–132.Google Scholar
Egan, S. J., Wade, Shafran, T.D., , R. (2011). Perfectionism as a transdiagnostic process: A clinical review. Clinical Psychology Review, 31, 203–212.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Egan, S.J., Wade, T.D., Shafran, R., & Antony, M.M. (2014). Cognitive behavioral treatment of perfectionism. New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Egan, S.J., Vinciguerra, T., & Mazzuchelli, T. (2015). The role of perfectionism, agreeableness and neuroticism in predicting dyadic adjustment. Australian Journal of Psychology, 67, 1–9.Google Scholar
First, M.B., Spitzer, R.L., Gibbon, M., & Williams, J.B.W. (1996). Structured clinical interview for DSM-IV axis I disorders — Patient edition (SCID-I/P, Version 2.0). New York: Biometrics Research Department, New York State Psychiatric Institute.Google Scholar
First, M.B., Spitzer, R.L., Gibbon, M., Williams, J.B.W., & Lorna, B. (1994). Structured clinical interview for DSM-IV Axis II personality disorders (SCID-II; Version 2.0). New York: Biometrics Research Department, New York State Psychiatric Institute.Google Scholar
Frost, R.O., Heimberg, R.G., Holt, C.S., Mattia, J.I., & Neubauer, A.L. (1993). A comparison of two measures of perfectionism. Personality and Individual Differences, 14, 119–126.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frost, R.O., Marten, P., Lahart, C., & Rosenblate, R. (1990). The dimensions of perfectionism. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 14, 449–468.Google Scholar
Gould, D., Dieffenbach, K., & Moffett, A. (2002). Psychological characteristics and their development in Olympic champions. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 14, 172–204.Google Scholar
Haase, A.M., & Prapavessis, H. (2004). Assessing the factor structure and composition of the Positive and Negative Perfectionism Scale in sport. Personality and Individual Differences, 36, 1725–1740.Google Scholar
Haase, A.M., Prapavessis, H., & Owens, R.G. (1999). Perfectionism and eating attitudes in competitive rowers: moderating effects of body mass index, weight classification and gender. Psychology and Health, 14, 643–657.Google Scholar
Haase, A.M., Prapavessis, H., & Owens, R.G. (2002). Perfectionism, social physique anxiety and disordered eating: A comparison of male and female athletes. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 3, 209–222.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hewitt, P.L., & Flett, G.L. (1991). Perfectionism in the self and social contexts: Conceptualization, assessment and association with psychopathology. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60, 456–470. 12, 169–179.Google Scholar
Hill, R.W., McIntire, K., & Bacharach, V.R. (1997). Perfectionism and the Big Five factors. Journal of Social Behaviour and Personality, 12, 257–270.Google Scholar
Saulsman, L.M., & Page, A.C. (2004). The five-factor model and personality disorder empirical literature: A meta-analytic review. Clinical Psychology Review, 23, 1055–1085.Google Scholar
Saulsman, L.M., Page, A.C., & Egan, S.J. (2003, October). The consistency of Neuroticism and Agreeableness facets in personality dysfunction: Replication in a clinical sample. Paper presented at the International Congress on the Disorders of Personality, Florence, Italy.Google Scholar
Shafran, R., Cooper, Z., & Fairburn, C.G. (2002). Clinical perfectionism: A cognitive-behavioural analysis. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 40, 773–791.Google Scholar
Shafran, R., Egan, S., & Wade, T. (2010). Overcoming perfectionism: A self-help guide using cognitive behavioural techniques. London: Constable & Robinson.Google Scholar
Stoeber, J., & Otto, K. (2006). Positive conceptions of perfectionism: Approaches, evidence, challenges. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 10, 295–319.Google Scholar
Stumpf, H., & Parker, W.D. (2000). A hierarchical structural analysis of perfectionism and its relation to other personality characteristics. Personality and Individual Differences, 28, 837–852.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Terry-Short, L.A., Owens, R.G., Slade, P.D., & Dewey, M.E. (1995). Positive and negative perfectionism. Personality and Individual Differences, 18, 663–668.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weissman, A.N., & Beck, A.T. (1978, August). Development and validation of the Dysfunctional Attitude Scale: A preliminary investigation. Paper presented at the 86th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, Toronto, Canada.Google Scholar
Zanarini, M.C., Skodol, A.E., Bender, D., Dolan, R., Sanislow, C., Schaefer, E., . . . Gunderson, J.G. (2000). The collaborative longitudinal personality disorders study: Reliability of axis I and II diagnoses. Journal of Personality Disorders, 14, 291–299.Google Scholar
Zuroff, D.C. (1994). Depressive personality styles and the five-factor model of personality. Journal of Personality Assessment, 63, 453–472.Google Scholar