| Many people think only of the negative consequences of perfectionism, but perfectionism has been found to have adaptive and maladaptive components. We need to learn more about the construct of perfectionism, its relationship with negative consequences, and its possible benefits. The purposes of this study were to compare a traditional self-report measure designed to globally assess adaptive, maladaptive, and nonperfectionism with a new Task-Specific Measure of Perfectionism (TSMP) designed to differentiate people based on operationalizations of the definitions, and to investigate the correlates of adaptive and maladaptive perfectionism (i.e., depression, self-esteem, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and extraversion) in relation to a proposed model of relationships.; Eighty-two gifted, high school juniors and seniors completed portions of the Almost Perfect Scale - Revised, Short Form (APS-R), the TSMP, which included a math test, the Depression and Anxiety in Youth Scale, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem scale, and the International Personality Item Pool to measure conscientiousness, neuroticism, and extraversion.; The first hypothesis was that the TSMP and APS-R would identify similar groups of adaptive (50% agreement), maladaptive (20%), and nonperfectionists (63%). Three one-sample chi-square tests were not significant. Knowing the TSMP groupings (adaptive/maladaptive/nonperfectionist, perfectionist/nonperfectionist, or adaptive/maladaptive), did not aid in predicting APS-R group membership. Comparisons of TSMP perfectionism group means on the APS-R were not significant, but the effect sizes were small to medium.; The second hypothesis that TSMP-perfectionists would have higher scores on measures of conscientiousness than nonperfectionists was not supported. Compared with TSMP-adaptives, TSMP-maladaptives were expected to have higher scores on measures of depression and neuroticism and lower scores on measures of self-esteem and extraversion. The comparisons were in the expected directions, but only extraversion was significant. The effect sizes were small for depression and self-esteem and large for neuroticism and extraversion. According to a discriminant functions analysis, group membership could not be predicted based on the related constructs.; Additional post-hoc comparisons with the APS-R groups found several significant results and medium to large effect sizes. Thus, this study provides some support that adaptive and maladaptive perfectionism are separate constructs that differentially impact people's lives. |
