PERFECTIONISM AND NEUROTICISM IN PSYCHIATRIC-PATIENTS AND COLLEGE-STUDENTS

Previous authors in the perfectionism literature have discussed the role of neuroticism in the development and maintenance of perfectionism, but there have been few empirical tests of this association. Perfectionism and neuroticism were examined in the present study by having a sample of 107 college students and 76 psychiatric patients complete the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (MPS) and the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ). The MPS provides measures of self-oriented, other-oriented and socially-prescribed perfectionism while the EPQ provides measures of extraversion, neuroticism, psychoticism and dissimulation tendencies. Correlational analyses with the data from both samples revealed the neuroticism was associated significantly with socially-prescribed perfectionism in males and females and neuroticism was correlated with self-oriented perfectionism in females. Also, examination of the clinical data indicated a marginal positive relation between other-oriented perfectionism and psychoticism. Finally, the results confirmed previous findings indicating little relation between the MPS dimensions and socially desirable responding. The results are discussed in terms of the association between the dimensions of perfectionism and global personality traits such as neuroticism. Future research directions are also outlined. © 1991.