Dimensions of perfectionism, psychosocial adjustment, and social skills

Past research on perfectionism has determined that the construct includes social dimensions involving standards for others and perceived standards imposed on the self by others. The present study sought to extend past research by determining the association between three dimensions of perfectionism (self-oriented perfectionism, other-oriented perfectionism and socially-prescribed perfectionism) and measures of perceived social skills and psychosocial adjustment. A sample of 105 students completed the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale along with multiple measures of psychosocial adjustment and perceived social skills. As expected, the correlational results demonstrated that high socially prescribed perfectionism was associated with a variety of psychosocial adjustment problems, including greater loneliness, shyness, and fear of negative evaluation, and lower levels of social self-esteem. In addition, socially prescribed perfectionists had lower self-perceived social skills. There were few significant findings involving self-oriented or other-oriented perfectionism. Taken together, these findings suggest that socially prescribed perfectionists are prone to suffer from various psychosocial problems and perceived deficits in social skills.