DIMENSIONS OF PERFECTIONISM, PSYCHOSOCIAL ADJUSTMENT, AND SOCIAL SKILLS

Past research on perfectionism has determined that the construct inclu des social dimensions involving standards for others and perceived sta ndards imposed on the self by others. The present study sought to exte nd past research by determining the association between three dimensio ns of perfectionism (self-oriented perfectionism, other-oriented perfe ctionism and socially-prescribed perfectionism) and measures of percei ved social skills and psychosocial adjustment. A sample of 105 student s completed the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale along with multip le measures of psychosocial adjustment and perceived social skills. As expected, the correlational results demonstrated that high socially p rescribed perfectionism was associated with a variety of psychosocial adjustment problems, including greater loneliness, shyness, and fear o f negative evaluation, and lower levels of social self-esteem. In addi tion, socially prescribed perfectionists had lower self-perceived soci al skills. There were few significant findings involving self-oriented or other-oriented perfectionism. Taken together, these findings sugge st that socially prescribed perfectionists are prone to suffer from va rious psychosocial problems and perceived deficits in social skills.