THE RELATIONSHIP OF 2 ASPECTS OF PERFECTIONISM WITH SYMPTOMS IN A PSYCHIATRIC OUTPATIENT POPULATION

Recently Frost, Heinberg, Holt, Mattia, & Neubauer (1993) have suggest ed that perfectionism can be separated into two overall components: po sitive striving (POS) and maladaptive evaluation concerns (MEG). These dimensions appear to be similar to a conceptual distinction that has been made in the past between normal or healthy perfectionism and neur otic perfectionism. It has been hypothesized that the latter, more ave rsive aspects of perfectionism associated with excessive concern over mistakes and negative evaluation are more likely to be related to psyc hopathology. In this article, the relationship of perfectionism to anx iety, depression, and obsessive-compulsive symptoms is examined in a s ample of 123 psychiatric outpatients. The results suggest that MEC is more highly related to anxiety and depression (particularly as measure d by self-report) than is POS. Partial correlations also suggest that unique aspects of MEC are generally more strongly related to obsessive -compulsive symptoms than are unique aspects of POS.