Beyond the role of the dark triad in accounting for psychological maladjustment in adults: Does perfectionism still matter?

Abstract

The present study was conducted to identify the extent to which the Dark Triad and perfectionism account for variations in psychological maladjustment outcomes (i.e., social interaction anxiety, suicidal ideation, depressive symptoms, and negative affect) in a sample of 283 college students. Specifically, this study was designed to explore whether perfectionism, above and beyond the Dark Triad, would account for additional variance in the prediction models of psychological maladjustment outcomes. Results suggest that perfectionism did account for a significant amount of additional variance in the prediction model for each psychological maladjustment outcome explored, above and beyond the Dark Triad. Some interesting and nuanced findings were identified regarding both perfectionism and the Dark Triad and implications of such findings are discussed.