Perfectionism and Interpersonal Orientations in Depression: An Analysis of Validation Seeking and Rejection Sensitivity in a Community Sample of Young Adults

Abstract

The current study was conducted to uniquely investigate the associations among trait perfectionism, perfectionistic self-presentation, validation seeking, rejection sensitivity, and depression in a community sample. The authors’ primary purpose was to focus on interpersonal orientations as sources of vulnerability that could potentially account for when perfectionism is dysfunctional. A sample of 183 young adults from a community sample completed the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale, the Perfectionistic Self-Presentation Scale, and measures of growth seeking, validation seeking, rejection sensitivity, and depressive symptoms. Analyses confirmed that validation seeking was associated positively with all of the perfectionism measures with particularly strong associations between validation seeking and perfectionistic self-presentation. As expected, socially prescribed perfectionism and perfectionistic self-presentation had positive associations with rejection sensitivity. Further analyses established that the associations between interpersonal perfectionism and depressive symptoms were mediated by validation seeking, and socially prescribed perfectionism interacted with high rejection sensitivity to predict higher depressive symptoms. Overall, findings indicate that perfectionists are ego-involved individuals who strive for perfection as a means of proving themselves, and they are hypersensitive to interpersonal cues indicating failure and lack of acceptance from others.