Perfectionistic concerns suppress associations between perfectionistic strivings and positive life outcomes

Abstract

Perfectionism has been frequently associated with diverse negative psychological outcomes, but less frequently with positive psychological outcomes. This investigation reports multiple regression analyses based on survey data from 216 psychology students. These analyses indicate that adaptive perfectionistic strivings and maladaptive perfectionistic concerns predict desirable outcomes including psychological well-being, life satisfaction, and affect. That perfectionistic strivings predicted these outcomes is inconsistent with the small zero-order correlations between perfectionistic strivings and the positive outcomes, indicating that maladaptive perfectionistic concerns act as a suppressor variable in this relationship. These findings illustrate the importance of conceptualizing perfectionism as having both adaptive and maladaptive dimensions, and of assessing both simultaneously when examining relationships between perfectionism and other substantive variables.