A study of perfectionism in relation to personality stress coping and well being among college students

Abstract

Perfectionism refers to a striving for flawlessness and setting high standards of performance for oneself or others. The present study investigated the three dimensions of perfectionism viz. Self-Oriented Perfectionism, Other-Oriented Perfectionism and Socially Prescribed Perfectionism in relation to Personality, Stress, Coping and Well-Being. For this purpose, a sample of 300 students in the age range of 18 to 21 years (150 male college students and 150 female college students) was divided from the various co-educational colleges affiliated to Delhi University. Further, the data of males and females was subdivided into 50 males and 50 females each belonging to the Arts, Commerce and Science streams. The results revealed that Self-Oriented Perfectionism is positively associated with Openness to Experience, Autonomy, Purpose in Life, Psychological Well-Being and negatively associated with Negative Affect. Socially Prescribed Perfectionism was negatively related with SelfAcceptance. In addition both Self-Oriented Perfectionism and OtherOriented Perfectionism were positively associated with Extraversion and Positive Relations with Others. Further, Self-Oriented Perfectionism and Socially Prescribed Perfectionism were both found to be positively related with Subjective Well-Being. Also, Other-Oriented Perfectionism and Socially Prescribed Perfectionism both were positively associated with Neuroticism as per the findings of the current study. No gender differences were reported on the various dimensions of Perfectionism viz. SelfOriented Perfectionism, Other-Oriented Perfectionism and Socially Prescribed Perfectionism. newline