Fear of Negative Evaluation and Perfectionism in Young Adults

Abstract

Fear of Negative Evaluation is defined as "apprehension about others' evaluations, distress over their negative evaluations, avoidance of evaluative situations, and the expectations that others would evaluate oneself negatively". "Perfectionism is a personality disposition characterized by striving for flawlessness and setting exceedingly high standards of performance accompanied by overly critical evaluations of one's behavior". The present study examined the relationship between fear of negative evaluation and perfectionism. The sample consisted of 200 young adults, divided into two (18-22 and 23-27 years). It is a quantitative study using purposive and snowball methods for sampling. The data was collected from the metropolitan city of Hyderabad, using Fear of Negative Evaluation scale and the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale. IBM SPSS software, version 24 was used for the analysis of data using t-test and correlation. The results of the present study show a significant positive correlation between Fear of Negative Evaluation and Perfectionism, mainly socially prescribed perfectionism. The present study can be useful to develop an intervention for people with either high levels of fear of negative evaluation or socially prescribed perfectionism, as there exists a strong positive relationship between the two variables.