Tripartite Typology of Perfectionism among Psychology Students

Abstract

The objective of the research was to find out whether it is possible to identify the perfectionist typology according to Parker (1997), with three groups namely functional perfectionists, dysfunctional perfectionists and nonperfectionists. The research group was composed of full-time university students of single-subject psychology (N = 172) with age range of 18 to 25 years. We used the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (F-MPS) to measure perfectionism. Based on the non-hierarchical cluster analysis (k-means) of the items in the F-MPS questionnaire, we identified three types of perfectionists, with the first cluster of students identified as functional perfectionists (N=51.74%), second as dysfunctional perfectionists (N=17,44%) and third cluster of nonperfectionists (N=30.81%). Identification of dysfunctional perfectionists (N=17.44%) among psychology students accentuates the need to focus on the issue. Dysfunctional perfectionism adversely affects the quality of the study and also the performance of the future profession itself.