Perfectionism and aggression following unintentional, ambiguous, and intentional provocation

Abstract

The social disconnection model of perfectionism posits that perfectionism is positively related to various indicators of social disconnection including hostility and aggression. Recent findings, however, indicate that only other-oriented and socially-prescribed perfectionism are positively related to aggression, not self-oriented perfectionism. The present study (N = 271) further examined the perfectionism–aggression relationships using social vignettes differentiating aggression following unintentional, ambiguous, and intentional provocation. Results showed that – when the overlap between the perfectionism dimensions was controlled – only other-oriented perfectionism showed positive relationships with aggression across provocation situations. In contrast, socially prescribed perfectionism showed a positive relationship only with aggression following unintentional provocation, and self-oriented perfectionism showed a negative relationship. The findings suggest that, whereas people high in self-oriented perfectionism tend to be unaggressive, people high in other-oriented perfectionism have a general tendency toward aggression, and people high in socially prescribed perfectionism show a hostile attribution bias.