Predicting perfectionism: applying tests of rigidity.

Adult college students (N = 108; M age = 24.3 years old) completed multidimensional measures of perfectionism (self-oriented, other-oriented, and socially-prescribed perfectionism) and behavioral rigidity (attitudinal flexibility, psychomotor speed, and motor-cognitive rigidity). Attitudinal flexibility was negatively related to all three forms of perfectionism, and motor-cognitive rigidity was positively related to self-oriented perfectionism. Multiple regression analyses indicated that attitude flexibility and motor-cognitive rigidity were significant predictors of self-oriented perfectionism, while attitude-flexibility alone was the significant predictor of socially-prescribed perfectionism. No measure of rigidity was a significant predictor of other-oriented perfectionism. Thus, dimensions of perfectionism may be predicted with different measures of cognitive-behavioral rigidity.