Differentiating Adaptive and Maladaptive Perfectionism on the MMPI-2 and MIPS Revised

Although conceptualizations of perfectionism have emphasized adaptive as well as maladaptive expressions of the construct, how these different dimensions or types of perfectionists might be reflected in comprehensive personality assessment instruments is unknown. An initial sample of 267 university students completed the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2; Butcher, Dahlstrom, Graham, Tellegen, Kaemmer, 2001), Millon Index of Personality Styles Revised (MIPS-R; Millon, 2004), and Almost Perfect Scale-Revised (Slaney, Mobley, Trippi, Ashby, Johnson, 1996). Analyses indicated that dimensions and types of perfectionism were associated, in expected directions, with select scores on the MMPI-2 and MIPS-R.