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Page, Bruch, Haase (2008) - Perfectionism, Big Five, & Career Indecision PDF
Page, Bruch, Haase (2008) - Perfectionism, Big Five, & Career Indecision PDF
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history:
Received 14 April 2008
Received in revised form 13 August 2008
Accepted 19 August 2008
Available online 27 September 2008
Keywords:
Perfectionism
Five-Factor model of personality
Career indecision
Vocational development theory
a b s t r a c t
Although perfectionism has been linked to a variety of mental health problems, the relevance of perfectionism in other life domains is just beginning to receive attention. Given the evidence that personality
plays an important role in career choice and adjustment, the present study evaluated whether aspects of
perfectionism make any unique contribution to the prediction of career indecision beyond certain traits
of the Five-Factor model that may also be related to career indecision. Results showed that both maladaptive and adaptive perfectionism accounted for unique variance in career decision-making self-efcacy
beyond variance predicted by neuroticism, extraversion, openness, and conscientiousness. In contrast,
only maladaptive perfectionism accounted for unique variance in certainty of career commitment beyond
variance predicted by neuroticism and conscientiousness. Results are discussed in terms of perfectionism,
the role of personality in career indecision, and implications for career counseling.
2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Although theoretical models have conceptualized perfectionism
as having various dimensions, factor analytic studies have consistently found that the item content of measures is dened by just
two factors (e.g., Bieling, Israeli, & Antony, 2004). The rst factor,
maladaptive perfectionism (MP), reects doubts and concerns
about ones decisions and the perception that others hold unreasonable expectations for ones performance. The second factor,
adaptive perfectionism (AP), reects adherence to a set of standards regarding ones level of achievement in various life domains.
Research has shown that MP is linked to a number of mental health
problems, while AP is related to effective coping and positive affect
(e.g., Dibartolo, Li, & Frost, 2008).
Although MP and AP are associated with indices of psychopathology and adjustment, respectively, there has been little examination of the potential relevance of perfectionism for other life
domains. However, recent research in vocational and industrial/
organizational psychology has begun to reexamine the role of personality in understanding individual differences in unsuccessful
career choice (e.g., Mount & Barrick, 1995; Tokar, Fisher, & Subich,
1998). Problems in career decision-making and commitment, or
career indecision, consist of difculties in acquiring occupational
information, in identifying and evaluating alternative career options, and in selecting and committing to a single alternative. To
the extent that certain personality traits facilitate or inhibit a persons engaging in successful career decision-making and commit-
812
2. Method
2.1. Participants
The sample consisted of 212 undergraduates (119 women) who
volunteered for a study involving career decision-making and received a $5 remuneration. Participants had a mean age of 21.2
years (SD = 3.56), and 1% were freshmen, 9% were sophomores,
34% were juniors, and 56% were seniors. Among the participants,
43% were Caucasian, 22.6% were African American, 12.3% were Hispanic, 18.4% were Asian, and 2.8% classied themselves as of mixed
racial background.
2.2. Instruments
2.2.1. Five-Factor traits
The Big Five Inventory (BFI; John, Donahue, & Kentle, 1991) has
44 items consisting of short phrases based on trait adjectives
known to be indicators of the FFM traits. Respondents rate the extent to which they agree or disagree with each phrase on a scale
ranging from 1 (disagree strongly) to 5 (agree strongly).
John (1990) reported coefcient alphas of .84, .88, .81, .79, and
.82, respectively for the N, E, O, A, and C scales and John et al. (1991)
reported three-month testretest reliabilities that ranged from .80
to .90. Validity evidence includes substantial convergent validity
with the NEO Five-Factor Inventory (Costa et al., 1992) and convergent validity between the BFI and a peer-rating version of the BFI
(Benet-Martinez and John, 1998). In the present sample, alphas
of .79, .82, .78, .75, and .79, respectively, were found for the N, E,
O, A, and C scales.
2.2.2. Perfectionism
Maladaptive perfectionism (MP) and adaptive perfectionism
(AP) scales were formed from relevant subscales of two existing
measures of perfectionism (Frost, Marten, Lahart, & Rosenblate,
1990; Hewitt & Flett, 1991). Following Dunkley, Blankstein, Halsall,
Williams, and Winkworth (2000), the MP scale consisted of the
813
items from Frost et al.s (1990) concern over mistakes scale and the
doubts about actions scale and the items from Hewitt and Fletts
(1991) socially prescribed perfectionism scale. The AP scale consisted of the items from Frost et al.s (1990) personal standards
scale and the items from Hewitt and Fletts (1991) self-oriented
perfectionism scale. Prior to forming the MP and AP scales, raw
scores on the Frost et al. (1990) and the Hewitt and Flett (1991)
items were converted to standard scores and then summed.
Dunkley et al (2000) report coefcient alphas of .87 for concern
about mistakes, .71 for doubts about actions, .84 for socially prescribed perfectionism, .77 for personnel standards, and .88 for
self-oriented perfectionism. Alphas in the present sample were
.89 for concern about mistakes, .74 for doubts about actions, .81
for socially prescribed perfectionism, .79 for personnel standards,
and .87 for self-oriented perfectionism. Dunkley et al. (2000) provide factor analytic results that support the existence of two
underlying dimensions of MP and AP. Also, they found that MP
was associated with appraising negative events as more stressful
and with greater use of maladaptive coping strategies (e.g., avoidant coping), while AP was associated with greater use of adaptive
coping strategies (e.g., problem-solving coping).
2.2.4. Career decision-making self-efcacy
Betz, Klein, and Taylors (1996) 25-item career decision-making
self-efcacy scaleshort form (CDMSESF) was used to assess participants condence in successfully negotiating tasks considered
essential to effective decision-making. Respondents rate their condence in performing these tasks on a scale where 1 = no condence to 5 = complete condence. The CDMSESF evaluates an
individuals self-efcacy relative to ve career choice competencies
postulated in Crites (1978) model of career maturity (e.g., gathering information, goal selection, etc.).
Betz et al. (1996) report an alpha of .93 for the CDMSESF, and
Nilsson, Schmidt, and Meek (2002) found that the short form and
long form of the CDMSE were comparable in internal consistency
reliability. Coefcient alpha for the present sample was .91. For
validity, Betz et al. (1996) and Betz and Serling (1993) found that
the CDMSESF was inversely related with the Career indecision
scale (Osipow, Carney, & Barak, 1976) and with the identity subscale of my vocational situation scale (Holland, Daiger, & Power,
1980).
2.2.3. Commitment to career choice
Blustein, Ellis, and Devenis (1989) 19-item Vocational Exploration and Commitment (VECS) scale was used to assess progress in
career choice commitment. The VECS items encompass the progression from an uncommitted and exploratory posture, to a state
of provisional decidedness, and ultimately to a highly committed
posture. Participants respond on a scale where 1 = never true
about me to 7 = always true about me with a low score indicating a clear and condent level of commitment.
Table 1
Bivariate correlations among the study variables
Variables
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
.28
.04
.22
.32
.05
.12
.24
.21
.06
.28
Neuroticism
Extraversion
Openness
Agreeableness
Conscientiousness
MP
AP
CDMSESF
VECS
7
.39
.19
.02
.23
.16
.12
.09
.21
.01
.37
.49
9
.28
.32
.19
.19
.43
.32
.17
.33
.23
.04
.17
.50
.35
.02
.60
Mean
SD
22.59
27.30
31.17
34.43
33.17
90.67
120.93
96.19
64.20
6.32
6.11
4.79
6.15
6.09
22.01
21.30
14.36
20.41
MP, maladaptive perfectionism; AP, adaptive perfectionism; CDMSESF, career decision-making self-efcacy short form; VECS, vocational exploration and commitment scale.
r (212) = .14, p = < .05; r (212) = .18, p = < .01.
814
Table 2
Hierarchical regression analyses testing the unique contributions of FFM traits, MP,
and AP to career indecision
Predictor variables
R2
R2 change
model;
.274
.14
.18
.13
.03
.35
2.10
2.75
2.03
<1
5.43
.03
.03
.04
n.s.
.0001
.36
.24
4.38
2.91
.001
.01
.21
.08
.00
.03
.44
3.15
<1
<1
<1
7.02
.002
n.s.
n.s.
n.s.
.0001
.21
.02
2.47
<1
.01
n.s.
.063
.301
.037
MP,
maladaptive
perfectionism;
AP,
adaptive
815
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