Dimensions of perfectionism as vulnerability factors for depression in the narcissistic and obsessive-compulsive personalities : a test of a specific diathesis-stress model

Theoretical and clinical descriptions of narcissistic and obsessive-compulsive personality disorders portray individuals with these disorders as pathologically perfectionistic. Personality dysfunction has been identified as a vulnerability factor for depression. The specificity hypothesis posits that the interaction of pathological personality characteristics and stress consistent with those personality characteristics has a depressogenic effect. It was hypothesized that individuals with obsessive-compulsive and narcissistic personality styles would respond with dysphoric mood in a different manner from one another, from individuals with other personality disorder styles, and from individuals with non-dysfunctional personality styles to stress congruent with self-oriented perfectionism, other-oriented perfectionism, and socially prescribed perfectionism. It was also hypothesized that stress congruent with self-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism would produce higher levels of dysphoria than stress congruent with other-oriented perfectionism, regardless of participant personality styles