The Role of the Latent Perfectionist Class in Academics' Tendency Toward Workaholism, Useless Superiority, and Narcissism

https://doi.org/10.1080/00221309.2021.1922342

Commentary

While past research has linked perfectionism to both narcissism and workaholism, research on the specific role of the latent perfectionism class in these dynamics is not currently available.

No studies have investigated whether the "unhelpful superiority striving" aspect of inferiority indicates the possibility of overcoming self-perceived inferiority and the increased need for superiority over others.

This study identifies whether there is a potential class of perfectionism that exists among scholars. (N = 317)

Controlling for the influence of latent and social desirability, we were able to simultaneously account for significant differences in tendencies toward workaholism, narcissism, and needless superiority.

A latent class analysis of two aspects of perfectionism (discrepancy and high level) revealed four distinct classes of scholars.

Non-perfectionists (NONP; 20%)

Maladaptive perfectionists (MP; 17%)

Normal perfectionists (NP; 44%)

Adaptive perfectionists (AP; 19%)

Further analysis (MANCOVA) showed that MPs have the highest tendency toward workaholism and useless superior effort, while NONPs have the lowest tendency toward these.

Furthermore, APs reported significantly lower, useless superiority than NPs, despite scoring similarly on both narcissism and workaholism.