Personality Characteristics of Perfectionism and Controlling in Gifted and non-gifted High School Students

The aims of this study was to investigate and compare personality characteristics including self-oriented, other-oriented, and socially-prescribed perfectionism and controlling styles including other-directed, inner-directed, lack of constraints on behavior and predictability of behavior in two groups of students from gifted and normal schools.

The study group consisted of the students of first, second and third grades of high school in 3 main study majors including Mathematics, Natural Sciences, and Human Sciences, who were studying in academic year of 2007-2008 in Tehran. The study sample consisted of 193 students in gifted schools (110 female, 83 male) and 253 normal students (112 female, 141 male). All participants were asked to complete the Tehran Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (TMPS; Besharat, 2007) and the Personal Behavior Inventory (PBI; Collins, Martin, Ashmore, & Ross, 1973).

The results revealed no significant difference between normal and gifted students in self-oriented and other-directed perfectionism while a significant difference was found between the two groups in terms of socially-prescribed perfectionism. With regard to the controlling styles, the two groups were significantly different in terms of other-directed locus of control as well as predictability of behavior. No significant difference was found between the two groups in terms of inner-directed locus of control and lack of constraints on behavior.

It was concluded that gifted and on-gifted students were different in terms of sociallyprescribed perfectionism and controlling styles of other-directed locus of control and predictability of behavior.