The article is devoted to the study of psychological correlates of perfectionism of university teachers. Perfectionism is viewed upon as a complex multi-component phenomenon manifested in the subject’s aspiration to excellence in all aspects of their life that can act as a psychological resource promoting professional development and self-realization. The major characteristics of perfectionism, ensuring a favorable course of the process of self-improvement, including self-actualization, achievement motivation and self-attitude, have been worked out on the basis of researches of home and foreign authors. The empirical study, undertaken by the authors using a correlation analysis, examines the relationship between perfectionism and the given psychological characteristics on a sample of university teachers. The study shows that perfectionism and its components (self-oriented, socially-oriented and socially-prescribed perfectionism) are positively correlated with motivation for achievement and absence of motivation to avoid failure, and have a negative relation with self-actualization and self-attitude. As a result, it is concluded that perfectionism of university teachers is not conducive to complete realization in the sphere of their professional activity and does not act as a psychological resource for personal development and self-improvement.