A comparison of two measures of perfectionism

This study compares two recently developed measures of perfectionism. College students completed the Frost, Marten, Lahart and Rosenblate (1990; Cognitive Therapy and Research, 14, 449–468) Multidimensional Perfectionsim Scale and the Hewitt and Flett (1991; Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60, 456–470) scale of the same name. Their relationship to each other, as well as to measures of affect, were examined. There was considerable overlap in the two measures of perfectionism. Frost et al.'s Total Perfectionism score appears to reflect a global dimension of perfectionism which is correlated with Hewitt and Flett's Self-Oriented and Socially-Prescribed scales, and less closely related to the Other-Oriented scale. Frost et al.'s Personal Standards scale was most closely associated with Hewitt and Flett's Self-Oriented Perfectionism scale. Frost et al.'s Concern over Mistakes, Parental Expectations and Parental Criticism scales were independently correlated with Hewitt and Flett's Socially-Prescribed Perfectionism scale. The subscales from each measure showed differential relationships with measures of positive and negative affect. Those dimensions which have been found to be related to symptoms of psychopathology were most closely related to negative affect (e.g. Concern over Mistakes, Socially- Prescribed Perfectionism), while those which have been found to be related to more “healthy” characteristics were associated with positive affect (e.g. Personal Standards, Other-Oriented Perfectionism). A factor analysis using the 9 subscales resulted in a conceptually clean two-factor solution. The first of these reflected maladaptive evaluation concerns, and the second reflected positive achievement strivings. The implications of these findings for the understanding of the construct of perfectionism are discussed.