Dimensionality and Typology of Perfectionism: The Use of the Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale With Chinese Gifted Students in Hong Kong

Abstract

This study investigated the dimensionality and typology of perfectionism based on the Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale with a sample of 380 Chinese gifted students in Hong Kong. Confirmatory factor analyses supported a five-dimensional model that includes constructs of personal standards, parental expectations, parental criticism, concern over mistakes and doubts, and organization. Clustering procedures yielded three clusters of students interpreted as unhealthy perfectionists, healthy perfectionists, and nonperfectionists. Unhealthy perfectionists had pervasively high scores on all five dimensions, healthy perfectionists scored high on standards and organization and low on parental criticism and concern over mistakes and doubts, and nonperfectionists had pervasively low scores on all five dimensions. Implications of the findings for future research on perfectionism and the promotion of positive perfectionism are discussed. Putting the Research to Use: The study promotes a better appreciation of the distinction between positive and negative perfectionism and the reality of the different types of perfectionists. With this view, educators, teachers, and parents should be careful to avoid assuming that all perfectionistic tendencies are dysfunctional or all perfectionists are maladaptive or unhealthy. More important, education practitioners should encourage students to strive for excellence with mastery goals of learning. In addition, students should not only be helped to set high standards and meet challenging goals with good planning and organization, they should also learn to recognize their own limitations and to appreciate that mistakes and failures are normal, informative, and situation specific. To promote positive perfectionism among students, this study suggests that one effective means might lie in efforts to enhance emotional intelligence through, for example, promoting emotional literacy or emotion-focused interventions.