The Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale revisited: More perfect with four (instead of six) dimensions

doi:10.1016/S0191-8869(97)00207-9

Personality and Individual Differences

Volume 24, Issue 4, April 1998, Pages 481-491

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0191-8869(97)00207-9 Get rights and content

Abstract

The Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (FMPS; Frost, Marten, Lahart & Rosenblate, 1990) provides six subscales for a multidimensional assessment of perfectionism: Concern over Mistakes (CM), Personal Standards (PS), Parental Expectations (PE), Parental Criticism (PC), Doubts about actions (D), and Organization (O). Despite its increasing popularity in personality and clinical research, the FMPS has also drawn some criticism for its factorial instability across samples. The present article argues that this instability may be due to an overextraction of components. Whereas all previous analyses presented six-factor solutions for the FMPS items, a reanalysis with Horn's parallel analysis suggested only four or five underlying factors. To investigate the nature of these factors, item responses from N = 243 participants were subjected to principal component analysis. Again, parallel analysis retained only four components. Varimax rotation replicated PS and O as separate factors, whereas combining CM with D as well as PE with PC. Consequently, the present article suggests a reduction to four (instead of six) FMPS subscales. Differential correlations with anxiety, depression, parental representations and action tendencies underscore the advantage of this solution.

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^∗: Present address: Ernst-Moritz Arndt University Greifswald, Department of Psychology, Franz-Mehring-Str. 47, 17487 Greifswald, Germany.

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The Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale revisited: More perfect with four (instead of six) dimensions

Abstract

Personality and Individual Differences

Behaviour Research and Therapy

Journal of Business Research

Personality and Individual Differences

Behaviour Research and Therapy

Behaviour Research and Therapy

Personality and Individual Differences

Personality and Individual Differences

Perfectionism and suicidal preoccupation

Journal of Personality

Perfectionism in anorexia nervosa

International Journal of Eating Disorders

An inventory for measuring depression

Archives of General Psychiatry

The perfectionist's script for self-defeat

Psychology Today

Reliability and validity assessment

Comparing different methods for implementing parallel analysis: A practical index of accuracy

Educational and Psychological Measurement

Dimensions of perfectionism and goal commitment: A further comparison of two perfectionism measures

Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment

Goal orientation and planfulness: Action styles as personality concepts

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

Perfectionism and reactions to athletic competition

Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology

The development of perfectionism: A study of daughters and their parents

Cognitive Therapy and Research

Perfectionism and evaluative threat

Cognitive Therapy and Research

The dimensions of perfectionism

Cognitive Therapy and Research

Reactions to mistakes among subjects high and low in perfectionistic concern over mistakes

Cognitive Therapy and Research