Perfectionism in Students: Implications in the Instruction of Statistics

Figures & data

Table 1. Items and their primary subscale attribution on Frost et al. (1990) Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (MPS), Stöber (1998) four-factor MPS (MPS-4), Purdon et al. (1999) three-factor MPS (MPS-3), and Cox et al. (2002) brief MPS (MPS-B)

Item	Question	MPS Subscale	MPS-4 Subscale	MPS-3 Subscale	MPS-B Subscale
Q1	My parents set very high standards for me.	PE	PEC	PPP
Q2	Organization is very important to me.	O	O	GAO
Q3	As a child, I was punished for doing things less than perfect.	PC	PEC	PPP	PPB
Q4	If I do not set the highest standards for myself, I am likely to end up a second rate person.	PS	PS	FM
Q5	My parents never tried to understand my mistakes.	PC	PEC	PPP
Q6	It is important to me that I am thoroughly competent in everything I do.	PS	PS	GAO	PSB
Q7	I am a neat person.	O	O	GAO	OB
Q8	I try to be an organized person.	O	O	GAO
Q9	If I fail at work/school, I am a failure as a person.	CM	CMD	FM	CMB
Q10	I should be upset if I make a mistake.	CM	CMD	FM
Q11	My parents wanted me to do the best at everything.	PE	PEC	PPP
Q12	I set higher goals than most people.	PS	PS	GAO	PSB
Q13	If someone does a task at work/school better than I, then I feel like I failed the whole task.	CM	CMD	FM	CMB
Q14	If I fail partly, it is as bad as being a complete failure.	CM	CMD	FM	CMB
Q15	Only outstanding performance is good enough in my family.	PE	PEC	PPP
Q16	I am very good at focusing my efforts on attaining a goal.	PS	PS	GAO
Q17	Even when I do something very carefully, I often feel that it is not quite right.	D	CMD	FM	DB
Q18	I hate being less than the best at things.	CM	CMD	FM
Q19	I have extremely high goals.	PS	PS	GAO	PSB
Q20	My parents have expected excellence from me.	PE	PEC	PPP	PPB
Q21	People will probably think less of me if I make a mistake.	CM	CMD	FM
Q22	I never felt like I could meet my parent's expectations.	PC	PEC	PPP	PPB
Q23	If I do not do as well as other people, it means I am an inferior human being.	CM	CMD	FM	CMB
Q24	Other people seem to accept lower standards from themselves than I do.	PS	PS	FM	PSB
Q25	If I do not do well all the time, people will not respect me.	CM	CMD	FM
Q26	My parents have always had higher expectations for my future than I have.	PE	PEC	PPP	PPB
Q27	I try to be a neat (tidy) person.	O	O	GAO	OB
Q28	I usually have doubts about the simple everyday things I do.	D	CMD	FM	DB
Q29	Neatness is very important to me.	O	O	GAO	OB
Q30	I expect higher performance in my daily tasks than most people.	PS	PS	GAO	PSB
Q31	I am an organized person.	O	O	GAO	OB
Q32	I tend to get behind in my work because I repeat things over and over.	D	CMD	FM	DB
Q33	It takes me a long time to do something “right.”	D	CM	DFM
Q34	The fewer mistakes I make, the more people will like me.	CM	CMD	FM	CMB
Q35	I never felt like I could meet my parent's standards.	PC	PEC	PPP	PPB

Note. CM = Concern over Mistakes; D = Doubts about Actions; PE = Parental Expectations; PC = Parental Criticism; PS = Personal Standards; O = Organization; CMD = Concern over Mistakes and Doubts; PEC = Parental Expectations and Criticism; FM = Fear of Mistakes; GAO = Goal/Achievement Orientation; PPP = Perceived Parental Pressure; PP_B = Parental Perceptions. “_B” Subscript indicates brief version of subscale.

Table 2. Descriptive Statistics for the 35-Item MPS

Item	n	Mean	SD	Skewness	Kurtosis	Item	n	Mean	SD	Skewness	Kurtosis
Q1	208	3.98	0.96	−0.89	0.55	Q19	207	3.75	0.96	−0.55	−0.45
Q2	208	4.19	0.82	−1.01	1.09	Q20	207	3.45	1.01	−0.43	−0.50
Q3	206	2.32	1.11	0.54	−0.76	Q21	206	2.44	0.89	0.57	−0.19
Q4	205	3.40	1.13	−0.35	−0.79	Q22	206	2.21	1.10	0.96	0.33
Q5	208	2.24	1.01	0.74	−0.10	Q23	208	1.82	0.89	1.14	0.97
Q6	207	4.07	0.87	−0.90	0.37	Q24	208	3.36	0.96	−0.18	−0.54
Q7	208	3.85	1.07	−0.73	−0.22	Q25	207	2.31	0.92	0.99	0.54
Q8	206	4.28	0.74	−1.08	1.52	Q26	206	2.67	1.09	0.56	−0.45
Q9	207	2.33	1.11	0.66	−0.41	Q27	208	4.10	0.88	−1.20	1.73
Q10	208	3.10	1.07	−0.19	−0.92	Q28	208	2.64	1.05	0.54	−0.59
Q11	207	3.15	1.18	−0.02	−1.04	Q29	208	3.93	0.93	−0.85	0.52
Q12	204	3.62	0.95	−0.19	−0.86	Q30	208	3.53	0.86	−0.34	−0.34
Q13	206	2.22	0.84	0.79	0.73	Q31	207	3.94	0.94	−0.97	0.65
Q14	208	2.25	0.98	0.99	0.72	Q32	208	2.44	0.98	0.98	0.53
Q15	207	2.35	1.04	0.78	0.16	Q33	208	2.48	0.99	0.66	−0.08
Q16	207	3.93	0.91	−0.99	0.91	Q34	207	2.31	0.99	0.62	−0.03
Q17	208	3.17	1.03	−0.25	−0.78	Q35	206	2.10	1.07	1.22	1.04
Q18	206	3.25	1.07	−0.11	−1.03

Table 3. Fit Indices for Perfectionism Models

Model	n	χ^2	df	χ^2/df	TLI	CFI	SRMR	RMSEA	90% CI RMSEA
MPS	184	1068.24	545	1.96	0.89	0.90	0.096	0.072	0.066, 0.079
MPS-3	184	2041.45	552	3.70	0.81	0.82	0.130	0.120	0.120, 0.130
MPS-4	184	1161.71	545	2.13	0.89	0.90	0.083	0.079	0.072, 0.085
MPS-B	203	323.73	199	1.63	0.93	0.94	0.077	0.055	0.044, 0.066

Table 4. Correlations between Subscales of the MPS-B and their Significance (n=203)

	Subscale
Subscale	CMB	DB	PPB	PSB
DB	0.53 (<0.001)
PPB	0.44 (<0.001)	0.44 (<0.001)
PSB	0.27 (0.001)	0.11 (0.263)	0.10 (0.226)
OB	−0.09 (0.263)	0.01 (0.881)	−0.05 (0.549)	0.25 (0.001)

Note: P-values are in parentheses CM_B = brief Concern over Mistakes; D_B = brief Doubts about Actions; PP_B = brief Parental Perceptions; PS_B = brief Personal Standards; O_B = brief Organization.

Table 5. Performance Score Descriptive Statistics by Instructor and Section

Instructor	Section	Semester	n	Mean	Standard Deviation
1	1	Summer	45	0.857	0.073
	2	Summer	25	0.854	0.081
	3	Fall	39	0.834	0.085
	4	Fall	32	0.836	0.097
2	1	Fall	22	0.768	0.157
	2	Fall	21	0.832	0.086
	3	Fall	19	0.737	0.130

Table 6. Fit Indices for Structural Equation Models (n=203)

Model	χ^2	df	χ^2/df	TLI	CFI	SRMR	RMSEA	90% CI RMSEA
Measurement Model	353.34	216	1.64	0.93	0.94	0.076	0.055	0.045, 0.066
SEM of MPS-B to Grade	354.52	216	1.64	0.92	0.94	0.077	0.056	0.046, 0.067
SEM of PS and O to Grade	61.87	33	1.87	0.96	0.97	0.057	0.066	0.040, 0.091

Figure 1. Overall MPS-B model of the factor structures of perfectionism and academic performance, and their relationship.

Figure 2. Final model of the factor structures of perfectionism and academic performance, and their relationship.

Frost, R. O., Marten, P., Lahart, C., and Rosenblate, R. (1990), “The Dimensions of Perfectionism,” Cognitive Therapy and Research, 14, 449–468.

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Stöber, J. (1998), “The Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale Revisited: More perfect with four (instead of six) dimensions,” Personality and Individual Differences, 24, 481–491.

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Purdon, C., Antony, M. M., and Swinson, R. P. (1999), “Psychometric Properties of the Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale in a Clinical Anxiety Disorders Sample,” Journal of Clinical Psychology, 55, 1271–1286.

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Cox, B. J., Enns, M. W., and Clara, I. P. (2002), “The Multidimensional Structure of Perfectionism in Clinically Distressed and College Student Samples,” Psychological Assessment, 14, 365–373.

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