Building and Codifying the Perfectionism Scale for Students at Palestinian Higher Education

Abstract

Perfectionism tends to set very high levels and standards for self and others, taking different forms. On the one hand, there is self-directed perfectionism, where the individuals set themselves high standards of performance and try to achieve them. This type constitutes a driving force to achieve ambitious goals, and this is normal perfectionism. When there is a risk factor for frustration, neurotic perfectionism is formed. The current study aims to codify a questionnaire of the most important factorial dimensions to measure perfectionism among students of Palestinian higher education institutions and identify the most contributing factors in the interpretation of perfectionism. The descriptive and analytical methods were used to achieve the research objectives. The closed questionnaire was applied as a study tool on a sample of 197 male and female students from Palestinian higher education institutions. The findings of the factor analysis resulted in eight factorial dimensions that constitute the current measure of perfectionism among Palestinian students: motivation, achievement, parental expectations, performance regulation, social perfectionism, anxiety, fear of failure, perfectionism towards self, self-evaluation and parental criticism. In the light of the findings of the study, the most important recommendations can be made, represented in adopting the current measure of perfectionism with its eight factorial components, and 47 items of the scale, to measure perfectionism among students of the Palestinian higher education institutions and at the international levels.