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The Science of Perfectionism: Why High Standards Are Not the Problem

4 the researchers behind it — 'I just have high standards' is the most common reframe of perfectionism — and the one that research most clearly challenges. Since 1991, when Hewitt

University of British Columbia

Paul L. Hewitt

Known for:Co-developer of the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (MPS) with Gordon Flett, introducing the socially prescribed dimension and establishing perfectionism's role in psychopathology

Key findings

  1. 1991

    With Gordon Flett, Hewitt proposed a three-dimensional model of perfectionism — self-oriented, other-oriented, and socially prescribed — demonstrating that socially prescribed perfectionism (believing others demand perfection from you) shows the strongest links to depression and anxiety. ↗

  2. 2002

    Hewitt and Flett's edited volume synthesized two decades of perfectionism research, documenting how perfectionism functions as a transdiagnostic risk factor — amplifying distress across depression, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, and interpersonal dysfunction. ↗

York University

Gordon L. Flett

Known for:Co-developer of the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale and prolific researcher on perfectionism's role in depression, anxiety, and interpersonal dysfunction

Key findings

  1. 1991

    With Paul Hewitt, Flett validated the three-factor MPS across multiple samples, showing that self-oriented perfectionism correlated with achievement motivation while socially prescribed perfectionism was uniquely associated with depression, anxiety, and lower self-esteem. ↗

Smith College

Randy O. Frost

Known for:Developer of the Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (FMPS), identifying six facets of perfectionism including concern over mistakes, doubts about actions, and personal standards

Key findings

  1. 1990

    Frost, Marten, Lahart and Rosenblate developed the FMPS to decompose perfectionism into six distinguishable facets, finding that concern over mistakes — not high personal standards — was the facet most strongly linked to depression, anxiety, and negative affect. ↗

London School of Economics and Political Science

Thomas Curran

Known for:Large-scale meta-analysis documenting a generational rise in perfectionism, especially socially prescribed perfectionism, linking the trend to rising social comparison pressures

Key findings

  1. 2019

    With Andrew Hill, Curran synthesized 41 studies of 164 samples (41,641 American, Canadian, and British college students) and found that socially prescribed perfectionism rose ~33%, self-oriented ~10%, and other-oriented ~16% between 1989 and 2016 — with the steepest increases in the most recent decade. ↗

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