A Longitudinal Examination of the Relationship Between Perfectionism and Motivational Climate in Dance

Abstract

The present study examined the relationship between dance-related perfectionism and perceptions of motivational climate in dance over time. In doing so, three possibilities were tested: (a) perfectionism affects perceptions of the motivational climate, (b) perceptions of the motivational climate affect perfectionism, and (c) the relationship is reciprocal. Two hundred seventy-one young dancers (M = 14.21 years old, SD = 1.96) from UK Centres for Advanced Training completed questionnaires twice, approximately 6 months apart. Cross-lagged analysis indicated that perfectionistic concerns led to increased perceptions of an ego-involving climate and decreased perceptions of a task-involving climate over time. In addition, perceptions of a task-involving climate led to increased perfectionistic strivings over time. The findings suggest that perfectionistic concerns may color perceptions of training/performing environments so that mistakes are deemed unacceptable and only superior performance is valued. They also suggest that perceptions of a task-involving climate in training/performing environments may encourage striving for excellence and perfection without promoting excessive concerns regarding their attainment.

Within- and between-person predictors of disordered eating attitudes among male and female dancers: Findings from the UK Centres for Advanced Training

“…In the present study, there were far greater between-than within-person differences, supporting general psychology literature that perfectionism is a largely stable personality construct (e.g., Rice & Aldea, 2006). However, recent research indicates that perceptions of the motivational climate as task-involving may heighten dancers' perfectionistic strivings over a six-month time period (Nordin-Bates, Hill, Cumming, Aujla, & Redding, 2014). Future research might consider whether particularly stressful times, such as performance seasons or assessment periods, are associated with increased perfectionism for dance and sport performers, and the potential impact on outcomes such as DEA.…”

The Role of Perfectionism and Controlling Conditions in Norwegian Elite Junior Performers’ Motivational Processes

“…When reporting high levels of PC, elite junior performers might be biased in the way they perceive their teaching/coaching styles (Appleton et al, 2011; Boone et al, 2014; Nordin-Bates et al, 2014). Activated by aspects of controlling conditions, they are likely to enter a kind of hypervigilant state, driven by emotional stress from their conditional self-worth, which in turn, seems to associate with fear of failure and avoidance motivation (Shafran et al, 2002).…”

“…The displaying of higher levels of PC might also function as a substitute for being externally controlled, as a way of taking the control back, directing it into self-control, obsessiveness, and relentless pursuit for success (Shafran et al, 2002; Boone et al, 2014). Thus, such behavior might trigger and increase the PC tendencies within performers, whereas, when faced with low controlling conditions these tendencies might be immobilized (Shafran et al, 2002; Nordin-Bates et al, 2014).…”

“…Hence, controlled motivation is likely to be negative for elite performance (Soenens et al, 2012). PC performers are likely to experience the teaching/coaching style with a biased mindset (Shafran et al, 2002; Nordin-Bates et al, 2014), monitoring for critical feedback, lack of attention, and other signs of imperfection or disapproval. Hence, performers reporting higher levels of PC might be more susceptible to the development of controlled motivation and associated outcomes (e.g., performance anxiety) in highly controlling teaching/coaching conditions (Haerens et al, 2015; Appleton and Curran, 2016).…”

The Impact of the Coaches’ Behavior on the Perfectionism of Athletes

“…There is a large number of research investigating sports perfectionism (Dunn, Dunn, & Syrotuik, 2002;Hamidi & Besharat, 2010;Nordin-Bates, Hill, Cumming, Aujla, & Redding, 2014;Sagar & Stoeber, 2009) and perceptions of the trainer behavior (Bortoli, 2015;Gesualdo, 2011;Jurko et al, 2013;Kenow & Williams, 2016). The results of the research conducted by Djurovic, Sokic, and Aleksic-Veljkovic (2017) have shown that, during training and sports performance, the appearance of the non-adaptive protectionist tendencies, manifested in the form of the negative cognitive and emotional reactions, represent the athlete's reaction to imperfections in the performance, and can significantly affect the occurrence of the pathological behaviors (they may cause pathological eating habits).…”