Perfectionism in Academic Settings

Abstract

Once Upon a Time…I was Perfect. Some people can't wait for high school to end. The constant comparison between students, the need to be the best, the idea that average is not even good enough to make it on a scale of excellence. It's no secret that [School Name] High School is one of the most challenging and rewarding educational facilities in [the state]. Students file out of a classroom after a test and complain of how bad they did, when really they might have gotten a B-. Outside in the real world, adults wish that trivial events like these were the least of their worries, but to a high schooler, what goes on between these brick walls [is] everything. When trying to get into college, students try to rack up the number of clubs and hours of community service to place on their college admissions applications. But the perfection doesn't lie in numbers, it is reflected in the effort put forth by every student in the school.These comments in a high school yearbook capture in a succinct and personal way the central elements of perfectionism as they have been described for decades by clinicians, researchers, and journalists. The student points to the relevance of striving to be "the best" and the downstream implications of effort and credentials established during high school. She alludes to the distortions that might befall perfectionists, the pernicious ways in which they might interpret their performance and how the intensity and distress engendered by those interpretations may notThe authors are grateful to Jana Mohammad Al-Nahhas, Angela Montfort, and Marieke van Nuenen for their assistance with this chapter.

Real and imagined perils: A reply to Stoeber and Gaudreau (2017)

“…My paper on the perils of partialling in context of multidimensional perfectionism was intended to stimulate discussion and critical reflection among researchers interested in perfectionism. I note that in addition to Stoeber and Gaudreau's thoughtful response, there is evidence that as a consequence of my paper researchers have become more mindful of the perils of partialling and careful in the conclusions they are making regarding PS (e.g., Rice, Richardson, & Ray, 2016;Smith et al, 2016;Flett & Hewitt, 2014). This includes work by Stoeber and colleagues (Madigan, Stoeber, & Passfield, 2015Stoeber, Kobori, & Brown, 2014).…”

How does perfectionism affect academic achievement? Examining the mediating role of accurate self‐assessment

“…This model has direct paths from standards and discrepancy to academic achievement and indirect paths from standards and discrepancies to academic achievement through self-assessment ( Figure 1). In addition, gender and ethnicity, known influencers of academic achievement, have been controlled (Rice et al, 2016). Controlling for ethnicity, we created three dummy-coded variables and regressed those variables on academic achievement.…”

“…Practitioners may facilitate effective intervention strategies to discourage students from inaccurate self-assessment. Other strategies may include providing students with accurate feedback or appropriate help, especially those who have trouble accurately evaluating their actual capabilities because of their perfectionistic concerns (Rice et al, 2016).…”

Perfectionism in High School Students, Academic Emotions, Real and Perceived Academic Achievement

“…The positive or negative nature of this construct has been discussed in rapport with the high standards' feature, like being realistic and able to motivate or, on the contrary, being unrealistic and undermining the motivation (Rice et al, 2016). High standards are not incompatible with adaptation unless they are accompanied by exaggerated selfcriticism.…”

“…The pupil's perfectionist propensity is augmented nowadays by some certain parameters of the educational system: the risen of the school's quality, the emphasizing of the social comparison, the salience of self-other evaluations and the preoccupation for self development and assertion (Rice, Richardson, & Ray, 2016). Pupils are often involved in competitive evaluations which http://dx.doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2017.05.02.144 Corresponding Author: Versavia Curelaru Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the Organizing Committee of the conference eISSN: 1171 bring out important effects on personal and social standards, on emotions and performances.…”