Perfectionism in adolescent school students: Relations to motivation, achievement, and well-being

Psychology of Sport and Exercise

2008

Objectives: In the psychology of sport and exercise, the question of how perfectionism affects performance is highly debated. While some researchers have identified perfectionism as a hallmark quality of elite athletes, others see perfectionism as a maladaptive characteristic that undermines, rather than helps athletic performance. Against this background, the purpose of the present study was to investigate how different aspects of perfectionism predict performance and performance increments.Method: A study was conducted with 122 undergraduate athletes to investigate how perfectionism during training affects performance and performance increments in a series of trials with a new basketball training task. Two aspects of perfectionism were examined: striving for perfection and negative reactions to imperfection. Design:The design was a correlational prospective design.Results: Results showed that striving for perfection during training predicted higher performance in the new task. In contrast, negative reactions to imperfection predicted lower performance when athletes attempted the task for the first time, once the positive influence of striving for perfection on task performance was partialled out. However, negative reactions to imperfection did not undermine performance in the consecutive trials. On the contrary, athletes with both high levels of striving for perfection and high levels of negative reactions to imperfection showed the greatest performance increments over the series of trials. Conclusion:The findings suggest that perfectionism is not necessarily a maladaptive characteristic that generally undermines sport performance. Instead, when learning a new training task, perfectionism may enhance performance and lead to performance increments over repeated trials.

Section: Perfectionism and Performancesupporting

confidence: 60%

Perfectionism and performance in a new basketball training task: Does striving for perfection enhance or undermine performance?

Stoll

Lau

Psychology of Sport and Exercise

2008

“…Regarding the studies on perfectionism and academic performance, the overwhelming majority shows that perfectionistic strivings are positively associated with academic performance: students with higher levels of perfectionistic strivings show higher exam performance, higher individual grades, and a higher GPA than students with lower levels of perfectionistic strivings (Accordino, Accordino, & Slaney, 2000;Bieling, Israeli, Smith, & Antony, 2003;Blankstein, Dunkley, & Wilson, 2008;Blankstein & Winkworth, 2004;Brown et al, 1999;Castro & Rice, 2003;Enns, Cox, Sareen, & Freeman, 2001;Grzegorek, Slaney, Franze, & Rice, 2004;Kawamura, Frost, & Harmatz, 2002;Leenaars & Lester, 2006;Nounopoulos, Ashby, & Gilman, 2006;Rice & Ashby, 2007;Sevlever & Rice, 2010;Stoeber & Eismann, 2007;Stoeber & Rambow, 2007;Vandiver & Worrell, 2002;Verner-Filion & Gaudreau, 2010;Witcher, Alexander, Onwuegbuzie, Collins, & Witcher, 2007). In contrast, the relationship of perfectionistic concerns with academic performance is less clear.…”

Section: Academic Performance [H2]mentioning

confidence: 99%

Perfectionism and Performance

The Oxford Handbook of Sport and Performance Psychology

2012

Perfectionism is a personality disposition related to individual differences in performance in sport, school, and other areas of life where performance, tests, and competition play a major role. This chapter discusses the importance of differentiating two main dimensions of perfectionismperfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns-when examining the relationships between perfectionism and performance in sport, academics, music competitions, aptitude tests, and laboratory tasks. The chapter presents studies showing that perfectionistic strivings are positively associated with performance and predict higher performance beyond people's general aptitude and previous performance level. In contrast, the studies do not show that perfectionistic concerns are consistently negatively associated with performance. To conclude the chapter, implications for applied psychology are discussed as are open questions for future research regarding issues such as the development of perfectionism, performance and efficiency, and gender differences.

“…Perfectionistic strivings have shown positive relations with hope of success, performance-approach and mastery goal orientations, and intrinsic motivation whereas perfectionistic concerns have shown positive relations with fear of failure, performance-approach and performance-avoidance goal orientations, and extrinsic motivation (e.g., Damian, Stoeber, Negru, & B ban, 2014;Stoeber & Eismann, 2007;Stoeber & Rambow, 2007). In addition, research with school students has shown that perfectionism is related to numerous characteristics PERFECTIONISM AND SCHOOL ENGAGEMENT 4 and processes that are closely linked to school engagement (e.g., effort invested in schoolwork, adaptive study strategies) and predictive of educational success (e.g., academic efficacy, academic achievement; Rice & Slaney, 2002; see also Stoeber, Edbrooke-Childs, & Damian, in press).…”

Section: Perfectionism and School Engagementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perfectionism and school engagement: A three-wave longitudinal study

Damian

Personality and Individual Differences

Negru‐Subtirica

et al. 2017

Document VersionAuthor's Accepted Manuscript Damian, L. E., Stoeber, J., Negru-Subtirica, O., & B ban, A. (2017 Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Lavinia E. Damian, Department of Psychology, Babeş-Bolyai University, Republicii 37, 400015, Cluj-Napoca, Romania; e-mail: lavinia.damian@sese.ro PERFECTIONISM AND SCHOOL ENGAGEMENT 2 Abstract Although perfectionism is a personality disposition that plays an important role in educational contexts, research on perfectionism and school engagement is limited. School engagement is a key process in predicting educational outcomes in students. Consequently, it is important to know how perfectionism relates to school engagement and whether perfectionism predicts relative changes in school engagement over time. Using a sample of 486 students from 6th-12th grade (54% female) and employing a longitudinal design with three waves spaced 4-5 months apart, the present study investigated whether perfectionism (perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns) predicted relative changes in students' school engagement (behavioral, emotional, and cognitive engagement). Results showed that both perfectionistic strivings and concerns were related to school engagement, but only perfectionistic strivings predicted relative increases in school engagement. Implications for the understanding of how perfectionistic strivings contribute to school students' engagement are discussed.