# Perfectionism: Pros and cons



## David Baxter PhD (Jul 21, 2008)

Athletes benefit from being perfectionist
_BPS Resarch Digest_ 
Mon, Jul 21 2008

Sports psychologists can't agree on whether or not perfectionism is a good or bad thing. The advantages are obvious and evoke images of the athlete practising a given shot, kick or putt over and over, until rare mastery is achieved. But the proposed downside is that perfectionism breeds anxiety and self-criticism, ultimately undermining performance.

Oliver Stoll and colleagues believe part of the reason for the disagreement is that there are actually two aspects to perfectionism: one is striving for perfection, the other is having negative reactions to a less than perfect performance. Their prediction was that the striving aspect would be beneficial to sports training, while the negative reactions aspect would be harmful.

Stoll's team measured these two aspects of perfectionism among 122 sports science students before observing their performance on a novel basketball training exercise that required the students to practice scoring a basket from behind the basketball board.

Striving for perfection was measured by students' agreement with statements like "I feel the need to be perfect", while negative reactions to imperfection were measured via students' agreement with statements like "After training, I feel depressed if I have not been perfect."

To the researchers' surprise, the students who showed the most improvement over the course of the training (four series of seven attempts) were those who reported high levels of both striving for perfection and negative reactions to imperfection. They speculated that perhaps the students who strove for perfection, but who were then unconcerned by whether they achieved that perfection or not, had less motivation to do well in training than the students who reported having both forms of perfectionism.

More research is clearly needed with other sports, and in actual competition rather than a training environment, the researchers said. However, they concluded: "perfectionistic strivings may form part of a healthy pursuit of excellence and may be adaptive in situations where such strivings may give athletes an additional motivational 'boost' to do their best, and thus achieve better results and make greater progress."

*Source:* STOLL, O., LAU, A., STOEBER, J. (2008). Perfectionism and performance in a new basketball training task: Does striving for perfection enhance or undermine performance? _Psychology of Sport and Exercise_, 9(5), 620-629.


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## Lana (Jul 21, 2008)

Well that explains why I'm not an athlete 

But seriously, if there are no consequences for falling short of a goal, the goal will either shift down a bit, or be discarded, or acceptance of less than ideal will be born.  Balance is ideal which means setting realistic goals and achieving them before doing anything else.


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## David Baxter PhD (Jul 21, 2008)

Or even setting unrealistic goals as a challenge but recognizing that it's unlikely you'll achieve them.


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## Halo (Jul 21, 2008)

Why would someone set an unrealistic goal for themselves knowing full well that they are unlikely to achieve it?  Doesn't that just set the person up for disappointment or are they already prepared for not achieving it?


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## ladylore (Jul 21, 2008)

Halo said:


> Why would someone set an unrealistic goal for themselves knowing full well that they are unlikely to achieve it?  Doesn't that just set the person up for disappointment or are they already prepared for not achieving it?



If the person is not living for themselves and are consciously or unconsciously looking to outside souces for approval, some people would set goals for themselves that they may think will get the approval of someone that is important to them. Or if someone is thinking that they should be doing such and such and aiming for specific goals then they could set the bar to high for themselves.

Personal experience.


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## David Baxter PhD (Jul 21, 2008)

:yeahthat: Pretty much. And there are those who feel they need a significant challenge to "motivate" themselves. I don't think that's necessarily a terrible thing as long as you don't beat yourself up as a failure or a loser for failing to meet a goal that wasn't really realistic to begin with.

Or, to use another example, we are all, in various ways aiming at our ideal self-concepts and none of us will actually achieve that ideal self-concept because we are, in the end, human beings. But it's the striving that's important, not the achieving.


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## Halo (Jul 21, 2008)

Ahh...gotcha.  I understand now 

Thanks


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## MDH (Jul 29, 2008)

I'm always setting new goalposts for myself, but I remember to be proud and go easy.


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