engleski

Perfectionism in sport: Feeling like a winner or a loser?

In sports, perfectionism is commonly viewed as a precondition for achieving peak performance. Consequently, perfectionistic tendencies among athletes are often encouraged and prised by coaches and sport authorities. However, recent empirical findings revealed that perfectionism is a multidimensional construct associated with a variety of different outcomes reflecting both functional (adaptive perfectionism) and dysfunctional achievement strivings (maladaptive perfectionism). According to dual process model of perfectionism, behaviours that are overtly similar may be associated with different underlying cognitive processes and emotional states, depending on whether athletes' motivation is primarily driven by the need to reach success or by the need to avoid failure. In order to further investigate differences between two perfectionism types, the aim of the current study was to examine the relationship between sports-related adaptive and maladaptive perfectionism and self-perceived levels of anxiety and self-confidence during an important sport competition. The study was conducted on a sample of 161 athletes (31% female) from different sports who ranged in age from 20 to 25 years (M = 20.69 yrs ; SD = 0.26). The participants completed Multidimensional Inventory of Perfectionism in Sport and Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2. As hypothesized, adaptive perfectionism was positively related only to self-confidence (r = .31 ; p<.001) , while maladaptive perfectionism was positively associated with both cognitive (r = .59 ; p<.001) and somatic anxiety (r = .47 ; p<.001), and negatively associated with athletes' self-confidence(r = -.19 ; p<.05) during a highly stressful event. Linear regression analysis revealed that adaptive and maladaptive perfectionism accounted for 40% and 23% of the variance in cognitive and somatic anxiety. In addition, perfectionism scores explained 16% of the variance in self-confidence, indicating that highest levels of self-confidence might be expected among those athletes who have high level of adaptive and low level of maladaptive perfectionism. The presented findings suggest that, depending on the perfectionism type, perfectionistic tendencies might have beneficial or detrimental effect on athletes.

perfectionism; anxiety; self-confidence; athletes; sport

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