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Perfectionism in Academic Settings

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Perfectionism, Health, and Well-Being

Abstract

In this chapter, we build a model supporting a multivalenced view of perfectionism in academic settings. Our model is derived from several other conceptual and empirical approaches for understanding the effects that personality factors have on academic outcomes. We argue that adaptive and maladaptive strands of perfectionism are two sides of the same (high) standards coin. The sides differ in the effects that self-critical aspects of perfectionism can have on outcomes relevant to students in academic settings. We explain how this inherently performance-based construct affects academic outcomes in positive and negative ways, but we only briefly acknowledge other ways that perfectionism becomes intertwined with personal and interpersonal issues in academic settings, such as in the context of relationships and social support, athletics, health, and psychological well-being. Selected findings in this literature are organized according to a dominant two-factor model of perfectionism and to the ways perfectionism has been analyzed. Our focus is primarily on students in primary, secondary, and postsecondary academic settings, but we later note the multilevel structure of those settings and the limited attention in the literature paid to other key players in those contexts (e.g., teachers, professors, and others). Other limitations also will be addressed, including (a) the overreliance on self-report, (b) the dimensional structure of perfectionism that is typically embraced in measurement and analysis but rarely tested, (c) too few longitudinal studies (and related measurement challenges) and too many cross-sectional ones, and (d) relatively few studies that examine important demographic (e.g., sex, race/ethnicity, national origin) and cultural (e.g., acculturation, collectivism, individualism) concomitants of perfectionism. Proposed remedies include collaborative multisite studies with stakeholders as integral research-to-practice team members and the implementation of creative research design and statistical techniques.

The authors are grateful to Jana Mohammad Al-Nahhas, Angela Montfort, and Marieke van Nuenen for their assistance with this chapter.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Counseling and Psychological Services, Georgia State University, P.O. Box 3980, 30302-3980, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Kenneth G. Rice & Merideth E. Ray

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Florida, Gainesville, USA

    Clarissa M. E. Richardson

Authors
  1. Kenneth G. Rice
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  2. Clarissa M. E. Richardson
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  3. Merideth E. Ray
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Correspondence to Kenneth G. Rice .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom

    Fuschia M. Sirois

  2. University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Research Institute on Addictions, Buffalo, New York, USA

    Danielle S. Molnar

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Rice, K., Richardson, C., Ray, M. (2016). Perfectionism in Academic Settings. In: Sirois, F., Molnar, D. (eds) Perfectionism, Health, and Well-Being. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-18582-8_11

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