Academic Scientific JournalsPerfection in sport - an opportunity or a threat to athletes?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26881/ae.2022.19.01Keywords:
positive perfectionism, negative perfectionism, sport, sport psychologyAbstract
Striving towards perfection is an inseparable element accompanying sports activities. Requirements set for sportspeople are often connected to the necessity for transcending one’s own boundaries, which leads to a particular mode of perceiving task-related situations. Starting in competitions or multiple repetitions of an exercise during the training sessions result in the athletes often starting to perceive themselves within the optic of fulfilling some standards as set by themselves or imposed by the peer group. Whenever these standards become rigid and make the perception of one’s worthiness contingent on upholding them, there increases the risk of perfectionism negatively affecting a sportsperson. Perfectionism is a term difficult to define, multi-dimensional, which leads the researchers of this construct to use varied theoretical approaches. This complicates any critical analysis of research results or drawing comparisons between them. With that in mind, the aim of this article is to review selected scientific publications concerning the perfectionism in sports. The analysis included both research signaling towards benefits of positive perfectionism and that regarding the consequences of employing cognitive-behavioral strategies tied to negative perfectionism. The analysis showed that research on perfectionism is increasingly conducted in regard to sports, especially on sportspeople in adolescence and early adulthood. Positive perfectionism appears to have a beneficial effect on the athletes’ functioning, but it does carry the risk of developing dysfunctional perfectionism. Developing perfectionism in athletes is related both to the influence of their environment and their experiences, garnered in the process of education in sports environment as well as the familial one. For that reason, while summing up the results, the modes of function of athletes are related to the cognitive-behavioral model of dysfunctional perfectionism, and possible means of counteracting it are proposed for when the symptoms of this dysfunction are observed.
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