Abstract
The distinction between unhealthy and healthy perfectionism is a controversial issue (Hall, 2006). The purpose of this study was to shed light on this controversy through an exploration of unhealthy and healthy perfectionist athletes' experiences with, and responses to, competitive success and failure (see Flett & Hewitt, 2005). From an initial pool of 122 intercollegiate athletes (M age = 21.13 years, SD = 2.42), seven unhealthy perfectionists (5 females, 2 males) and four male healthy perfectionists were purposefully sampled based on their Sport-MPS-2 (Gotwals & Dunn, 2009) score profiles to participate in semi-structured interviews. Inductive content analysis produced themes regarding definitions of success/failure, perceived factors that contributed towards success/failure, and responses to success/failure. Themes were then analyzed to examine unhealthy and healthy perfectionists' responses. Both groups defined success by overcoming difficulties and team successes. Several unhealthy perfectionists also defined success as performing better than others and receiving social validation, and healthy perfectionists stressed the importance of success through hard work. Both groups defined failures as poor personal performances and losing important competitions. Unhealthy perfectionists, but not healthy perfectionists, tended to indicate the negative and lasting impact of failures. Results are discussed in relation to perfectionism theory.Acknowledgments: This study was supported by a grants awarded by Lakehead UniversityÔÇÖs Research Office and Regional Research Committee.