Perfectionism Among Athletes

Before exploring the health of an athlete its important to understand what mental health is. Mental health is characterised by emotional wellbeing and resilience to stress (ClearingHouseForSport Australian Government Ralph Richards 9th June 2016). Mentally healthy individuals are able to cope with daily stresses and fully participate in family, work and in this case sport activities. A mental disorder is a diagnosable illness that affects a persons thinking, emotional state and behaviour and disrupts his/her ability to carry out normal daily activities and maintain personal relationships. Exercise has many benefits, not only for physical health but also your mental health as well. In the brain, exercise stimulates chemicals that improve an

It is said that the reason for student-athletes experiencing higher stress levels are because of their extensive time-demands, pressures to achieve, physical burn-out and conflict with teammates, coaches and teachers. (J. W. 2015). In one hand I believe that this overall statement is true, but on the other hand I believe the amount of stress depends on the individual and there involvement with their academics and athletics (Sudano, L. E., Collins, G., & Miles, C. M. (2017). With social stress, the

many young athletes’ perceptions that their parents expect them to be extraordinary and would criticize them if they failed to deliver. The added pressure from coaches to be perfect can also deter young athletes’ focus on doing what is right or doing what will allow them to succeed and ultimately satisfy their parents and coaches desires (Madigan, Stoeber & Passfield, 2016).

Athletes that compete at elite levels train year round, often with few breaks, and don’t allow adequate time for recovery. Also, many sports’ practice regiments are repetitive and lead to boredom due to lack of variety. Because of this, a study on social interaction and sport burnout concluded that, “Burnout is the final stage of a continuum of overtraining and staleness and the result of a negative response or maladaptation to training” (Goodger, Gorely, Lavallee, Hardwood). Injuries, strain, and physical exhaustion from overtraining and overworking student athletes can lead them to quit. Furthermore, the emotional strain from constant competition and the dullness of repetition can lead to burnout. By forcing young athletes into training regimens that compromise their physical and emotional health, coaches and parents are feeding into burnout. However, there are strategies for preventing

In the article “Stress and burnout among counselor educators: differences between adaptive perfectionists, maladaptive perfectionists, and nonperfectionists” the authors Moate, Gnilka, West, and Bruns were interested in investigating how stress and burnout in counselors can affect their success at work. For this, they looked at the causes of these issues by examining the differences between adaptive perfectionists and maladaptive perfectionists. They focused their study on counselor educators and their effect on future

This study is unique in that it examined burnout in athletic training students by using stress reducing strategies and techniques to assist with stress the athletic training students were experiencing. The intent was to determine whether or not specific stress reducing strategies and tools that were provided to assisted athletic training students to reduce stress. The Athletic Training Student Burnout Inventory (ATSBI) was developed by combining a modified version Athletic Training Burnout Inventory (ATBI) and the Gallup Student Poll (GSP). The survey consisted of 55 questions, 35 from the modified version of the ATBI and 20 from the GSP.

Damian, Stoeber, Negru, and Baban (2014), describes perfectionism as endeavoring for flawlessness and setting extremely high standards for oneself. There is not just one type of perfectionism; there are in fact three different categories of perfectionism. The three categories included self-oriented, other-oriented, and socially prescribed perfectionism. Self-oriented perfectionism refers to an individual that sets and seeks high standards of performance for themselves (Chang, 2006). Chang (2006) describes other-oriented perfectionism as an individual that assumes that others should be perfect in their actions. Socially prescribed perfectionism refers to an individual that believes that those around them anticipate perfectionism from him or her (Chang, 2006). With what we know about perfectionism and the potential distress it may cause, one can consider that stress could be a component with perfectionism.

This quote greatly contradicts my story and the conflict within it. In my story, the main character, Leonard, has thoughts and intentions opposite of Josie. He never strives for perfectionism, because he feels he has no reason to. His mother doesn't care about him, he lives on his own, and his only friend is an old man who lives next door. The theme topic of perfectionism is non-existent due to his sarcastic outlook on the world and what people become as adults. Being something in high school means nothing in the grand scheme of things because everyone he sees ends up miserable as an adult. He doesn't care about grades and makes fun of the kids who do. Because he has no strong maternal figure to look after him or worry about him like Josie

During my freshman year, what I viewed as the worst possible event happened, (PAUSE) I got a B on my report card. I know that sounds dramatic but freshman me thought my world was ending. I now know that a B is a perfectly acceptable grade and that it's not the end of the world. But this raises the question, why did I think that a B was such a bad thing? Last year I worked on figuring out why I viewed B's as a bad thing. The end result of my thinking was that I am a perfectionist. Merriam Webster Dictionary defines perfectionism as “refusal to accept any standard short of perfection.” The reach for perfection can be painful because it is often driven by both a desire to do well and a fear of the consequences of not doing well. The problem is

According to Rotella, Hanson, and Coop (1991), “burnout is a condition of psychological, emotional, and sometime physical withdrawal from sport participation as a result from chronic stress: (pg. 421). Although stress and anxiety are not a dominant problem in youth sports, it does occur in some youth athletes. Anxiety and stress causes young athletes to withdraw from sport participation. The experience that the athlete encounters in sport will determine if the athlete will continue participating in the sport or not (Rotella, Hanson, and Coop, 1991). According to the article, Henschen (Rotella, Hanson, and Coop, 1991) defined burnout as “a state of mental, emotional, and physical exhaustion brought on by persistent devotion to a goal, the achievement of which is dramatically opposed to reality” (pg.

For High Performance athletes, there can be a lot riding on their results and performance in competition. If athletes develop an over-reliance on sporting success as a source of self-worth and identity, it can lead to serious emotional issues if things do not go as desired. Athletes often identify their self-worth with their ability to perform, and performance failure has been significantly associated with depression (Taylor, 2015 pg.11; Troijan, 2016, pg. 137) Athletes face many struggles and when something goes wrong it can leave them not knowing where to turn for help. They can be left with they feelings that they are nothing, undeserving, and alone. This may also exacerbate their feelings of seclusion, depression, or grief. Most athletes

Research shows that while holding multiple roles such as mentor, researcher, and leader may lead academics’ to feel distressed and exhausted, so too may the increasing perception of environmental and extrinsic stress (Taylor, Zimmer, & Womack, 2005). Moreover, research shows that an individual’s characteristics also affect the formation of stress (Brouwers & Tomic, 2000). A common exhaustion-provoking situation that relates to personal characteristics would be when academics have uncertainties about his or her ability to teach. Academics who portray a stronger feeling of self-confidence tend to be more adaptable in educational environments, and thus being able to adapt better in one’s work environment negatively correlates with burnout (Evers,

Chapter 6 of our textbook talks about the concept of the early childhood educator as a model. Whether they realize it or not, teachers are constantly modeling behaviors and attitudes for their students. Some of these behaviors and attitudes provide good examples for students and others serve as poor examples. My tendency toward perfectionism is one habit I don't wish to model for my future students. As a perfectionist, I would often, and sometimes still do, strive for unattainable standards, be very self-critical and try hard to avoid failure at all costs.

Athletes are naturally result-driven. How do you get faster? Train more. How do you get stronger? Train more.

“Procrastination is a common form of self-regulatory failure with substantive connections” where the tendency is to put off tasks. (Steel, Farrari, 2013)