Perfectionism and Achievement Goals in Adult Male Elite Athletes who Compete at the National Level and above

Different views on perfectionism, and different approaches about achievement goals, have led to studies on rela-tionships between perfectionism and achievement goals. Stoeber et al. (2009) found relationship patterns from per-fectionism and achievement goals in young Finnish ice-hockey players’ under-16, in which it was found that perfec-tionistic strivings were associated with mastery-approach and performance-approach goals, and perfectionistic con-cerns with mastery-avoidance, performance-approach, and performance-avoidance goals. Thus, as Stoeber et al. (2009) noted, findings can be generalized to older age-groups, as researchers have pointed out that achievement goal orientations in athletes may change when athletes become older (Elliot & Conroy, 2005; Spray & Keegan, 2005). Thus, we examined the theoretical model by Stoeber et al. (2009), to investigate relationships between perfectionism and achievement goals in adult elite athletes. For this purpose, 134 adult elite athletes completed questionnaires of MIPS (Stoeber, Otto & Stoll, English version, 2006), sport – MPS – 2 (Gotwals & Dunn, 2009), and AGQ – S (Conroy et al., 2003). On the assumption of the final theoretical model as based on a few significant indices, perfec-tionistic strivings was associated with mastery-approach and performance-approach goals, while perfectionistic con-cerns was associated with mastery-avoidance and performance-avoidance goals. Contrary to expectations, there was no relationship between perfectionistic concerns and performance-approach goals. In fact, the present research re-sults put in ambiguity the concept of perfectionism and the relationship between perfectionism and achievement goals, which were the main aims of our research. Moreover, a number of indices obtained structural equation mod-eling, which showed marginal to no significant effects. Thus, such equivocal results clearly imply that further re-search on context is needed. However, it appears that positive and negative aspects of perfectionism have complex relationships with each other.