The Relationship Between Perfectionism and Achievement Goals in High Achieving College Students

Abstract

Previous research has discovered a trend between perfectionism styles and achievement goal types in High Achieving students. Individuals who have self-oriented perfectionism tend to have more mastery based or performance approach goals, while individuals who have socially prescribed perfectionism tend to have more avoidance based goals. The goal of the current study was to investigate the relationship between perfectionism styles and achievement goal types in not only High Achieving college students, but in comparison to Non-High Achieving college students as well. Using a correlational between-groups design, 67 participants were administered the MPS, AGQ-R, AMS-C, CSW-A, and the ITIS. It was hypothesized that the High Achieving participants would have higher scores on self-oriented perfectionism as well as on mastery based goals or performance approach goals, while Non-High Achieving participants would have higher scores on socially prescribed perfectionism and avoidance based goals. Results indicated that there were no significant differences between the two achievement groups when it came to perfectionism styles and achievement goal types.