PSYCHOLINGUISTIC ANALYSIS OF PERFECTIONISM AS A STEP TO STUDENT PERFECTIONISM SCALE DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

The article presents the results of psycholinguistic analysis of perfectionism. A theoretical review of perfectionism structure and explication is proposed in the introductory part of the paper. The associative and connotative meaning of perfectionism are empirically investigated using free association experiment procedure. The data from two groups are compared: student sample (N = 23 in total, age range: 17-27 years) and non-student sample (N = 11, age range: 18-60 years).
Findings. After the analysis of 176 associative responses and their frequencies the associative universals were discovered: ‘purity’, ‘result’, ‘order’, ‘letters’, ‘boring’, ‘ideal’, ‘puzzle’, ‘sample’, ‘responsibility’. The connotative meaning for each universal was defined using 7-grade scale and three parameters: (1) evaluation (positive-negative); (2) strength (strong – weak); (3) activeness (active-passive). It is concluded that the meaning of perfectionism for students is positive in general. Active and passive aspects of perfectionism and the criteria to distinguish between healthy and neurotic perfectionism are revealed.
It is determined that students, unlike others, are focused on achieving ‘perfection’ and ‘purity’, which may indicate a healthy perfectionism. In contrast, the respondents in non-student sample primarily pay attention to the ‘requirements’ and ‘standards’, which is recognized as a feature of neurotic perfectionism. It is revealed that students more than other participants agree with relevance of notions ‘excellence’ and ‘facility’ in connection with stimulus ‘perfectionism’ while other respondents support association ‘boring’ much more. For non-student sample some features related to perfectionism can be stated: disturbance with inflated requirements and expectations, with difficulties of compliance to high demands; an avoiding fails mindset. The hypothesis for future studies is set on this basis that, maybe, the role of socially prescribed perfectionism is not that significant when it comes to students’ striving for excellence.
The universals ‘ideal’ and ‘responsibility’ are common to both groups of participants, so this quality is assumed to be closely related to perfectionism, although it manifests itself differently depending on the type of perfectionism: from excessive responsibility for own actions in self-oriented perfectionism to inclination of avoidance in socially prescribed perfectionism.
The limitations of the study are discussed. The results are going to be implemented for further development of the student perfectionism scale.