The connection of perfectionism and flow with athletes of a different performance level

Abstract

Athletes often report on the experiences of absolute dedication and flow that represent an extraordinary experience and act motivatively. Motivation is a natural product of our essential desires and needs, and the flow as a mental state relieves us of fears of judgment, which can be a motivational component of the flow model. The aim of this research was to find out to what extent perfectionism and flow are present in a group of athletes, whether perfectionism and the flow experience are linked, and which socio-demographic variables they correlate with. The research involved 50 professional athletes with participation at all competitive levels, from local level competitions to world level competitions. The instruments applied are the Multidimensional scale of perfectionism, the Questionnaire of Flow, the Semi-Structured Interview and the Questionnaire on Socio-demographic Characteristics. Through interviews, we received data on situations and emotions during the flow experience, where close to 98% of the athletes stated that they were not aware of the flow experience during its occurrence, but they could retrospectively invoke that feeling which remained the greatest and lasting trophy of their success. Almost on all sub-scales of Multidimensional scale of perfectionism, athletes achieve higher results compared to the general population. The results of the research have shown that there is no correlation between the flow experience and perfectionism, except when it comes to the connection of the flow experience with concern due to errors and this relationship is negative.

Keywords

• perfectionism
• flow
• athletes