Perfectionism,Goal Orientation,and Emerging Adults’ Identity Processing Styles

Abstract

The current study explored the direct and interactive contributions of multidimensional measures of perfectionism and goal orientation in predicting patterns of identity-related self-processing for pre-COVID-19 and during-COVID-19 samples of traditional age (18–22 year old) emerging adult college students (N = 722). Regression models controlled for age, binary gender, and race, then tested the unique conditional effects and interactions between perfectionism and goal orientation in explaining variability in each of three identity processing styles. After controlling for multiple covariates and hypothesis tests, only a few effects were repeated between the two samples. Those results indicated that a growth-seeking goal orientation was predictive of an informational identity style whereas validation-seeking goal orientation was a significant predictor of diffuse-avoidant and normative identity processing styles. The overall findings suggested that fruitful targets for future intervention studies promoting healthy identity development during the college years might include reducing validation-seeking while strengthening growth-seeking motives.

Keywords

identity processing styles perfectionism goal orientation

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Ansbacher

H. L.

Ansbacher

R. R.

(Eds), (1956). The individual psychology of Alfred Adler. Basic Books, Inc.

Beaumont

S. L.

(2009). Identity processing and personal wisdom: An information-oriented identity style predicts self-actualization and self-transcendence. Identity, 9(2), 95–115. https://doi.org/10.1080/15283480802669101

Berzonsky

M. D.

(1992). Identity style and coping strategies. Journal of Personality, 60(4), 771–788. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.1992.tb00273.x

Berzonsky

M. D.

Luyckx

(2008). Identity styles, self-reflective cognition, and identity processes: A study of adaptive and maladaptive dimensions of self-analysis. Identity, 8(3), 205–219. https://doi.org/10.1080/15283480802181818

Berzonsky

M. D.

Papini

D. R.

(2022). Cross-lagged associations between cognitive dispositions, identity processing styles, and identity commitments. Self and Identity, 21(8), 963–979. https://doi.org/10.1080/15298868.2021.2013309

Berzonsky

M. D.

Soenens

Luyckx

Smits

Papini

D. R.

Goossens

(2013). Development and validation of the revised Identity Style Inventory (ISI-5): Factor structure, reliability, and validity. Psychological Assessment, 25(3), 893–904. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0032642

Burgess

A. M.

Frost

R. O.

DiBartolo

P. M.

(2016). Development and validation of the Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale-Brief. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 34(7), 620–633. https://doi.org/10.1177/0734282916651359.

Castro

J. R.

Rice

K. G.

(2003). Perfectionism and ethnicity: Implications for depressive symptoms and self-reported academic achievement. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 9(1), 64–78. https://doi.org/10.1037/1099-9809.9.1.64

Dunkel

C. S.

Papini

D. R.

Berzonsky

M. D.

(2008). Explaining differences in identity styles: Possible roles of personality and family functioning. Identity, 8(4), 349–363. https://doi.org/10.1080/15283480802365338

10.

Dweck

Yeager

D. S.

(2018). Mindsets change the imagined and actual future. In Oettingen

Servincer

Timur

Gollwitzer

(Eds), The psychology of thinking about the future. Guilford Press.

11.

Dykman

B. M.

(1998). Integrating cognitive and motivational factors in depression: Initial tests of a goal-orientation approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74(1), 139–158. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.74.1.139

12.

Flett

G. L.

Besser

Hewitt

P. L.

(2014). Perfectionism and interpersonal orientations in depression: An analysis of validation seeking and rejection sensitivity in a community sample of young adults. Psychiatry: Interpersonal and Biological Processes, 77, 67–85. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.1992.tb00273.x10.1521/psyc.2014.77.1.67

13.

Friedman

R. S.

Cooper

M. L.

Chladek

M. R.

Rudy

(2007). Investigating the link between validation seeking and lay dispositionism. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 33(4), 463–475. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167206296298

14.

Frost

R. O.

Marten

Lahart

Rosenblate

(1990). The dimensions of perfectionism. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 14(5), 449–468. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01172967

15.

Gregor

M. A.

Weigold

I. K.

Wolfe

Campbell-Halfaker

Martin-Fernandez

Pino

H. V. G. D.

(2021). Positive predictors of career adaptability among diverse community college students. Journal of Career Assessment, 29(1), 115–128. https://doi.org/10.1177/1069072720932537

16.

Hewitt

P. L.

Flett

G. L.

(1991). Perfectionism in the self and social contexts: Conceptualization, assessment, and association with psychopathology. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60(3), 456–470. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.60.3.456

17.

Hoyt

L. T.

Cohen

A. K.

Dull

Maker Castro

Yazdani

(2021). “Constant stress has become the new normal”: Stress and anxiety inequalities among US college students in the time of COVID-19. The Journal of Adolescent Health: Official Publication of the Society for Adolescent Medicine, 68(2), 270–276. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2020.10.030

18.

Kline

R. B.

(2015). The mediation myth. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 37(4), 202–213. https://doi.org/10.1080/01973533.2015.1049349

19.

Lindsay

J. E.

Scott

W. D.

(2005). Dysphoria and self-esteem following an achievement event: Predictive validity of goal orientation and personality style theories of vulnerability. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 29(6), 769–785. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-005-9637-6

20.

Little

R. J. A.

(1988). A test of missing completely at random for multivariate data with missing values. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 83(404), 1198–1202. https://doi.org/10.1080/01621459.1988.10478722

21.

Luyckx

Duriez

Green

L. M.

Negru-Subtirica

(2017). Identity processes and intrinsic and extrinsic goal pursuits: Directionality of effects in college students. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 46(8), 1758–1771. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-016-0626-8

22.

Luyckx

Schwartz

S. J.

Goossens

Pollock

(2008a). Employment, sense of coherence, and identity formation: Contextual and psychological processes on the pathway to sense of adulthood. Journal of Adolescent Research, 23(5), 566–591. https://doi.org/10.1177/0743558408322146

23.

Luyckx

Soenens

Goossens

Beckx

Wouters

(2008b). Identity exploration and commitment in late adolescence: Correlates of perfectionism and mediating mechanisms on the pathway to well-being. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 27(4), 336–361. https://doi.org/10.1521/jscp.2008.27.4.336

24.

MacKinnon

D. P.

Coxe

Baraldi

A. N.

(2012). Guidelines for the investigation of mediating variables in business research. Journal of Business and Psychology, 27(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-011-9248-z

25.

Marler

E. K.

Bruce

M. J.

Abaoud

Henrichsen

Suksatan

Homvisetvongsa

Matsuo

(2021). The impact of COVID-19 on university students’ academic motivation, social connection, and psychological well-being. In: Scholarship of teaching and learning in psychology. https://doi.org/10.1037/stl0000294

26.

Milner

L. A.

Ferrari

J. R.

(2010). The role of goal orientation in emerging adult identity processing styles. Identity, 10(4), 270–283. https://doi.org/10.1080/15283488.2010.523645

27.

Moore

A. M.

Holding

A. C.

Buchardt

Koestner

(2021). On the efficacy of volitional personality change in young adulthood: Convergent evidence using a longitudinal personal goal paradigm. Motivation and Emotion, 45(2), 171–185. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-021-09865-7

28.

Moore

Holding

A. C.

Moore

Levine

S. L.

Powers

T. A.

Zuroff

D. C.

Koestner

(2021). The role of goal-related autonomy: A self-determination theory analysis of perfectionism, poor goal progress, and depressive symptoms. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 68(1), 88–97. https://doi.org/10.1037/cou0000438

29.

Nepon

Flett

G. L.

Hewitt

P. L.

(2016). Self-image goals in trait perfectionism and perfectionistic self-presentation: Toward a broader understanding of the drives and motives of perfectionists. Self and Identity, 15(6), 683–706. https://doi.org/10.1080/15298868.2016.1197847

30.

Nosek

B. A.

Hardwicke

T. E.

Moshontz

Allard

Corker

K. S.

Dreber

Fidler

Hilgard

Kline Struhl

Nuijten

M. B.

Rohrer

J. M.

Romero

Scheel

A. M.

Scherer

L. D.

Schönbrodt

F. D.

Vazire

(2022). Replicability, robustness, and reproducibility in psychological science. Annual Review of Psychology, 73, 719–748. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-020821-114157

31.

Piotrowski

(2019). Perfectionism and identity processes in two domains: Mediational roles of worry, rumination, indecisiveness, shame, and guilt. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 1864.

32.

Piotrowski

Bojanowska

Nowicka

Janasek

(2023). Perfectionism and community-identity integration: the mediating role of shame, guilt and self-esteem. Current Psychology, 42, 1308–1316.

33.

Powers

T. A.

Koestner

Zuroff

D. C.

Milyavskaya

Gorin

A. A.

(2011). The effects of self-criticism and self-oriented perfectionism on goal pursuit. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 37(7), 964–975. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167211410246

34.

Rusk

Tamir

Rothbaum

(2011). Performance and learning goals for emotion regulation. Motivation and Emotion, 35(4), 444–460. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-011-9229-6

35.

Schwartz

S. J.

Zamboanga

B. L.

Luyckx

Meca

Ritchie

R. A.

(2013). Identity in emerging adulthood: Reviewing the field and looking forward. Emerging Adulthood, 1(2), 96–113. https://doi.org/10.1177/2167696813479781

36.

Seaton

C. L.

Beaumont

S. L.

(2011). Identity processing styles and defense styles during emerging adulthood: Implications for life distress. Identity, 11(1), 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/15283488.2011.540736

37.

Soenens

Berzonsky

M. D.

Dunkel

C. S.

Papini

D. R.

Vansteenkiste

(2011). Are all identity commitments created equally? The importance of motives for commitment for late adolescents’ personal adjustment. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 35(4), 358–369. https://doi.org/10.1177/0165025411405954

38.

Stoeber

(2018). The psychology of perfectionism: An introduction. In Stoeber

(Ed), The psychology of perfectionism: Theory, research, and applications. Routledge/Taylor.

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB

0.31 MB