Differences in Academic Burnout and Achievement Goal Orientation by Perfectionism of Medical Students

Abstract

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to identify clusters of perfectionism with cluster analysis and to investigate differences of academic burnout and achievement goal orientation among clusters of medical students. Methods: The participants were a total of 221 students comprising 55 premedical course students, 166 medical course students. Data were collected from August 28 to September 9, 2015 by self-administered survey questionnaire. All scales used in this study as followed: Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (HFMPS), Maslach Burnout Inventory-Student Survey (MBI-SS), 2 × 2 achievement goal orientation scale. The data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, cluster analysis and MANOVA using SPSS version 22.0. Results: Four groups were identified: non-perfectionism, socially-prescribed perfectionism, other-oriented perfectionism, typical perfectionism. The group of socially-prescribed perfectionism is higher than the group of non-perfectionism and typical perfectionism in academic burnout. Also, the group of typical perfectionism which are high in self-oriented perfectionism showed high mastery-approach goal and performance-approach goal. The group of socially-prescribed perfectionism showed high scores in mastery-avoidance goal and performance-avoidance goal. Conclusions: This study found that the group of having high self-oriented perfectionism showed high mastery-approach goal and performance-approach goal orientation whereas socially-prescribed perfectionism showed high mastery-avoidance goal and performance-avoidance goal orientation. This suggests the importance of educational intervention for students to set their own personal standards and strive for achievement in the way of what they want not of what others would probably want them.