Browsing by Subject "perfectionism"
Now showing items 1-3 of 3
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(2023)In spite of the current wide-spread use of the idea of our personal liberties, not enough attention is given to the actual justification of this concept itself: from what philosophical grounds our liberties can be argued from and how the value of our personal liberties stands itself as a philosophical concept. One of the most important philosophers defending our personal liberties is widely perceived to be John Stuart Mill (1806-1873), an English philosopher who developed his thinking on liberty in the 19th century. However, the plausibility Mill’s hedonistic ethics has been widely criticized in philosophical literature. This research examines John Stuart Mill’s hedonistic ethics and his hedonistic defence for our personal liberties. The thesis asks, can Mill’s defence of our liberty that relies purely on the foundation of hedonism be plausible? The first chapter introduces the research question and the structure of the research. The second chapter first presents Mill’s core ethical ideas and then introduces how a perfectionist reading can challenge the hedonism of Mill’s ethics. The third chapter discusses G.E. Moore’s critique against hedonism. Chapter 4 defends Mill’s justification for his hedonistic foundation for morality with Geoffrey Sayre-McCord’s thinking. Chapters 5 and 6 examine Sarah Conly’s theory and her critique against Mill’s simple principle for liberty and argue the critique is not plausible if we read Mill as a hedonist. The concluding chapter draws together the results of the study. The thesis focuses on the problems of the arguments against Mill’s hedonistic ethics showing how these arguments fail to convince that the hedonistic reading of Mill’s ethics is not plausible. As a conclusion, the research provides arguments for why it is plausible to continue to interpret and examine Mill as a hedonist and argue for a hedonistic defence of our personal liberties regardless of the several things Mill states that appear to not adhere to the single value of hedonism. The research suggests that despite the challenges presented in this work, there remains a plausible rationale to continue to read Mill as a hedonist and argue for our personal liberties from this foundation. However, the conclusion is conditional. The research also shows that to plausibly argue for our personal liberties, Mill’s overall concept of happiness that contains the ideas of individuality and social flourishing, needs to be understood through the aspect of constant human progress. Whether such a concept of happiness can be argued to be a merely hedonistic concept, however, falls out of the scope of this research.
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(2016)The purpose of the present study was to examine relationships between achievement goal orientations and perfectionism, and the possible differences between general and sports program students in upper secondary school with respect to these phenomena. Achievement goal orientations refer to individual's generalized tendencies to favor certain type of goals and outcomes in an achievement context. Perfectionism is a personality characteristic, which as a multidimensional construct consists of both positive (high standards) and negative (dissatisfaction with the attainment of the goal) dimensions. Both achievement goal orientations and perfectionism have been linked to individual's well-being, interpretation of the environment, and achievement. There is only a few previous research that have studied the relationship between achievement goal orientations and perfectionism. The assumption in the present study is that students' achievement goal orientations have an effect on what kind of perfectionistic tendencies they display. Examining differences between athletes and non-athletes with respect to achievement motivation and perfectionism is a relative new study subject. By examining these differences, we might get important information whether young athletes have managed to combine the demands of their sports and upper secondary school studies. Finding the balance between these demands is one notable challenge student-athletes confront. The participants in the present study were 424 general upper secondary school students from different parts of Finland. General program was followed by 211 of students, and 213 of students followed sports program. A person-centred approach was applied to the data-analysis. Five distinct achievement goal orientation profiles were extracted by utilizing the TwoStep Cluster analysis. The profiles were named following the previous research, and according to their most dominant orientations (i.e., mastery-, success-, performance-avoidance- and avoidance-oriented, and indifferent). Differences between the profiles with respect to perfectionism were examined through a series of analyses of variance. Differences between general- and sports program students were examined through a series of analyses of variance, and through Cross Tabulation. As expected, students with different orientations towards studying differed from each other according to perfectionism. The mastery-, success- and performance-avoidance oriented students emphasized adaptive perfectionism. However, the success- and performance-avoidance-oriented students emphasized also maladaptive perfectionism. The indifferent students slightly highlighted maladaptive perfectionism. The avoidance-oriented students did highlight neither of the perfectionism dimensions. The findings suggest that students' motivational patterns have an influence on their perfectionistic tendencies. Maladaptive motivational patterns, as well as, maladaptive perfectionistic tendencies seem to accumulate to same students. It would be important to take these results into consideration at teaching and its design, so that students who need support and counseling would receive them. There were not significant differences between general and sports program students according to achievement motivation and perfectionism. The findings indicate that sport-oriented schools have managed to support young athletes to combine their intensive sports training and upper secondary school studies.
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(2015)The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationships between multidimensional perfectionism, achievement goal orientations, and distal goal setting. Multidimensional perfectionism is regarded as consisting of both positive and negative dimensions, and it is seen as a significant personality characteristic in individuals in achievement contexts. Achievement goal orientations refer to individuals' generalized tendencies to favour certain types of goals and outcomes in achievement settings. Distal goal setting refers to individuals' long-term goals, which, in the present study, are the grade goals that students have set for themselves. The relationship between perfectionism and achievement goals, as well as between perfectionism and aspiration level has been detected in previous studies. However, there has not been any previous studies concerning the relationship between multidimensional perfectionism and achievement goal orientations, which both play an important role in the adoption of goals and the interpretation of achievement contexts. Thus, the assumption in the present study is that perfectionistic characteristics in students have an effect on the adoption of achievement goal orientations, distal goals, and also on the revision of those goals. The participants in the present study were 156 first-year students (aged 16–17 years) from a general upper secondary school in a small southwestern town in Finland. The students completed two questionnaires: the first in the beginning of each course and the second during the courses. By using TwoStep cluster analysis, three distinct perfectionism profiles (i.e., adaptive, maladaptive, and non-perfectionists) were extracted. The between-group differences on the achievement goal orientations, goal setting, and goal revision were examined through a series of univariate analyses of (co)variance based on the perfectionism profile membership. As expected, the adaptive perfectionists were prone to adopt mastery-intrinsic, mastery-extrinsic, and performance-approach achievement goal orientations. In contrast, the maladaptive perfectionists highlighted performance-avoidance and avoidance goal orientations, while the non-perfectionists did not highlight any of the orientations. The adaptive perfectionists had the highest aspiration level and they also lowered their grade goals the least. The findings suggest that students' perfectionistic characteristics have an influence on their achievement goal orientations, goal setting, and goal revision. The maladaptive and non-perfectionists are at the highest risk of adopting low aspiration levels, maladaptive achievement goal orientations, and have the tendency to revise their goals downwards. It might be useful to take this into consideration at schools and in teaching, and to consider, if counselling needs to be given to those students.
Now showing items 1-3 of 3