This complex personality trait serves as the main topic of our paper due to the increasing
prevalence of perfectionism as well as the rising demands from educational organizations.
Our paper can fill a research gap by examining its definitions, models, components,
and influencing elements (personality, gender, and immediate environment) in addition
to the role of perfectionism in secondary and tertiary education. We assume that perfectionism
in higher education is based on its development at secondary school, and it is becoming
more intense in time. In 2023 the authors conducted a survey among Hungarian university
students to determine the degree to which the participants pursue perfectionism in
their professional and personal lives. The questionnaire finally resulted in 550 responses.
The findings of our research suggest that women tend to be more perfectionist, but
the picture is differently deemed by individuals than by their immediate surroundings.
Another noteworthy result revealed that personal perfectionism also depends on the
people with whom those who consider themselves perfectionists live. Our SEM model
also showed that perfectionism is stronger throughout university studies and that
it might be descended from secondary school perfectionism. Personality traits do affect
perfectionism at school, which intensifies in higher education after graduating from
secondary school.
