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Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good: how perfectionism influences human-centred designing engagement and communal design production in civil engineering

Nathalie Al Kakoun Al Kakoun, Frederic Boy Orcid Logo, Patricia Xavier Orcid Logo

Research in Engineering Design

Swansea University Authors: Nathalie Al Kakoun Al Kakoun, Frederic Boy Orcid Logo, Patricia Xavier Orcid Logo

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DOI (Published version): 10.1007/s00163-023-00428-0

Abstract

Perfectionism is a personality trait associated with a desire for flawlessness, high-standard expectations and criticism of the self and others. As engineering design seeks to address more wicked problems that move beyond technical considerations, it is possible that engineers with perfectionism may...

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Published in: Research in Engineering Design
ISSN: 0934-9839 1435-6066
Published: Springer Science and Business Media LLC 2023
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa65086
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We found that although perfectionists were more likely to have higher scores of prosocialness and empathy, non-perfectionists were more likely to produce Communal Designs. This suggested an apparent intention-behaviour mismatch. Engineering students may have intended to but then failed to produce Communal Designs; this could also be explained via our finding that perfectionists tend to have higher social desirability scores. The results indicate that complex decision-making in engineering design cannot be separated from the mindsets and personalities of engineers. Strategies to mitigate the negative impact of perfectionism are discussed, including both supported exposure to open-ended, contextualised design, and the use of critical reflection. 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spelling v2 65086 2023-11-24 Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good: how perfectionism influences human-centred designing engagement and communal design production in civil engineering 88c9eecb0799f2b477966be4ff7fa70a Nathalie Al Kakoun Al Kakoun Nathalie Al Kakoun Al Kakoun true false 43e704698d5dbbac3734b7cd0fef60aa 0000-0003-1373-6634 Frederic Boy Frederic Boy true false 278e26fd08e48be36f39790aeaff666f 0000-0002-5870-9659 Patricia Xavier Patricia Xavier true false 2023-11-24 FGSEN Perfectionism is a personality trait associated with a desire for flawlessness, high-standard expectations and criticism of the self and others. As engineering design seeks to address more wicked problems that move beyond technical considerations, it is possible that engineers with perfectionism may struggle to engage flexibly with complexity and more creativity-focused solutions. The present study seeks to understand perfectionism prevalence in an undergraduate cohort of civil engineers and the impact of this trait on complex design decisions and engagements that include social as well as technical considerations. 184 civil engineering students were involved in this study. We found that 74.5% of the engineers classify as perfectionists, with 68.5% of these perfectionists being maladaptive. Further, we examined how perfectionism associated with Communal Designs, a design approach that aims to meet physical community needs as well as more metaphysical, empathy-informed criteria. We found that although perfectionists were more likely to have higher scores of prosocialness and empathy, non-perfectionists were more likely to produce Communal Designs. This suggested an apparent intention-behaviour mismatch. Engineering students may have intended to but then failed to produce Communal Designs; this could also be explained via our finding that perfectionists tend to have higher social desirability scores. The results indicate that complex decision-making in engineering design cannot be separated from the mindsets and personalities of engineers. Strategies to mitigate the negative impact of perfectionism are discussed, including both supported exposure to open-ended, contextualised design, and the use of critical reflection. A regression model predictive of Communal Design production was also developed and discussed using engineering undergraduates’ personality characteristics’ scores as predictors. Journal Article Research in Engineering Design Springer Science and Business Media LLC 0934-9839 1435-6066 Civil engineering, Perfectionism, Human-centred design, Design thinking, Personality, Engineering judgement 24 11 2023 2023-11-24 10.1007/s00163-023-00428-0 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00163-023-00428-0 COLLEGE NANME Science and Engineering - Faculty COLLEGE CODE FGSEN Swansea University SU Library paid the OA fee (TA Institutional Deal) This research was part-funded through a PhD studentship provided by the Faculty of Science and Engineering Learning and Teaching Enhancement Centre at Swansea University and support from the Morgan Advanced Studies Institute at Swansea University. 2024-04-12T17:10:00.0517213 2023-11-24T10:14:26.1266691 Faculty of Science and Engineering School of Aerospace, Civil, Electrical, General and Mechanical Engineering - Civil Engineering Nathalie Al Kakoun Al Kakoun 1 Frederic Boy 0000-0003-1373-6634 2 Patricia Xavier 0000-0002-5870-9659 3 65086__29287__7a45f17f8bba453c93aca2a34ebb75af.pdf 65086.VOR.pdf 2023-12-19T11:44:08.6525667 Output 878893 application/pdf Version of Record true © The Author(s) 2023. Distributed under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). true eng https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good: how perfectionism influences human-centred designing engagement and communal design production in civil engineering
spellingShingle Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good: how perfectionism influences human-centred designing engagement and communal design production in civil engineering
Nathalie Al Kakoun Al Kakoun
Frederic Boy
Patricia Xavier
title_short Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good: how perfectionism influences human-centred designing engagement and communal design production in civil engineering
title_full Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good: how perfectionism influences human-centred designing engagement and communal design production in civil engineering
title_fullStr Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good: how perfectionism influences human-centred designing engagement and communal design production in civil engineering
title_full_unstemmed Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good: how perfectionism influences human-centred designing engagement and communal design production in civil engineering
title_sort Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good: how perfectionism influences human-centred designing engagement and communal design production in civil engineering
author_id_str_mv 88c9eecb0799f2b477966be4ff7fa70a
43e704698d5dbbac3734b7cd0fef60aa
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author_id_fullname_str_mv 88c9eecb0799f2b477966be4ff7fa70a_***_Nathalie Al Kakoun Al Kakoun
43e704698d5dbbac3734b7cd0fef60aa_***_Frederic Boy
278e26fd08e48be36f39790aeaff666f_***_Patricia Xavier
author Nathalie Al Kakoun Al Kakoun
Frederic Boy
Patricia Xavier
author2 Nathalie Al Kakoun Al Kakoun
Frederic Boy
Patricia Xavier
format Journal article
container_title Research in Engineering Design
publishDate 2023
institution Swansea University
issn 0934-9839
1435-6066
doi_str_mv 10.1007/s00163-023-00428-0
publisher Springer Science and Business Media LLC
college_str Faculty of Science and Engineering
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hierarchy_top_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
department_str School of Aerospace, Civil, Electrical, General and Mechanical Engineering - Civil Engineering{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Science and Engineering{{{_:::_}}}School of Aerospace, Civil, Electrical, General and Mechanical Engineering - Civil Engineering
url http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00163-023-00428-0
document_store_str 1
active_str 0
description Perfectionism is a personality trait associated with a desire for flawlessness, high-standard expectations and criticism of the self and others. As engineering design seeks to address more wicked problems that move beyond technical considerations, it is possible that engineers with perfectionism may struggle to engage flexibly with complexity and more creativity-focused solutions. The present study seeks to understand perfectionism prevalence in an undergraduate cohort of civil engineers and the impact of this trait on complex design decisions and engagements that include social as well as technical considerations. 184 civil engineering students were involved in this study. We found that 74.5% of the engineers classify as perfectionists, with 68.5% of these perfectionists being maladaptive. Further, we examined how perfectionism associated with Communal Designs, a design approach that aims to meet physical community needs as well as more metaphysical, empathy-informed criteria. We found that although perfectionists were more likely to have higher scores of prosocialness and empathy, non-perfectionists were more likely to produce Communal Designs. This suggested an apparent intention-behaviour mismatch. Engineering students may have intended to but then failed to produce Communal Designs; this could also be explained via our finding that perfectionists tend to have higher social desirability scores. The results indicate that complex decision-making in engineering design cannot be separated from the mindsets and personalities of engineers. Strategies to mitigate the negative impact of perfectionism are discussed, including both supported exposure to open-ended, contextualised design, and the use of critical reflection. A regression model predictive of Communal Design production was also developed and discussed using engineering undergraduates’ personality characteristics’ scores as predictors.
published_date 2023-11-24T17:09:55Z
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