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Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences pp 1–7Cite as

Perfectionism

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Definition

Perfectionism is a personality disposition characterized by a striving for flawlessness and setting exceedingly high standards of performance accompanied by overly critical self-evaluations and beliefs that others expect perfection.

Introduction

Whereas clinical psychology regards perfectionism as a personality disposition associated with psychopathology and mental health problems, research in personality and individual differences found perfectionism to be a multidimensional disposition that has adaptive and maladaptive aspects. The present entry presents an overview of the two-factor model of perfectionism – differentiating perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns as two superordinate dimensions of multidimensional perfectionism – and of how the two factors show different relations with motivation and performance. Furthermore, the entry introduces other-oriented perfectionism as a “dark” form of perfectionism separate from perfectionistic strivings and...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Psychology, University of Kent, CT2 7NP, Canterbury, Kent, UK

    Joachim Stoeber

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  1. Joachim Stoeber
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Correspondence to Joachim Stoeber .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland University, Rochester, USA

    Virgil Zeigler-Hill

  2. Oakland University, Rochester, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. Oakland University, Rochester, MI, USA

    Christopher Holden

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Stoeber, J. (2016). Perfectionism. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_2027-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_2027-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8

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