Perfectionism is an enduring personality trait that is usually measured as a continuous dimension despite the penchant for people to talk about perfectionists and nonperfectionists. The person characterized by perfectionism is someone with exacting standards who cannot tolerate flaws, mistakes, and imperfections. Extreme perfectionism involves a sense of compulsiveness and a sense of being driven to the extent that the person cannot stop striving and thinking about the need to be perfect. Perfectionists do not simply wish for perfection; rather, they feel that they must be perfect, and this same sense of insistence and urgency applies when they require other people to be perfect as well.

Perfectionism involves an all-or-none approach such that only absolute perfection is acceptable to the perfectionist and falling short by ...

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