Definition of pedantry in psychology. What does a pedantic person mean? What does pedantic mean?

0 Nowadays, it is very important to know the meaning of various words and expressions. After all, in modern society life is difficult for uneducated people. They cannot get a normal job, they are not promoted, and their wages are not raised. Although, you can be uneducated, but remember a couple of hundred “tricky” words so that from time to time you seem smarter than you are. Our website is just perfect for this purpose, because here you will find not only decoding of scientific terms, but also interpretation of street slang, which is also important. Add us to your bookmarks so as not to get lost in this sea of ​​information on the Internet. Today we will talk about a rather unusual word, this Pedant, which means you can read a little later.
However, before you continue, I would like to tell you about a few more interesting articles on science and education. For example, what does Educational Program mean, what is Chronicle, who is an Extrovert, what does Axiom mean, etc.
So, let's continue, This term was borrowed from the French language" pedant", and is translated as "teacher".

Pedant- this is a person who loves order, clarity, formalism, neatness, cleanliness in everything

Pedant- this is the one who likes things to lie in their places, so that the spines of books do not protrude even a millimeter, so that all pieces of furniture are exclusively symmetrically arranged in the room, etc.

Etymology

The term in Russian is usually used with a negative connotation to refer to someone who is overly concerned with small things and whose tone is condescending. Thomas Nashe wrote in "With Thee" (1596), p. 43: "Oh, this precious apothegmatic [piebald] Pedant, who will find matter in order to develop the whole day of the first invention."
However, when the word was first used by Beale Shakespeare in Love's Labor Lost (1598), it simply meant "teacher".

Medicine

After reading this short article, you learned What does Pedant mean?, and now you can easily find similar individuals among your friends.

Let's try to describe anankastic people. The main feature of this personality type is pedantry. It is almost impossible to identify this character trait immediately or through superficial communication with them. It is revealed only with closer or constant contact, if some important business is carried out together.

Positive sides

A pedantic person - who constantly complies with all formal requirements, is scrupulous in her work, and finds fault with every detail. But the pedant is also endowed with some positive traits, such as conscientiousness in completing the assigned task, even without control, accuracy, punctuality, and special diligence in everything.

Anankast never makes hasty decisions; he carefully weighs every action and every step, and is very practical and intelligent. Such a person is simply irreplaceable when performing any precise and punctual duties.

What's the best way to do it?

When these manifestations become pronounced, the possibility of developing pathological anankastic psychopathy increases. In this case, a person can no longer independently make a decision in any situation. He constantly and repeatedly thinks about everything and doubts when an ordinary person would have started to act long ago. The pedantic often does not dare to take the last decisive step. Constantly replaying solutions to some problem in his head for the hundredth or thousandth time, he keeps looking for something more constructive or profitable.

Anankast and profession

Pedants fit into the team very well and become simply irreplaceable people in many professions. For example, if an aircraft designer checking the serviceability of an aircraft before takeoff turns out to be a pedantic person, checks and revises everything many times, then this will only bring benefits. However, think about what could happen if pedantry goes off scale? Such an aircraft designer may simply overdo it in his frequent checks and, with his excessive diligence, twist or tear something.

Anankast in everyday life

A pedantic person is someone who constantly double-checks their homework. Check whether the lights, iron or gas are turned off several times before leaving home. Moreover, it has never happened that he forgot to do at least something from this list.

As for pedantic women, their house is constantly clean and tidy. Housewives polish and iron everything to such an extent that everything in the house sparkles, like in a museum. But housework often takes a lot of time due to the fact that washing floors or dishes can be up to 4 times a day. Before preparing the soup, vegetables are washed more than once. And so it is in everything.

Irreplaceable worker

Anankast, who works as an accountant, is immediately visible. All his reports are in perfect order, all figures are reduced to the smallest precision. Such a person will not have the motto in his work: “Do it somehow!”

A pedantic person often brings only advantages to his owner, naturally, if his behavior does not go beyond what is reasonable. Basically, anancasts are very serious and approach any issues thoroughly. Any work assigned to them will be done well and on time, since pedants are people of duty and conscientiously treat their duties. Such subordinates are highly respected and valued by production managers. After all, it’s nice to have an employee in your team who is free from haste, slackness and inattention. Pedants have a hard time with changing jobs; they get very used to their team and value them very much.

Career

A pedantic person is a literalist, a formalist and an unbearable bore, but there are professions where these qualities are irreplaceable and in demand. If you put him in certain conditions, he may be prone to psychosthenia and hypochondria. Often people with pedantic qualities become good leaders and rise very high. This happens even against their will. It’s just that a responsible person who performs his duties well often moves higher up the career ladder. But still, pedantic leaders are afraid to make risky decisions on their own, and also never take responsibility for the misdeeds of others (this also applies to subordinates).

Cleanliness in everything

A pedantic person is neat and tidy even in his appearance. Such people are distinguished by impeccable cleanliness of their belongings, neat hairstyle or haircut, and polished shoes. Everything is ironed and perfect down to the smallest detail. Even when at home, they cannot afford to be sloppy in their clothes.

Collector

Anankasts are a people who love to collect collections and, naturally, keep them perfectly clean. And if for an ordinary collector rare exhibits are of great importance, then the pedant is simply satisfied with the process of collecting, and not with the objects that he collects.

Absurd behavior

Pedantic means that he is quite happy with his habits and believes that it is impossible to live otherwise. But sometimes pathological manifestations can deprive him of peace or even sleep. Gradually all the joy of life disappears, turning a person into a psychopath, enveloping him on all sides with obsessive thoughts. Burying himself in his scrupulous details, a pedantic psychopath even loses the ability to complete the work he has begun. All his rules, laws and orders take precedence over the person himself, their implementation becomes the meaning of existence. And at the same moment, the best things, such as justice and tolerance, are completely destroyed by pettiness and pickiness. Sometimes a pedantic person herself understands that her behavior is sometimes simply absurd, but she cannot deviate from her line of behavior.

Life story

One practicing psychologist talked about how he had a patient with a severe form of pedantry, which developed into obsession. Checking students' tests and independent work dragged on until late at night, the woman took into account all the most ridiculous little details. Constant stress and responsibility led her to a nervous breakdown, but neither tears nor despair could correct her behavior. As an educated person, the teacher understood that no one needed this hard daily work, because it interfered with concentrating on the lesson and the real knowledge of the students. And later she even realized that checking notebooks occupied her much more than improving the education of her children.

Expansiveness

P.B. Gannushkin once noticed that obsession is a peculiar form of pedantry that has crossed the line of what is permitted. After all, everyone knows that if you repeat an action often, it turns into a series of obsessive habits. If we consider Gannushkin’s words more deeply, it becomes clear that obsession is a mental pathology that is directly related to pedantry. Both obsession and pedantry can be summed up in one phrase - “meaningless formalism.”

Conclusion

Let's be pedantic man. This is an overly obsessive, out-of-touch individual, driven by his fears, pettiness and painful doubts. Uncontrollable obsession is pure distorted pedantry.

Pedantry (or pedantry) - what is it in psychology? We are talking about a personality quality that presupposes the presence of extreme precision and accuracy in a person’s actions, as well as an excessive tendency to comply with formal requirements and rules. If a person is pedantic, then he zealously and thoroughly follows the rules and certain norms, which he accepts for himself.

Is pedantry good or bad?

Pedantry is a character trait of anankastic people (anankasts), which are often found in Northern Europe, and especially in Germany: everyone knows that the notorious German pedantry implies a character trait - accuracy. In Russia, pedants are rare.

The attitude of society towards the character trait under discussion is ambiguous, and therefore the question arises: is pedantry good or bad? There is no one-word answer to this question. If we talk about moderate pedantry, then it can be considered as a positive character trait, which cannot be said about excessive pedantry, which is a vice and the cause of various negative situations and conflicts.

A pedant can be easily identified by his desire to do everything in accordance with the unwritten rules. Such people strive for the ideal.

Negative character traits of a pedant

Pedants are very prone to imposing their own opinions and habits on other people, since they sincerely consider their vision of the world to be the “ultimate truth.” Such a person can hardly be considered pleasant to talk to. If you select a synonym for the definition of “pedantry,” you will remember people who are often called such words as “piece of wood,” “cracker,” “formalist.”

Pedantry cannot be considered as an absolute synonym for formalism. It would be more accurate to say that formalism is just the visible tip of the iceberg called “Pedantry”

Pedantry, if present in character, manifests itself in any situation. Pedants usually arrange things in the closet, food in the refrigerator, and arrange books on the shelf in a special way according to their size and cover color. Anacastas get annoyed if someone puts their shoes “incorrectly” in the hallway, puts the plates in the kitchen cabinet, or hangs the towel the wrong way in the bathroom.

A pedantic type of human character means that its owner strives to bring completeness and ideality to the world the way he imagines it. This desire often turns into imposing one’s habits on others, which becomes the cause of conflict situations, scandals in the family and at work.

Pedants love order in everything, in particular, they arrange books by size or cover color

Pathological pedantry

In psychology there is such a concept as "pathological pedantry", which denotes a person’s excessive and scrupulous desire for accuracy and order, brought to the point of absurdity when a person performs actions that are more reminiscent of some kind of ritual. For example, we can talk about a schedule for a week or a month in advance for the menu of home meals, the clothes that a person will wear on a given day.

Anancasts are prone to tirelessly double-checking work and household appliances when leaving home. And this despite the fact that the pedantic personality type of people does not imply that they have such qualities as forgetting to close the door or turn off the gas. Anankasts take much more time than expected to do any housework. This is due to the fact that they do almost everything several times: they wash dishes and vegetables while preparing food.

According to experts, pathological pedantry is the inability to distinguish significant details from small and insignificant ones. Pedants show pettiness and painstakingness, performing even the simplest, and sometimes completely useless, work. With such manifestations, pedantry is considered a serious psychological deviation..

Excessive display of pedantry becomes the cause of anankastic personality disorder. This phenomenon negatively affects relationships with others and the ability to make decisions.

Positive traits of a pedant

However talking about pedants solely in a negative way would be biased. A pedant is a person who loves order, which is assessed positively by society. It is no coincidence that the word “pedant” has a sufficient number of positive synonyms: “neatist”, “literalist”, “precise”.

Pedants and profession

Anankasts fit well into the team, becoming irreplaceable people in many professions. Moderate pedantry is simply necessary for representatives of such professions as aircraft technicians or automobile repairmen, who are required to repeatedly recheck and revise airplanes or cars to ensure safety. Therefore, if a person is not a pedant, then he should think before choosing this kind of profession.

Pedants in everyday life

Pedantry manifests itself in anankasts in everyday life– They constantly recheck their homework. A pedantic woman (pedantka) is an excellent housewife, in whose house there is cleanliness and order, where everything is cleaned and ironed. True, a pedant’s house usually looks more like a museum, and therefore the atmosphere in it cannot be called cozy, and washing the floors four times a day can tire not only the woman herself, but also all members of the household. However, even a pedantic man is capable of “building” an entire family.

Pedants are irreplaceable workers

Anankast, working as an accountant, will be a “valuable find” for any company, since all his documentation will be in perfect order, and his balance will be reduced to a penny. Anankasts simply cannot do things “somehow.”

Moderate pedants are serious, thorough people who complete any work assigned to them with high quality and on time. Anankasts are people of duty who conscientiously treat their responsibilities. These qualities of pedants are highly valued by managers.

Career prospects for pedants

Pedants are formalists and sometimes unbearable bores, but in some professions these qualities cannot be avoided. That’s why anankasts often have excellent careers – they become good high-level managers. Moreover, this may not even happen according to their will.

It’s just that responsible people who perform their duties well often move higher up the career ladder. However, anankast leaders are afraid to make independent responsible decisions and take responsibility for other people.

Moderate pedantry is often valued by employers. Such people do an excellent job in jobs that require scrupulous adherence to rules.

Cleanliness in everything

In order to better understand who a pedantic person is, it should be noted that we are talking about a neat and tidy person, which is primarily manifested in his appearance: clean and carefully ironed clothes, neat hair, well-polished shoes. Pedants, even when at home, do not allow sloppiness in appearance.

Pedant parents

In the matter of raising children, pedantic people are true to themselves: the established regime cannot be violated, and therefore at the specified time the child should go to the potty, go to bed, come home from school. However, you should not get the impression that a pedantic person means a bad parent. Pedants are not insensitive individuals, and therefore, like all parents, they love their children and sacrifice themselves for them.

Pedants spare no time in putting things in order; without it, they will start to get nervous

Pedantry test

If you want to find out whether this quality is present in you, then try taking the pedantry test, especially since it will not be difficult at all - you will just need to agree or disagree with the proposals presented. You should answer “yes” or “no” to the given statements. You can’t think about the answer for a long time:

I always keep the funds in my wallet in absolute order.
It is with great joy that I do something that requires increased responsibility.
People make too few demands on each other.
It’s hard not to notice carelessly folded shoes, clothes, and clutter. There is a desire to fix it.
I perform all my work with diligence and thoroughness.
I can’t sleep if the whole day has been spent thinking about a specific situation.
Each thing should have its own, permanent place.
If you did not have time to finish your work, then you can go home with peace of mind.
Before leaving the apartment, I always double-check the taps, switches, etc.
I pour all the liquids to the edge of the dish.
Obsessive thoughts arise.
You don't think it's right to make a plan for the day.
If you notice that a person cannot cope with his work, then there is a desire to do everything on his own.
You are distracted from your worries if you work for a long time.

So, for choosing the answer “yes” to statements numbered 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, add 1 point. For the answer “no” to statements numbered 2, 8, 12, also add 1 point. Sum up these indicators. The result will show the level of pedantry of your personality.

With a sum from 0 to 4 – low level. With a sum from 10 to 14 – high.

Conclusion

Pedantry is a special personality trait; it is not entirely correct to say whether it is good or bad. This is a given that is present in a person, regardless of his desire. Pedantry is an ambiguous personality quality, introducing both positive and negative traits into it. In this regard, we urge you to treat people with tolerance, not to put “labels” on them, remembering that we are all different!

Initially, the term “pedant”, which came from the Latin language, meant a mentor or educator. The outdated meaning of this word paints an image of a strict teacher, meticulous in his duties. Today, this term most often refers to an excessively neat person, committed to exceptional order even in small things, demanding strict adherence to formalities from himself and others.

The term “pedantry” in its modern meaning often takes on a negative connotation. It is awarded to those who sometimes bring the simplest everyday situations to extreme absurdity, which causes irritation among others, leads to mutual misunderstanding, and sometimes to serious conflicts.

In communication, pedantry manifests itself in the form of excessive thoroughness, detailed and extremely precise stylistics when constructing statements.

Being a character trait, pedantry manifests itself in almost any situation. The pedant considers it necessary to arrange things in the closet and food in a special way. Such people even hang out their laundry to dry in a certain order, selecting items of clothing by color or size. A person who is distinguished by pedantry puts order at the forefront. He will not calm down until the world around him acquires ideality and completeness.

There are also positive traits in pedantry. Such people are usually efficient, very precise in business and in expressing their thoughts. They cope well with official duties if their functions include maintaining order in documents. The pedant’s apartment shines with neatness and cleanliness. All things in his home are in their places, there is not the slightest hint of disorder.

You can be sure that the pedant will arrive on time for a date or business meeting.

Pathological pedantry

There is the concept of “pathological pedantry.” This is the name given to a person’s exaggerated and scrupulous desire for precise and strict fulfillment of duties, which sometimes takes the form of following artificial rituals. This character trait, manifested in morbid attention to detail, most often damages the business.

Experts explain the pathological manifestations of pedantry by the lack of ability to separate significant details from completely insignificant ones. It happens that such a characterological feature is combined with indecision, difficulties in choosing one of the options, and excessive suspiciousness. A detailed combination of qualities forces the pedant to show

So, a pedant is a person who has consciously placed himself and his life within strict boundaries, relentlessly following certain rules that he himself has invented. The pedant strictly and consistently observes them not only himself, but also demands the same from those around him. If someone decides to ignore the demands of the pedant, then censure will immediately follow from the latter.

Extreme scrupulousness, super-correctness, deliberate organization will help you understand who a pedant is. The pedant carefully and meticulously selects his wardrobe - a mistake in this matter is unacceptable, the pedant’s shoes are his “calling card”, therefore they are always in perfect condition, the pedant has a specific “fad” regarding the cleanliness of shoes.

What does pedant mean?

If we notice a person’s habit of acting, living according to a strict plan, if we can say about his adherence to instructions and directions, if a person’s life credo is accuracy and scrupulousness in detail, then we can be sure that this is a pedant.

The signs of a male pedant are easily recognizable both in the home circle and in the work environment; under no circumstances will he be able to turn away from the path of pedantry he once blazed. Outwardly, a pedantic man is not difficult to recognize: in any situation, a brand new suit and cleaned shoes, even if you look in them. He cannot look differently, since fixation on this kind of little things serves for him as a kind of opportunity for self-soothing and self-regulation.

Differences between a pedant and a perfectionist

The differences between a pedant and a perfectionist are clearly focused when considering and studying the attitude of our, on the one hand, authentic characters, to the cause they serve. If a pedant “slides” along the surface without delving into details, then a perfectionist “digs” deep, trying to get to the very essence. It is important for a pedant to achieve the form that was developed and planned, while a perfectionist puts a lot of content into his decision, achieving perfection. The pedant “hands over the object” and forgets about it, but for the perfectionist it is his brainchild, the fate of which is not indifferent to him.

For a pedant, it doesn’t matter how or who evaluates his work - he is his own boss, and evaluates himself. A perfectionist is always dependent on the opinion of his environment: the higher it is, the higher he is.

Pedants are distinguished by conservatism in relation to the passion for order. They love external, feigned order, without delving into the depths. Perfectionists are generally not characterized by ostentation and formalism. They contrast the external gloss with academic education and true aristocracy.

How to become a pedant?

There should be no discrepancies between your aspirations and real possibilities. Your personal self-esteem and motivation to achieve success in different areas of life will depend on this.