This article was developed under the heading: Psychology.
Section: Character.
Hello, dear readers! Today we will look at who a pedant is and how to communicate with him. The difference between people is predetermined by the basic personality type - a factor that cannot change. The manifestation of character, behavior, emotions and thoughts of a person depend on it. The pedantic type has very contradictory traits. Many admire his powers of observation, concentration, punctuality, and reliability. They are conscientious about their work and are demanding of every detail. Not everyone likes excessive thoroughness and stiffness. Pedants often become hostages of their character, which prevents them from communicating with other people.
The picture shows a pedant in pure manifestation
Reasons for pedantry
A predisposition to pedantry develops in childhood. It is associated with the demanding and strict parents who deprive children of independence and initiative. The authoritarian style of family education leads to the fact that the grown child will limit himself to boundaries. The lack of freedom and attempts by adults to teach the child to follow strict rules leads to the fact that he concentrates on order and is later unable to deviate from it. This situation causes the emergence of complexes. Doing everything perfectly becomes the norm of his life.
Another reason for the formation of a pedantic character is a lack of security and reliability. The feeling of danger in childhood makes an adult feel the need to keep everything under control. The most insignificant vulnerability in the perception of a pedant is the loss of stability, a stable position.
The pedant tends to appear in authoritarian families
How to quickly recognize a pedant
A pedantic person can be easily distinguished by his appearance and style of behavior. He usually looks neat, dressed to the nines, well-combed and carefully shaven. He will never allow himself to leave the house in wrinkled clothes or poorly cleaned shoes. Classic-style suits always look new, but pedants do not strive to create the impression of a dandy.
Demeanor characterizes a pedantic person more clearly. A well-groomed appearance reproduces his inner exactingness towards himself and society. They become wonderful scientists, excellent professionals in the field of finance and law. However, in your personal life, increased demands often prevent you from being truly happy.
A pedant is easily distinguished from an ordinary person
The habit of doing everything yourself
Oddly enough, but a true pedant avoids a situation where someone can really help him. Instead, he prefers to tackle difficult issues alone. Why is this happening? Perhaps he doesn’t trust others enough? The reason for this behavior is that the pedant wants everything to work out the way he sees it, and other people sometimes may not meet his high demands.
The habit of solving all matters without help soon forms in him a rather strong isolation and dependence on his own successes. As long as such a person has success in business, he is cheerful and makes grandiose plans. When something doesn't work out, the pedant tends to be gloomy and blame other people or himself. It happens quite often that such people do not forgive others for their mistakes. In fact, this is a position doomed to failure in advance. No one has yet managed to comprehend the truth through self-flagellation or limiting loved ones.
Pathological pedantry
In psychology there is the concept of morbid pedantry, which means a person’s exaggerated attraction to punctuality and consistency, reduced to meaninglessness. At the same time, the person performs actions similar to some kind of ceremony. In simple words, he can:
- create a meal schedule for breakfast, lunch and dinner for the entire next month;
- write down a list of clothes that will be needed on each next day;
- double-check that household appliances are turned off when leaving the house;
- repeatedly analyze the work performed.
In fact, it is not common for pedants to forget to turn off the iron or gas burner. It often takes them much longer than necessary to complete any task (washing dishes or vegetables) due to painful pedantry and the inability to distinguish important details from unimportant and secondary ones.
Often pedantic people demonstrate pettiness and diligence when performing the most ordinary and sometimes futile work. In such cases, pedantry is considered a significant psychological anomaly. Excessive manifestations of pedantry can become the basis for anankastic personality disorder. The term is derived from the name of the ancient Greek goddess Ananke, responsible for inevitability, inevitability, fatality. This deviation negatively affects relationships with family and friends, as well as the ability to make decisions.
A pedant is not a pathology, it is a character trait
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Perhaps, understanding pedantry will be interesting not only for ordinary people, but also for the heroes of our article today. Because by reading about themselves, they can discover new sides of their personality and competently use their characteristics in various life situations.
In reality, pedantic people (as well as others) cannot be classified as “good” or “bad”. This is the same individuality as our other character traits.
But nevertheless, who is a pedant and how different is he from ordinary people? As Henry Ford said, “Quality is doing something right, even when no one is looking.” This is pedantry.
Such people always try to do everything correctly and to the highest possible quality. They are not used to working carelessly, and they do not lack confidence.
Types of pedantry
The pedantic personality type cannot be clearly classified. The degree of manifestation of pedantry varies - from restrained to excessive. And each variety has many variations. Symbolically they are divided into rational and pathological.
Excessive
Morbid pedantry quite often causes the occurrence of diseases: neurotic or obsessive-compulsive disorder with an obsessive state. A person is constantly tormented by persistent thoughts and negative emotions, leading him to clinical symptoms that require the help of a specialist. Anankast becomes extremely irritated if someone violates the order he has established. Excessive pedantry spoils the life of both yourself and those around you because:
- seeks to impose his point of view on others, considering it the only correct one;
- makes exaggerated claims to other people;
- delays decision making due to self-doubt;
- focuses on small details;
- finds it difficult to adapt to new conditions.
Pathological pedants regularly return to a situation or action that worries him. In controlled cases, a person is able to successfully settle into society; in severe cases, the help of a doctor is necessary.
Moderate
Rational pedantry is a valuable constructive quality, a reasonable, controlled state of a person. Even if order is violated, a pedantic person does not suffer because of this; he experiences a slight inconvenience, which is quickly eliminated. Diligence and conscientiousness are part of his life policy, which helps him achieve his goals.
Moderate pedantry is not scary at all
Signs of a pedantic person
The external difference of pedantry lies in special accuracy, a predisposition to follow rules and a desire for established order in all spheres of life. A pedant usually determines for himself what is correct and what does not correspond to his views. Moreover, no one’s opinion is authoritative for him. However, he does not allow harsh statements, showing restraint in actions and words, although sometimes he can be easily provoked into conflict if his opinion and position are openly opposed.
Pedantic individuals are unsociable; they take the choice of their environment seriously, preferring friends with similar views. Some people consider pedants to be bores because of their reluctance to chat in vain and picky words. For them, the conversation must be specific, meaningful, factually supported.
Pedants are easy to spot in a crowd
Scrupulousness
The concept of scrupulousness implies maximum accuracy and the utmost degree of responsibility. This moral quality of a person is manifested in the desire and ability to do any task carefully and accurately. Such qualities are very highly valued in some professions that require reliability and care, and do not allow vagueness and uncertainty. Over time, people who have this property gain experience in carefully performing habitual actions, reaching the point of automatism, but do not go beyond the bounds of common sense.
Pedantry presupposes scrupulousness even in small things
Great attention to detail
In work, this character trait positively characterizes pedants who are prone to responsible and diligent fulfillment of their duties, without missing the slightest detail. It is not for nothing that the products of European manufacturers, famous for their pedantry, are highly valued all over the world. However, in everyday life they immediately notice even a slight violation of the usual way of life.
The pedant pays great attention to detail in everything
Striving for order in everything
Most people perceive the ability to organize an ideal space around themselves positively. Neat people will not miss a single speck of dust; they strive to put everything on the shelves, sort it out, sort it, systematize it. The love of cleanliness, which gives them real pleasure, sometimes oppresses those close to them. An obsession with order takes pedants much more time and effort than other people, and often creates discomfort due to dependence on the cleaning ritual.
Pedantry is expressed in the order around a person
Slowness, long decision-making
The weakness of pedantic people is their attempts to find the ideal option; they endlessly delay the approval of a decision, going through possible failures and trying to avoid them. Concentration on a specific goal slows down the completion of the main task. The psychological characteristics of pedants and partially slowed neuropsychic processes prevent them from eliminating hesitation and self-doubt. Difficulties arise for them in situations where they need to act spontaneously, without specific instructions.
A pedant, as a rule, makes decisions slowly but surely
Nervousness if things don’t go the way he wants
Pedants, with their exactingness and attention to detail, are distinguished by an increased level of anxiety if established rules are violated and reality does not meet their expectations. Life is often far from ideal, so neat people often get involved in conflicts if they have to defend their position. Dishes moved to another place, shoes thrown in the corridor, the inability to wash their hands right away cause them great anxiety and can make them angry for a long time.
The pedant gets nervous when the situation gets out of control
Pros and cons of quality
What are the advantages of pedantry:
- This quality gives a person the ability to think critically and take a responsible approach to solving many problems. Pedantic people very often find use in professions that require precision and care. They often become programmers, lawyers, accountants, and engineers.
- Pedant employees are highly valued by management. They are responsible, their actions are conservative and predictable.
- Pedantic people are punctual. By inviting them to a meeting, you don’t have to worry about them being late and letting you down.
At the same time, it is not without reason that many people associate the concept of a pedant with something negative. There is an explanation for this:
- One of the main disadvantages of this quality is the desire to impose one’s own rules on others. Particularly affected in this situation are relatives and friends who have to put up with the intransigence, exactingness and meticulousness of a pedantic family member.
- The downside for the pedant himself is that it can be difficult for him to accept any changes. New conditions frighten him and disrupt his usual stability.
- Obsession with trifles often makes such a person boring and boring in the eyes of others.
- A frequent companion of pedantry is anxiety. This is when there is a constant fear of missing some detail or breaking some rule.
- A pedant does not know how to prioritize. An insignificant detail may occupy his attention more than some more significant matter.
Why pedants are valued at work
The efficiency of a pedantic worker commands respect; he can be compared to a machine gun. He will diligently do all the tasks entrusted to him, will not lose anything, will not forget, will put his documents in order, and will not harm others. Managers highly value performers who simply cannot do things right. These qualities are indispensable in the professional activities of accountants and other specialists associated with responsibilities in the field of finance and public administration.
But not all subordinates are tolerant of bosses who prohibit and severely punish extraneous conversations at work, errors in paperwork, and tardiness. The advantages of such a director:
- he doesn't jump to conclusions
- does not forget to congratulate employees on their birthdays and memorable dates,
- does not require them to work overtime without reason, so as not to inadvertently violate the Labor Code.
Formalists do not have to make efforts to move up the career ladder: their responsibility and conscientiousness are noticed and assigned more and more serious work.
A pedant is extremely valued at work
General characteristics
A pedant and a perfectionist puts a lot of effort into making sure the result lives up to expectations.
Other similarities:
- increased level of anxiety;
- lack of flexibility, inability to adapt to dynamic conditions;
- prolonged experience of a traumatic situation;
- tendency to depression and nervous breakdowns.
Pedants and perfectionists have doubts about the correctness of their actions. The pedant rechecks the work many times before submitting it. A perfectionist usually asks for additional time to refine, improve, double-check, and worries that others will not appreciate his efforts.
How to get rid of excessive pedantry
Eliminating signs of excessive formalism is not at all easy, even in the absence of pathological manifestations that would require the help of professionals. Experts advise a pedant who wants to get rid of the negative traits that complicate his life to work on himself with all the diligence that is characteristic of him. Psychologists recommend:
- Build relationships with others more patiently: they do not have to meet high standards of accuracy and attention. Their views on maintaining order may differ from those stated by the pedant. To eliminate the possibility of disagreement, remember something good about the person who caused the irritation.
- Calculate the biggest costs of time and effort and try to reduce them to the limit, directing them towards increasing experience and knowledge, broadening your horizons, and personal improvement.
- Take mistakes and mistakes not as a disaster, but as a useful experience that will be useful in the future. Analyze such situations, but without negative statements.
- Deliberately integrate a little chaos and confusion into your life, instruct friends and employees to make it a little difficult to restore order at home and in the workplace. Within 2-3 days, things will not go anywhere, and a pedantic person will understand that the disaster did not happen. After this, your attitude towards little things may change.
- Come up with a hobby that will teach you how to relax and enjoy your vacation.
A pedant sometimes suffers from his own character
How to become a pedant
The problem of developing the qualities inherent in a neat person is acute for those who want to improve their personal productivity following the example of positive qualities - punctuality, scrupulousness, diligence. After all, even a very capable and ambitious person will not be able to achieve success in the absence of accuracy, commitment, diligence, and attention to detail. Experts advise how to achieve the desired result:
- Every day, outline a list of upcoming tasks for the next day - work and home - and be sure to complete them, adjusting plans only if necessary.
- Put your home in order, sort out things for their intended purpose, create a cleaning schedule and try to constantly maintain such an atmosphere in the house. This will help organize your thoughts.
- Get into the habit of not keeping yourself waiting by going to work a little earlier to avoid accidental delays.
- Refrain from heightened excitement, control syllables, intonation, expressions, and exercise restraint.
- Pay attention to your appearance, devote enough time to hygiene, clothing, makeup, and procedures.
Take yourself seriously, take into account what you have accomplished in your diary, as well as in applications in gadgets that motivate you to implement your plans.
You cannot become a natural pedant, but you can develop some of his traits
Communication features
It is difficult for a formalist to admit that people live according to individual standards. He considers his rules to be unshakable, and openly or internally shows dissatisfaction when deviations from the “original standards” are detected. Boredom drives such a person into loneliness, which further intensifies the conflict with the outside world.
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But indecision also plays a positive role in communication, since such a person is non-conflict. The necessary words that were necessary in the dispute come to mind after the skirmish is left behind. Knowing this, the pedant refrains from sorting things out, but on the condition that his fundamental foundations are not violated.
What to be prepared for when communicating with a pedant
If a person dear to you exhibits traits of a pedantic personality, no one guarantees ease of communication with him. For a successful relationship, take into account all the nuances of his character. Meet his requirements, do not disappoint him with sloppiness or irresponsibility. Interest such a person, earn his trust. To do this, try to look and behave according to his rules.
Prepare to put his desires before yours.
A pedant, due to his personality type, forces others to take his interests into account, and this is revealed in the smallest details. If he doesn’t like his friend’s current appearance, he will not fail to report this in a very critical tone. And it’s better not to be offended by him, but take measures to eliminate your shortcoming. A critical attitude is organically inherent in him, but he is also not alien to self-criticism. If you’re going to find fault, then it’s about everyone.
Hostility and aggression are not characteristic of pedantic people, but they deviate from this principle if they have to defend their own point of view. They can easily quarrel over trifles if they don’t like a situation that they consider wrong.
The advice to the pedant's partner or lover is to either indulge his demands all the time, or find a way to get around his personality traits in order to remain true to yourself.
The pedant will first do what he wants, and then what you want
Be prepared to do whatever he asks.
Getting along with a pedant is not easy, but it is possible. To do this, maintain his confidence in his rightness, do not criticize his exaggerated attention to detail, do not argue with him and follow all his instructions. Show qualities that he values. Do not insist on your own, thereby causing his irritation. Any situation will not resolve itself, make an effort and everything will work out.
With pedantry, a person demands that others follow his rules
Concept
The word pedant means “teacher” in French. The term migrated into Russian vocabulary during the era of popularity of tutors from France. The original meaning of the word is a picky teacher, a mentor who demands strict adherence to formal order.
The Italian language also has the word pedante, meaning a teacher, scientist, book reader who does not want to know anything other than his science.
Today, pedantry is considered to be a quality of a person’s personality, which endows him with extreme precision and accuracy in actions, as well as a tendency to strictly adhere to formal rules and requirements.
In simple words, a pedant is a person who is extremely attentive and meticulous to little things, is endowed with punctuality, and may seem picky and meticulous.
An entire nation can be cited as an example: you have probably heard the expression “German pedantry.” There are legends about this quality of German residents: Soviet front-line soldiers said that during the Great Patriotic War they could set their watches based on enemy artillery shelling.
Tourists returning from Germany never tire of sharing funny stories about pedantic Germans who hang their washed clothes strictly according to size, maintain perfect order not only at home, but also on the streets, and do not even come to visit their parents without a prior invitation. German goods are also considered an example of impeccable quality.
How to behave with a pedant
If you need to enter into communication with a neat person, be sure to take into account the peculiarities of his personality. If there is no such need, it is better to abandon the idea: this communication will not be simple. This type of personality cannot be called unpleasant, but it is difficult to contact him.
How to communicate with a pedant
A neat person categorically does not accept lack of composure, looseness, or inhibition. Communication can become positive if the appearance and style of behavior correspond to his ideas about decency. Demonstration of accuracy, conscientiousness, and punctuality will certainly make a good impression on him. Of course, be sure to follow his rules so that the pedant does not lose interest in such communication.
Pedants are precise in speech and actions
How to make friends with a pedant
Pedantry does not make a person bad, but his character may be unpleasant to some people. However, if there is sympathy or personal interest, you will find a common language with him and meet him halfway. It has rough edges that can be smoothed out if there is interest.
What to do if your partner is a pedant
Living with a neat guy isn't for everyone, but it has its benefits. It is useless to try to change such a person, accept him as he is. He is quite successful at work, so there are usually no problems with money in the family. Men often take care of household chores; paperwork and utility bills will never be forgotten; they also manage cooking at the highest level. So the marriage can be very happy if you match such a person. Normal coexistence is possible with it.
Be careful and then the pedant will like you
How pedants behave in everyday life
Anankasts tend to keep control of the household. A pedantic woman is considered an excellent housewife, whose house is always impeccably clean. Although it can hardly be called cozy, it rather looks like a museum, and a shiny floor after washing four times does not please the owner and household members.
Neatness is a trait that characterizes everyday life
Pedants as parents
Loyalty to one's principles in raising children does not surprise anyone. They strictly monitor compliance with the regime. A certain time is allotted for sleeping, eating, and walking. Everything must be done at the appointed time; they will not allow violations. All this is for the benefit of the child, whom the parent adores and is ready to move mountains for.
Pedant parents themselves build authoritarianism in the family
How to raise a pedantic child
In a family where a child was born only because everyone should have children, parents who have studied parenting manuals strive for an ideal result. They accustom the baby to a strict routine, regulate his actions, and explain what is good and what is bad. Such a child grows up to be an emotionally reserved pedant whose school grades become an end in themselves.
When does pathology occur?
Anankast individuals have a scrupulous desire for accuracy and order. It’s not difficult to expose them; they take everything to the point of absurdity. For example, they can create a schedule for home meals or wardrobe months in advance. They can, after leaving the house, return several times and double-check whether household devices have been left on. They do household chores much longer than necessary, because almost everything is redone several times.
Increased attention to detail delays the work process, so at work pedants may cope with responsibilities worse than their colleagues. Since they are conscientious individuals, lost hours can be compensated for by delays during non-working hours. Such dedication leads to quarrels in the family.
Even when they are at home, they cannot stop thinking about work issues and constantly analyze their actions. Thoughts deprive pedants of rest and proper sleep, which results in neuroses.
