A process-oriented interpretation of perfectionism: error, uncertainty, and the principles of organization

Contemporary dimensional models have substantially advanced the psychological understanding of perfectionism. However, growing theoretical and empirical evidence suggests that understanding the phenomenon may also require consideration of additional process-oriented perspectives. Rather than proposing a new definition of perfectionism, the present Perspective introduces a complementary process-oriented interpretative framework that focuses on the principles of organization underlying the phenomenon. Particular attention is directed toward individuals' relations to error, uncertainty, and performance-related self-evaluation, as well as to the experiential organization associated with these processes. Within this framework, perfectionism is interpreted as a psychological configuration in which flawlessness functions as a normative reference point, organizing self-evaluation, anticipatory regulation, and the interpretation of action. The paper further argues that characteristics commonly associated with perfectionistic strivings may, in some cases, reflect striving for excellence rather than perfectionism itself, suggesting that these forms of functioning may be organized according to different psychological principles. A phenomenological analysis illustrates how anticipation of mistakes may influence attentional focus, temporal experience, self-monitoring, and the lived experience of action. The proposed perspective is not intended to replace existing dimensional models but to complement them by offering an additional process-oriented level of interpretation. At the theoretical level, this framework contributes to a more differentiated understanding of perfectionism, while at the empirical level it highlights new directions for investigating error anticipation, regulatory flexibility, conditional self-evaluation, and other dynamic psychological processes that may not be fully captured by traditional trait-based measures.