Sirois, F. M., Molnar, D. S., & Hirsch, J. (in press). A meta-analytic and conceptual update on the associations between procrastination and perfectionism. European Journal of Personality.
Procrastination is commonly believed to be a symptom of perfectionism. Indeed, it is not difficult to picture the perfectionist delaying progress on his or her task by focusing on frivolous details in an effort to ensure that the final product is absolutely perfect or putting off the task completely for fear that his or her ideal outcomes will never be able to be achieved. However, are we correct to make these assumptions? Our new meta-analysis exploring associations between perfectionism and procrastination from the lens of self-regulation theory indicates that it depends on the type of perfectionism. Perfectionistic concerns is a type of perfectionism that includes being extremely self-critical, preoccupied with others’ evaluations of you, sensing a large discrepancy between who you are and who you want or feel you ought to be, and an inability to feel satisfied with yourself, whereas perfectionistic strivings concerns the tendency to set excessively high personal standards that are often unrealistic and to demand nothing less than perfection from the self. Our new research indicates that perfectionistic concerns is associated with greater procrastination. However, perfectionistic strivings is associated with less procrastination. Thus, our research indicates that procrastination and perfectionistic concerns may share similar self-evaluative tendencies that undermine goal achievement, whereas perfectionistic strivings may actually foster timely goal achievement.
