Dealing with a person who needs Constant Approval can be very tasking. There are situations where approval seems unnecessary but a person deems it necessary to consult before moving to the next step.
This characteristic is perceived negatively by people. If you are looking for the right words to qualify such a person, you have come to the right place.
There are also fairly negative words to use if you don’t want to offend those you are referring to.
15 Words for someone who needs Constant Approval
A person who seeks constant approval is often assumed to just want attention or be unconfident in his/her own abilities. However, there may be other reasons. Below are 15 names for someone who needs constant approval.
- Approval-seeking
- Reliant
- Sycophant
- Mentee
- Attention-seeking
- Dependent.
- Servile
- Compliant
- Needy
- Permission-seeking
- Childish
- Inferior
- Novice
- Submissive
- Gullible
Approval-seeking
An approval seeker is a person who seeks to be approved by one person or by everyone. This is the kind of person who takes his tasks to another person for approval.
An approval seeker depends on the views of another person to determine what is right or wrong. Seeking approval suggests that the other person has the final say.
An Approval-seeking person is also one who seeks to please everyone and becomes showy with his/her actions intended to impress.
An Approval seeker submits to the ideas of another person and dumps his/her own. This is what makes Approval different from Validation. Validation, on the other hand, has to do with confirmation of truth, accuracy, or perfection.
Example:
- He can be approval-seeking so we just let him be.
Reliant
A reliant person is one who depends on another person to do anything. His/her views also depend on what another person thinks. This is the kind of person who always seeks the approval of a certain person.
This may be caused by a wish to impress the other person, the fear of disappointing the other person, or the fear of making a mistake by oneself.
When a person is scared of making mistakes with his/her ideas, he/she will most likely depend on other people who seem more intelligent
Example:
- I am often reliant on what my boss thinks.
Sycophant
A sycophant is a person who seeks the approval of a wealthy or prominent person with pretentious submission and deceitful compliments.
This kind of person appears like a supporter of another person and is often obviously deceiving the other person just to continue getting favors from him/her.
However, the other person will hardly see the clear deceit because he/she is hearing exactly what he/she wants to hear.
A sycophant will most likely be found behind a politician or a public figure who has many haters. This makes it easier for the sycophant to manipulate the public figure with simple compliments and fake support.
Example:
- No one likes you. Not even that bloody sycophant.
Mentee
This just may be the right word to use for someone who appears to be seeking constant approval from another person. He/she may not just be after attention but trying to be sure if he/she is doing it right.
However, in this case, it is more of validation-seeking than approval-seeking. This is because the mentee hopes to learn from the other person who is the mentor. The mentor is also expected to guide the mentee in doing it correctly.
A mentee is a person who submits himself or herself to the guidance and teaching of another person and follows in the other person’s footsteps.
A mentee is like a student who feels the need to submit to the teacher. He/she will always go to the mentor for approval until the mentor is able to make him/her confident in the skill.
Like a student submits to the lectures of a teacher, a mentor feels the need to submit to the mentor who is expected to know better and teach him/her.
Example:
- The mentee seeks constant approval to ensure perfection.
Attention-seeking
This is often used in place of approval-seeking, though not all approval-seekers are simply out to get attention.
When a person wants to get the approval of another person, it may be for other important reasons than attention, though attention is part of it.
However, when a person is seeking the approval of everyone, trying to please each person, then he/she is definitely an attention seeker.
An attention seeker is a person who wants everyone to pay attention to him/her so he/she does things to please everyone.
An attention seeker can do things excessively, absurdly, or call people to themselves to get praises or have everyone talking about them. Attention seekers can be annoying as they like everything to be about them and tend to always be asking for it.
Example:
- He’s clearly attention-seeking. Ignore him.
Dependent
You can use this in referring to a person who can’t think on his/her own or believes the idea of another person to be better and chooses to depend on their final say.
The word can also refer to a person who works under another person and must always submit to the final say of that person.
A dependent person is one who relies on the words or decisions of another person. This can be due to the position of that person as a leader or his/her perception of that person as being more knowledgeable or intelligent.
Calling a person dependent may not seem offensive if he/she is in a position where compliance is necessary. However, it may be considered offensive if he/she seems to be choosing to depend.
Example:
- I’m dependent on my boss so he makes the final decision.
Servile
This is a possible characteristic of a person who seeks constant approval. This is quite an insult if you deem it unnecessary for the person to keep seeking the approval of another person.
When a person is servile, he/she is not just being treated like a servant but also acting like one. By humbling yourself to seek the approval of a person, you are letting him/her decide what you will do or how you will feel.
A servile person is one who puts himself or herself in a position to be treated unfairly. He/she complies with unfair rules and submits to unfair treatment.
This, however, may be for a reason best known to the person. A person who seeks approval may be servile to be able to accept criticism or condemnation from whomever he/she is seeking approval from.
Servile is a negative word implying that a person is acting like a servant.
Example:
- I choose to be servile and I have my reasons.
Compliant
A compliant person is one who obeys rules or orders. He/she can constantly seek approval from a person who knows the rules better. When you choose to comply, you are deciding to submit to whatever you are told to do.
Therefore, to avoid transgressing, most of the actions need to be approved.
Compliant is a positive word for obedience. You can also use it for someone who is obedient to a fault, if you just don’t want to offend him/her. A negative word you can use instead is ‘Servile’.
Example:
- I am in a position to be compliant. I have no say.
Needy
This is another word you can use for a dependent person. Needy implies that a person lacks confidence. This can make him/her depend on how others judge him/her.
A person can seek to be approved constantly when he/she lacks confidence. A lack of self-esteem can make a person seek the right kind of attention. While he/she is scared of being judged, he/she can still get showy in hopes of getting commended by people.
A needy person is one who lacks self-esteem and needs to be constantly reassured. This is the kind of person who is not confident enough to work alone or be by himself or herself. When a person is needy, he/she has to call someone whom he/she is confident in.
Needy people put their confidence in others rather than in themselves. This makes it easy for them to submit to the conclusions of others without contesting.
Example:
- She gets needy and it’s pretty annoying.
Permission-seeking
This is just another part of ‘approval seeking’. ‘Approval seeking’ entails allowing others to tell you what is right or wrong, allowing others to decide what you should and shouldn’t do, and allowing others to decide what is good enough and what isn’t.
Permission seeking simply has to do with letting another person tell you what you should or shouldn’t do. This is a normal word for someone who is expected to seek permission from another person. However, it may seem offensive to people who are not expected to.
A permission seeker is a person who seeks the permission of others before making a move. This is a feature of servile people who will submit to the answers of another person.
An employee can be attention-seeking to his/her employer.
Example:
- I am permission-seeking for a good reason.
Childish
Childish is a commonly used word for people who need constant approval. It is mostly used to refer to people who always want the attention or adoration of everyone. The word may also simply be used for everyone whom you think is acting immaturely.
A childish person is one who thinks or acts like a child. You can call a person childish if he/she seeks to be constantly adored by everyone or tries to please everybody.
Example:
- He’s so childish, expecting everyone to put him on a pedestal.
Inferior
This is an adjective for a person or something that is less good in comparison to someone or something else. When a person seeks the approval of a person compulsorily, he/she may consider the other person greater or in a position to always approve what he/she has done.
A person who thinks himself inferior to another will always submit to the other person, often without contesting.
Example:
- She’s inferior to you. That’s why she comes for approval.
Novice
This can be used to refer to an actually inferior person. When a person is new to something, he/she can be easily convinced about it.
The person can also get deceived easily due to the absence of prior knowledge of how it works. This can make a person submit to the ideas of another without contesting.
A novice is a person who has no idea of something or is very new at doing it. This kind of person will seek more approval than validation since he/she is still finding it difficult to understand.
A novice will necessarily depend on what another person tells him/her.
Example:
- I’m a novice so I do what is asked of me.
Submissive
This is the basic word for a servile person. Instead of calling a person servile and getting him/her offended, you can call him/her submissive. A person who goes to another for approval is definitely submitting to what the other person says.
A submissive person is one who tends to submit when required to. A submissive person can also submit to certain people for special reasons.
If a person is submitting for no clear reason and being used unfairly, we can call him/her servile but it’s less offensive to say ‘Submissive’ or ‘Compliant.’
Gullible
This is an adjective that may apply to a novice. A person who seeks constant approval is submitting to another person’s ideas without contest.
He/she may have been deceived into believing that the other person is better than him/her or that the other person wants what is best for him/her.
A gullible person is one easily deceived. When a person submits to whatever you say, you can easily make the person do anything.
The servility of a person can make him/her appear gullible.
Example:
- Dani is so gullible. What I say is final.
Approval-seeking’ entails allowing others to tell you what is right or wrong (validation-seeking), allowing others to decide what you should and shouldn’t do (permission-seeking), and allowing others to decide what is good enough and what isn’t (attention-seeking).
The best word to use for an approval seeker depends on which of the three categories he/she falls into.
