1. the motivation to achieve finality and absoluteness in decisions, judgments, and choices, often prematurely. A person with a high need for closure will often have a low tolerance for ambiguity and uncertainty and may be attracted to dogmatic political or religious views. In 1994, psychologists Donna M. Webster and Arie W. Kruglanski (1939–  ) developed the Need for Closure Scale, a 42-item self-report inventory, to assess stable individual differences in the desire for closure.

2. the need to achieve a sense of finality at the close of a painful or difficult episode in one’s life. Some estranged couples, for example, feel a need to obtain a formal divorce for emotional as well as practical reasons.