Passive–aggressive behavior, a personality trait In psychology, Trait theory is a major approach to the study of human personality. Trait theorists are primarily interested in the measurement of traits, which can be defined as habitual patterns of behavior, thought, and emotion. According to this perspective, traits are relatively stable over time, differ among individuals , and influence, is passive, sometimes obstructionist Obstructionism or policy of obstruction denotes the deliberate interference with the progress of a legislation by various means such as filibustering or slow walking which may depend on the respective parliamentary procedures resistance to following through with expectations in interpersonal An interpersonal relationship is an association between two or more people that may range from fleeting to enduring. This association may be based on limerence, love and liking, regular business interactions, or some other type of social commitment. Interpersonal relationships take place in a great variety of contexts, such as family, friends, or occupational situations. It is a personality trait marked by a pervasive pattern of negative attitudes and passive, usually disavowed resistance in interpersonal or occupational situations.
It can manifest itself as learned helplessness Learned helplessness, as a technical term in animal psychology and related human psychology, means a condition of a human being or an animal in which it has learned to behave helplessly, even when the opportunity is restored for it to help itself by avoiding an unpleasant or harmful circumstance to which it has been subjected. Learned helplessness, procrastination, stubbornness, resentment, sullenness, or deliberate/repeated failure to accomplish requested tasks for which one is (often explicitly) responsible.[1]
Contents |
Signs and symptoms
The book Living with the Passive-Aggressive Man lists 11 responses that may help identify passive-aggressive behavior:[1]
- Ambiguity Ambiguity is a condition where information can be understood or interpreted in more than one way and is distinct from vagueness, which is a statement about the lack of precision contained or available in the information. Context may play a role in resolving ambiguity. For example the same piece of information may be ambiguous in one context and or speaking cryptically: a means of engendering a feeling of insecurity in others
- Chronically being late and forgetting things: another way to exert control or to punish.
- Fear of competition Competition is a contest between individuals, groups, nations, animals, etc. for territory, a niche, or a location of resources. It arises whenever two or more parties strive for a goal which cannot be shared. Competition occurs naturally between living organisms which co-exist in the same environment. For example, animals compete over water
- Fear of dependency
- Fear of intimacy An intimate relationship is a particularly close interpersonal relationship. It can be defined by these characteristics: enduring behavioral interdependence, repeated interactions, emotional attachment, and need fulfillment as a means to act out anger: The passive aggressive often cannot trust A trusted party is presumed to seek to fulfill policies, ethical codes, law and their previous promises. Because of this, they guard themselves against becoming intimately attached to someone.
- Making chaotic situations Chaos typically means a state lacking order or predictability. In ancient Greece, it first meant the initial state of the universe, and, by extension, space, darkness, or an abyss (the antithetical, or possibly complementary, concept was cosmos), but later uses of the term by philosophers varied over time. In modern English, the word is used in
- Making excuses In psychology and logic, rationalization is the process of constructing a logical justification for a belief, decision, action or lack thereof that was originally arrived at through a different mental process. It is a defense mechanism in which perceived controversial behaviors or feelings are explained in a rational or logical manner to avoid the for non-performance in work teams
- Obstructionism Obstructionism or policy of obstruction denotes the deliberate interference with the progress of a legislation by various means such as filibustering or slow walking which may depend on the respective parliamentary procedures
- Procrastination
- Sulking
- Victimization Victimisation or victimization is the process of being victimised. According to Wiktionary, to victimise is to make someone a victim or sacrifice (2) punish someone unjustly, or (3) swindle or defraud someone response: instead of recognizing one's own weaknesses, tendency to blame Blame is the act of censuring, holding responsible, making negative statements about an individual or group that their action or actions are socially or morally irresponsible, the opposite of praise. When someone is morally responsible for doing something wrong their action is blameworthy. By contrast, when someone is morally responsible for doing others for own failures.
A passive-aggressive person may not have all of these behaviors, and may have other[clarification needed] non-passive-aggressive traits.
Diagnostic criteria
Passive-aggressive personality disorder Personality disorders, formerly referred to as character disorders, are a class of personality types and behaviors that the American Psychiatric Association defines as "an enduring pattern of inner experience and behavior that deviates markedly from the expectations of the culture of the individual who exhibits it". Personality disorders was listed as an Axis II The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is published by the American Psychiatric Association and provides a common language and standard criteria for the classification of mental disorders. It is used in the United States and in varying degrees around the world, by clinicians, researchers, psychiatric drug regulation agencies, personality disorder in the DSM-III-R The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is published by the American Psychiatric Association and provides a common language and standard criteria for the classification of mental disorders. It is used in the United States and in varying degrees around the world, by clinicians, researchers, psychiatric drug regulation agencies,, but was moved in the DSM-IV to Appendix B ("Criteria Sets and Axes Provided for Further Study")[2] because of controversy and the need for further research on how to also categorize the behaviors in a future edition.[3][4] As an alternative, the diagnosis Personality disorder not otherwise specified Personality disorder not otherwise specified is a DSM-IV Axis II personality disorder may be used instead.
The World Health Organization The World Health Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) that acts as a coordinating authority on international public health. Established on 7 April 1948, and headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, the agency inherited the mandate and resources of its predecessor, the Health Organization, which had been an agency of the's ICD-10 The International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems 10th Revision is a coding of diseases and signs, symptoms, abnormal findings, complaints, social circumstances and external causes of injury or diseases, as classified by the World Health Organization. (WHO). The code set allows more than 14,400 different codes lists passive-aggressive personality disorder under (F The International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems 10th Revision is a coding of diseases and signs, symptoms, abnormal findings, complaints, social circumstances and external causes of injury or diseases, as classified by the World Health Organization (WHO).. This page contains ICD-10 Chapter V: Mental and 60.8), Other specific personality disorders. It is a requirement of ICD-10 that a diagnosis of any specific personality disorder also satisfy a set of general personality disorder criteria Personality disorders, formerly referred to as character disorders, are a class of personality types and behaviors that the American Psychiatric Association defines as "an enduring pattern of inner experience and behavior that deviates markedly from the expectations of the culture of the individual who exhibits it". Personality disorders.
Causes
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Passive aggressive disorder may stem from a specific childhood stimulus[5] (e.g., alcohol/drug addicted parents) in an environment where it was not safe to express frustration or anger. Families in which the honest expression of feelings is forbidden tend to teach children to repress and deny their feelings and to use other channels to express their frustration.
Children who sugarcoat their hostility do not grow beyond it. Never developing better coping strategies or skills for self-expression, they can become adults who, beneath the seductive veneer, harbor vindictive intent.[6] Martin Kantor suggests three areas that contribute to passive-aggressive anger in individuals: conflicts about dependency, control, and competition.[7]
Treatment
Kantor suggests a treatment approach using psychodynamic Psychodynamic psychotherapy is a form of depth psychology, the primary focus of which is to reveal the unconscious content of a client's psyche in an effort to alleviate psychic tension. In this way, it is similar to psychoanalysis, however, psychodynamic therapy tends to be more brief and less intensive than psychoanalysis. It also relies on the, supportive Supportive psychotherapy is a psychotherapeutic approach that integrates psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioral, and interpersonal conceptual models and techniques. The objective of the therapist is to reinforce the patient's healthy and adaptive patterns of thought behaviors in order to reduce the intrapsychic conflicts that produce symptoms of, cognitive Cognitive therapy is a type of psychotherapy developed by American psychiatrist Aaron T. Beck. CT is one of the therapeutic approaches within the larger group of cognitive behavioral therapies (CBT) and was first expounded by Beck in the 1960s, behavioral Behaviour therapy, or behavior therapy is an approach to psychotherapy based on learning theory which aims to treat psychopathology through techniques designed to reinforce desired and extinguish undesired behaviours and interpersonal Interpersonal Psychotherapy is a time-limited psychotherapy that focuses on the interpersonal context and on building interpersonal skills. IPT is based on the belief that interpersonal factors may contribute heavily to psychological problems. It is commonly distinguished from other forms of therapy in its emphasis on the interpersonal rather than therapeutic methods. These methods apply to both the passive aggressive person and their target victim.[8]
History
Passive aggressive behavior was first defined clinically by Colonel William Menninger during World War II in the context of men's reaction to military compliance.[9] But noncompliance is not indicative of true passive aggressive behavior, which is the manifestation of emotions that have been repressed based on a self-imposed need for acceptance.
In the first version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is published by the American Psychiatric Association and provides a common language and standard criteria for the classification of mental disorders. It is used in the United States and in varying degrees around the world, by clinicians, researchers, psychiatric drug regulation agencies,, DSM-I, in 1952, the passive-aggressive was defined in a narrow way, grouped together with the passive-dependent Dependent personality disorder , formerly known as asthenic personality disorder, is a personality disorder that is characterized by a pervasive psychological dependence on other people. The difference between a 'dependent personality' and a 'dependent personality disorder' is somewhat subjective, which makes diagnosis sensitive to cultural.
See also
- Malicious compliance Malicious compliance is the behavior of a person who intentionally inflicts harm by strictly following the orders of management or following legal compulsions, knowing that compliance with the orders will cause a loss of some form resulting in damage to the manager's business or reputation, or a loss to an employee or subordinate. In effect, it is
- Psychological manipulation Psychological manipulation is a type of social influence that aims to change the perception or behavior of others through underhanded, deceptive, or even abusive tactics. By advancing only the interests of the manipulator, often at the other's expense, such methods could be considered exploitative, abusive, devious, and deceptive
- Relational aggression Relational aggression, also known as covert aggression or covert bullying is a type of aggression in which harm is caused through damage to relationships or social status within a group rather than physical violence. Relational aggression is more common and more studied among girls than boys
References
- Kantor, Martin (2002). Passive-aggression: a guide for the therapist, the patient and the victim. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger Publishers. ISBN The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering (SBN) code created by Gordon Foster, now Emeritus Professor of Statistics at Trinity College, Dublin, for the booksellers and stationers W.H. Smith and others in 1966 0275974227. http://books.google.com/books?id=ejBShSEt99kC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Passive-aggression:+a+guide+for+the+therapist,+the+patient+and+the+victim&cd=1#v=onepage&q&f=false. Retrieved April 27, 2010.
- Murphy, Tim and Hoff Oberlin, Loriann (2005). Overcoming passive aggression: how to stop hidden anger from spoiling your relationships, career and happiness. New York: Marlowe & Company. ISBN The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering (SBN) code created by Gordon Foster, now Emeritus Professor of Statistics at Trinity College, Dublin, for the booksellers and stationers W.H. Smith and others in 1966 1569243611. http://books.google.com/books?id=rT9902F91j4C&printsec=frontcover&dq=Overcoming+passive+aggression:+how+to+stop+hidden+anger+from+spoiling+your+relationships,+career+and+happiness&cd=1#v=onepage&q&f=false. Retrieved April 27, 2010.
- Wetzler, Scott (1992). Living with the passive-aggressive man. Simon & Schuster. http://books.google.com/books?id=JIyyid3xRyEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Living+with+the+Passive-Aggressive+Man&cd=1#v=onepage&q&f=false. Retrieved April 27, 2010.
- ^ a b Wetzler (1992), pp. 35–37.
- ^ Hopwood CJ, Morey LC, Markowitz JC, et al. (2009). "The construct validity of passive-aggressive personality disorder". Psychiatry 72 (3): 256–67. doi A digital object identifier is a character string used to uniquely identify an electronic document or other object. Metadata about the object is stored in association with the DOI name and this metadata may include a location, such as a URL, where the object can be found. The DOI for a document is permanent, whereas its location and other metadata:10.1521/psyc.2009.72.3.256. PMID A PMID is a unique number assigned to each PubMed citation of life sciences and biomedical scientific journal articles. The related Pubmed Central archive may additionally assign a separate number, a PMCID (PubMed Central Identifier), normally written with a PMC prefix 19821648.
- ^ Wetzler S, Morey LC (1999). "Passive-aggressive personality disorder: the demise of a syndrome". Psychiatry 62 (1): 49–59. PMID A PMID is a unique number assigned to each PubMed citation of life sciences and biomedical scientific journal articles. The related Pubmed Central archive may additionally assign a separate number, a PMCID (PubMed Central Identifier), normally written with a PMC prefix 10224623.
- ^ Fine MA, Overholser JC, Berkoff K (July 1992). "Diagnostic validity of the passive-aggressive personality disorder: suggestions for reform". Am J Psychother 46 (3): 470–84. PMID A PMID is a unique number assigned to each PubMed citation of life sciences and biomedical scientific journal articles. The related Pubmed Central archive may additionally assign a separate number, a PMCID (PubMed Central Identifier), normally written with a PMC prefix 1530103.
- ^ Johnson JG, Cohen P, Brown J, Smailes EM, Bernstein DP (July 1999). "Childhood maltreatment increases risk for personality disorders during early adulthood". Arch. Gen. Psychiatry 56 (7): 600–6. PMID A PMID is a unique number assigned to each PubMed citation of life sciences and biomedical scientific journal articles. The related Pubmed Central archive may additionally assign a separate number, a PMCID (PubMed Central Identifier), normally written with a PMC prefix 10401504.
- ^ Murphy (2005), p. 48.
- ^ Kantor (2002), pp. xvi–xvii.
- ^ Kantor (2002), p. 115.
- ^ Wetzler (1992), pp. 14–15.
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