PASSIVE BEHAVIOR: CHARACTERISTICS AND CONSEQUENCES - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

The passive behavior is that behavior that manifests itself in people's insecurity interacting with others speaking in their constant quest to please the people around him regardless of their own good and avoiding confrontations with others. Mostly this type of behavior is more evident in verbal communication.

A person with passive behavior leads a lifestyle characterized by "running away." He frequently allows his rights to be violated as he is unable to openly express his feelings, thoughts and opinions.

As a consequence, you allow others to violate your rights and not respect you. It may also be that you express yourself in a "self-defeating" way, with apologies, lack of confidence, so that others give little importance to what you say or do.

A passive person is constantly inhibited, shy and reserved. She does not achieve her objectives and goals in life so she lives in constant frustration, unhappiness and anxiety, as she allows others to choose for her.

These types of people act that way because they prefer not to deteriorate relationships with other people, so they adopt submissive behaviors, hoping that the other person will understand their needs.

Characteristics of passive behavior

A person with passive behavior can usually act in the following way:

1-accuse others for their actions.

2-Express through indirect statements what bothers you instead of facing the problem.

3-It can be dishonest.

4-Avoid problems and the responsibility you have over them, hoping that they will solve themselves or that others will take care of the problem.

5-Others take advantage of him / her easily (in addition, it encourages this attitude).

6-He usually has feelings of insecurity and inferiority, which are reinforced whenever he comes into contact with an aggressive person.

7-She is angry with herself because she knows that others take advantage of her.

8-She is an expert in hiding her feelings.

9-She is shy and reserved when she is with other people.

10-He does not know how to accept compliments.

11-He is exhausted and does not have much energy or enthusiasm for anything.

12-Your attitude ends up irritating others.

13-Absorb the energy of others.

14-You can recognize him by his typical body and verbal language.

Often a person who exhibits passive behavior can present the following characteristics:

Non-verbal behavior

Eyes that look down, low voice, hesitations, helpless gestures, denying importance to the situation, sunken posture, can totally avoid the situation, wringing his hands, hesitant or complaining tone, false laughter, among others.

Verbal behavior

Among their common phrases are always: "maybe", "I guess", "I wonder if we could…", "would you care a lot…", "only", "you don't think…", "ehh", "good", " it's not really important ”,“ don't bother ”, among other expressions.

Effects edit

Interpersonal conflicts, depression, helplessness, low self-esteem, hurts himself, misses opportunities, tension, feels out of control, feels lonely, does not like himself or others and / or feels angry.

A person with passive behavior does not necessarily present all the aforementioned characteristics, this may vary from one individual to another.

Passive-aggressive behavior

If a person expresses their emotions in a negative way, that is, hitting objects, people, breaking things or yelling, we can find ourselves before an aggressive but not passive person.

When a person presents both behaviors, they do not express them openly but they do contain all those negative emotions that they apparently do not show.

A person with this type of behavior tends to “keep it all”, but does not forget the disadvantages but uses other strategies to channel the aggressiveness by showing his hostility in another way.

A person with passive-aggressive behavior can present these actions.

• Shows resentment, continuous reproaches, sarcasm.
• Stop talking or listening to the other person.
• It takes a long time to do any task.
• He makes senseless reproaches.

Behind that behavior there is some conflict and it does not resolve it assertively. An assertive person is able to exchange opinions with others, make proposals, improvements, suggestions or present necessary complaints in an appropriate way without insulting.

Consequences of passive behavior

The objective of a person with this behavior is to calm others and avoid conflicts or confrontations of any kind. For the passive, avoiding or escaping anxiety-producing conflicts is comforting; that is why the inhibited behavior is maintained.

Although on certain occasions, one's own rights must be ceded in order to maintain good relations with our peers, it is necessary to understand that if this behavior is exaggerated and frequent, it is not healthy.

This behavior will incur injustices towards himself and unhappiness by not being able to forge a fairly normal life. By acting in a condescending or passive manner, you do not express your own ideas, thoughts or feelings for fear of the reaction of others.

A person with this type of behavior does not express himself honestly, it is not clear or precise. With these actions, little by little it generates an aggressive attitude towards it, because it does not get what it wants.

Especially because he perceives the disrespectful way in which his environment treats him, even if he does nothing to avoid it. Just accept it.

This type of people, by acting systematically in a passive way, negative experiences destroy their self-esteem and confidence to the point that they lose respect for themselves.

This brings, as mentioned before, abuse of power by others, making the taxpayer always be and feel like a victim.

References

1. Ajzen, I., (2005), Attitudes, personality and behavior. New York, USA, Publisher: Open University Press.
2. Casares, I; González, B., (2000), Social Skills in the Curriculum. Spain. Editorial: Center for Educational Research and Documentation.
3. Dalton, M., Hoyle, D., Watts, M., (2007) Human Relations. Mexico. Publisher: Thomson.
4. Kaplan, H., Bally, S., Garretson, C., (1985) Speechreading: A Way to Improve Understanding. Washington DC, USA, Publisher: Clerc Books.
5. Luke, B., (2017) Managing Stress. USES. Publisher: World Headquaters.
6. Angelis, P., (2009) Blindsided: Recognizing and dealing with passive-aggressive leadership in the workplace.USA.
7. Bedell, J., Lennox, S., (1996) Handbook for Communication and Problem-Solving Skills Training: A Cognitive-Behavioral Approach. New York, USA. Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Inc