Passive–aggressive behavior, a personality trait, is passive, sometimes obstructionist resistance to following through with expectations in interpersonal 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, procrastination, stubbornness, resentment, sullenness, or deliberate/repeated failure to accomplish requested tasks for which one is (often explicitly) responsible.[1]
The book Living with the Passive-Aggressive Man lists 11 responses that may help identify passive-aggressive behavior:[1]
Ambiguity 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 Fear of dependency Fear of intimacy as a means to act out anger: The passive aggressive often cannot trust. Because of this, they guard themselves against becoming intimately attached to someone. Making chaotic situations Making excuses for non-performance in work teams Obstructionism Procrastination Sulking Victimization response: instead of recognizing one's own weaknesses, tendency to blame 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.
