Passive personality (A complete guide)

In this blog, we will be talking about the passive personality type, characteristics of the passive personality type, how to deal with someone who has a passive personality type, and more information about the passive personality type.

What is a passive personality?

A person with a passive personality type is the kind of person who prevents himself or herself getting into a form of confrontation.

The passive personality trait can be a role in many various methods, based on the person’s overall personality type

People with a passive personality may be seen as non-caring, easygoing or shy.

In some instances, people with this kind of personality are having more benefits since it means that they are less likely to be impacted by stress.

People with a passive personality are those people who are collected and compassionate which is something this world currently needs.

But when this kind of personality becomes your automatic type, you might not have all the benefits that you thought you might have. 

If you’re always using your passive personality, you are making yourself less likely the star of your life and more of a supporting actor.

People with this kind of personality are also more likely to be commented with the following words:

  • Laid-back
  • Reserved
  • Following the flow
  • Follower
  • Going to the road of least resistance

Characteristics of a passive personality in a person

People with a passive personality are less likely to talk about their thoughts about an issue at work which can lead to a conflict due to misunderstanding.

When this kind of personality becomes extreme, these people may become silent in a confrontation between people with strong personalities and may not find their voice in high-pressure situations. 

People with a passive personality are not confident about their opinions which lead them to be convinced with the opinions of others even if they don’t agree with them.

These kinds of people tend to believe in destiny which can be a cause to why they don’t struggle with the conflict.

People with a passive personality are not believers that they can change their behaviours since nothing can be changed anyway.

These kinds of people will always believe that they don’t have anything to do in life but wait and sit out what could occur to them. 

People with a passive personality are not believers of hard work being the cause of success.

You can learn more about success is a result of hard work and commitment in determined people by buying this book on this website.

Other signs of a passive personality can be found in various settings such as the school, work or home.

These kinds of traits can manifest in different settings depending on the experience of this kind of person. 

There are beneficial and non-beneficial traits of a passive personality. The next sections will be elaborating on the traits of this personality.

This Person Does Anything For A Quiet And Peaceful Life

There are periods when people with a passive personality would need to speak up about their opinions but they get hindered due to their fear of getting in trouble.

This is why these people would rather take the road to least resistance to avoid themselves from deranged conflicts.

People with a passive personality believe that things happen when they happen.

These people don’t like to pursue their goals and dreams.

In this case, people with a passive personality are puppets in need of puppet strings to guide them.

These people tend to feel nothing that isn’t their own which means that whatever a person close to them is feeling, they will also have that feeling.

People with a passive personality are more comfortable when people need to tell them what to do and they will do it.

In this case, they can become copycats in the making since they tend to follow people on what they want them to do.

This Person Always Say Yes Or Not Being Assertive

People with a passive personality have a difficult time saying no to people.

These people don’t want to have the negative effect on others. 

People with a passsive personality are concentrated on making other people happy about them.

In this case, these people are very prone to approval-seeking behaviours.

In a group discussion, people with a passive personality would rather take the lesser opinion when they are being asked by a group member.

These people would rather shower praises to someone else who has shared a good opinion.

People with a passive personality believe that other people are more important to them.

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They Clarify & Redirect Their Speech

People with a passive personality are less likely to speak clearly and directly and they would rather use ambiguous sentences.

These people get reluctant when they are about to say something to another person.

When they talk to someone, these people with a passive personality will ask first for permission from the other party in the conversation.

These people tend to underestimate their opinions and perspective which will lead them to be unconfident when it comes to discussing things that interest them.

People with a passive personality are afraid of stating their opinions because of the scrutiny of others who are listening.

This can be connected to their tendency to seek the approval of others.

In this case, the conversation of people with a passive personality will be focused on starting first by asking permission from the other person.

This can be very irritating to some people who are genuinely interested in the person who has this personality.

They Struggle To Make Big Life Decisions

People with a passive personality have complications when it comes to making small decisions in life which can lead to having troubles in making the big decisions in life.

After all, these people will look for permission from someone before they can speak their minds which show their inclination to be weak at decision-making.

Also, people with a passive personality are more inclined to the belief that things happen and all they need to do is wait.

For instance, these people are more likely to get into romantic relationships without any means of thinking about this decision that they have just made.

People with a passive personality are also more likely to not commit to a role that they were placed in a job.

This trouble in decision-making may arise from the fact that they are afraid of getting into a disagreement with another person.

This is also why people with a passive personality can get into risky circumstances thanks to their poor decision-making skills.

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They Give Their Future To The Fates

People with a passive personality believe that relationships can have good things when they happen and these relationships shouldn’t need much effort on their part.

Although relationships are more than being given the passive role since two people should work together to make the relationship work in active ways.

As mentioned before, people with a passive personality believe that success is not achieved through hard work and dedication.

Instead, these people believe in luck such as when you had a good grade, you associate it with having a lucky day.

People with a passive personality see bad days as being in unlucky days at that time and they don’t actively seek out what was wrong.

Instead, these people merely believe that good and bad things can occur depending on the hands of fate.

People with a passive personality are inclined to the duty of fate in their lives.

These people are inaccurate in thinking that a failure in life is their destiny.

What Is Passive Aggressive Personality in Personality Types?

People with a passive-aggressive personality don’t say what they want to people directly but they tend to be ambiguous about what they are trying to say.

In this case, it will cause a rift between what they want to say and do to another person. 

People with a passive-aggressive personality will be secretly against another person’s opinion but they will just say that they will approve of it.

Although the resistance towards the original plan is still there which leads them to show behaviours that they don’t truly agree with it. 

People with a passive-aggressive personality will be showing behaviours that they don’t like to submit in the agreed deadlines and show up tardy in the meetings of the original plan.

People with this kind of personality will be more likely to have a psychiatric disorder since this kind of behaviour is a symptom of a psychiatric disorder. 

People with a passive-aggressive personality will be more likely to have toxic relationships and have deranged communication at work.

You can learn more about this personality by buying this book on this website.

Passive Vs. Aggressive Personality Traits In Personality

Passive and aggressive personality traits are the most incomprehensive traits in accordance with personality.

This arises from these kinds of traits associated with negative prejudices and discrimination.

More or less, the passive and aggressive personality traits are more on which one needs more shoving than another.

As mentioned before, people with the passive personality are those who don’t want to deal with conflict.

People with a passive personality are more on the shy side and laidback types.

While people with aggressive personality traits are those who are expressive about their opinions than what we learn about people with passive personality traits.

People with aggressive personality traits are assertive of what they want in life and they can go to different wavelengths to get it.

The following are some of the traits of these different personality types.

Passive Personality

  • They tend to express and open their opinions in ways that don’t involve or create personal confrontation.
  • They’re happy and easygoing to go with the flow if they don’t have a strong opinion on a particular topic of interest.
  • They’ll be the one who states they don’t mind or would rather that everyone else decides for him or her.

Aggressive Personality

  • They speak up and assert when they have an idea, observe an injustice, or see an opportunity to do things better.
  • They’re much more likely to deal with people in authority about concerns.
  • They may be considered as confident, demanding, passionate, assertive, or dominant.

Diagnosing Passive-Aggressive Personality By Mental health Professionals

A passive-aggressive personality is not considered a psychological disorder but there are some traits that may be intervened through counselling.

Some behavioural patterns of this personality may be eligible to look for professional help.

In a therapy session, the psychologist may ask you how your behaviours may be doing to you and others in important aspects in your life such as work, school, and home.

The psychologist may even make you answer some tests if you truly have a passive-aggressive personality.

The psychologist may ask you why you might have a passive-aggressive personality whether it’s from your previous experiences.

You and your psychologist will talk about the possible environmental triggers that may cause this personality to show up in your life.

The psychologist will give you some tips that will be useful in dealing with your life despite your passive-aggressive personality.

You can learn more about this personality in some narcissists by buying this book on this website.

Treating and Helping People With Passive-Aggressive Personality

You may also be referred by your concerned loved ones to a counsellor.

In counselling, you can learn how to change your behaviours in your passive-aggressive personality.

You will also be taught how to cope with your underlying aggression, revenge, and low self-esteem concerns that are strengthening your passive-aggressive personality.

Counselling can give you some coping techniques to help you communicate effectively to other people and solve problems in better methods.

Assertiveness training can also be used to deal with your passive-aggressive personality.

This training can help you express your thoughts more clearly to help other people understand what you want.

This training can also help minimize your negative behaviours in a passive-aggressive personality.

This can also help you be more aware of what you are doing to yourself and others with your personality

Dealing With Passive Personality in People

As you can see, it can be hard to deal with your passive behaviours, especially if they have helped you in your childhood years but there is hope.

As mentioned before, you can attend counselling to help minimize your negative behaviours.

You should also recall that you are responsible for your personality.

You can also learn to be aware of your reluctance in speaking and learn how to speak more clearly and sincerely.

Speech behaviours of people with a passive personality are hard to get rid of but this can be developed through training in effective communication.

Kantor who is a psychiatrist believes that these people will benefit from the approaches of psychodynamic, supportive, cognitive, behavioural, and interpersonal psychological interventions.

These kinds of psychological interventions can help people with a passive personality and those people that they have victimized.  

How To Deal With A Passive Personality in a Colleague At Work

You can deal with a colleague who has a passive personality at work by helping them with opportunities that are available at work.

This can help them be more proactive in the workplace and in their lives.

You can also encourage people with a passive personality by letting them hear feedback from you and make sure that they’re constructive.

You can also give them some motivation to talk about their opinions about a meeting in the workplace.

Conclusion

In this blog, we have talked about the passive personality type, characteristics of the passive personality type, how to deal with someone who has a passive personality type, and more information about the passive personality type.

If you have any more questions about the passive personality type, please let us know and the team will gladly answer your questions.

FAQs: passive personality

What is passive love?

Passive love is a kind of love where open communication and the candidness of emotions are difficult to express.

For instance, a downward gaze can be a sign or symptom of hurt feelings or an attempt to hide something extremely emotional.

Passiveness typically expresses itself through rigidity or stillness.

What is a passive man?

A passive man is a male that is more on the introverted side of the personality than the extroverted side.

These kinds of men manifest less aggressive than their active counterparts and somewhat comfortable with inactivity.

These kinds of men are reactors and seem to have a restrictive capacity to snap into action when it is needed for.

Can passive Aggressives love?

Yes, passive-aggressives can love but they aren’t good at being open and candid to their partners about their affection towards them.

Rewarding intimacy is incompatible with suppressed feelings and inhibited communication.

This kind of trait can be a difficult game to play as a partner, even for the most emotionally healthy and stable individual.

What is passive control?

Passive control is defined as decisions an individual will make for themselves based on what they like, dislike, want and don’t want and need in a romantic relationship.

While you are not directly manipulating or trying to control another person, the end goal is typically controlled at some degree.

Should I ignore passive aggressive behaviour?

No, you shouldn’t ignore passive-aggressive behaviour but ignore the excuses and unjust reasons for people with this kind of behaviour.

You cannot control or manipulate their behaviour but you can control and inhibit your response.

You need to forget trying to change them into an acceptable and reasonable human being and the best you can do is get the right behaviour out of them through your healthy responses.

Citations

Buckley, C. (n. d.). 9 Signs of Passive Behaviour. Are You Being Too Selfless?. Live Your True Story. Retrieved from here.

Cherry, K. (2019). Understanding Passive-Aggressive Behavior. Verywellmind. Retrieved from here.

Kluger, J. (2017). 7 Signs You’re Dealing With a Passive-Aggressive Person. TIME. Retrieved from here.

Martel, J. & Cirino, E. (2016). Passive Aggressive Personality. Healthline. Retrieved from here.

Uniacke, K. (2019). Passive People Share These 12 Traits. A Conscious Rethink. Retrieved from here.

Wikipedia. (2020). Passive–aggressive personality disorder. Retrieved from here.

Winch, G. (2015). 10 Things Only Passive People Say. psychology Today. Retrieved from here.

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