Passive-Aggressive Personality

Passive-Aggressive Personality Disorder

Perspectives q.v.

Disease
Dimensional
Behavior
Life Story

The Disease Perspective

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: DSM-IV (American Psychiatric Association, 1994, pp. 634-635), for research purposes, describes Passive-Aggressive Personality Disorder as a pervasive pattern of negativistic attitudes and passive resistance to demands for adequate performance, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by four (or more) of the following:

passively resists fulfilling routine social and occupational tasks;

complains of being misunderstood and unappreciated by others;

is sullen and argumentative;

unreasonably criticizes and scorns authority;

expresses envy and resentment toward those apparently more fortunate;

voices exaggerated and persistent complaints of personal misfortune;

alternates between hostile defiance and contrition.

The disorder does not occur exclusively during Major Depressive Episodes and is not better accounted for by Dysthymic Disorder.

The Dimensional Perspective

Here is a hypothetical profile, in terms of the five-factor model of personality, for Passive-Aggressive Personality Disorder (speculatively constructed from McCrae, 1994, pg. 306):

High Neuroticism: Chronic negative affects, including anxiety, fearfulness, tension, irritability, anger, dejection, hopelessness, guilt, shame; difficulty in inhibiting impulses: for example, to eat, drink, or spend money; irrational beliefs: for example, unrealistic expectations, perfectionistic demands on self, unwarranted pessimism; unfounded somatic concerns; helplessness and dependence on others for emotional support and decision making.
High Extraversion: Excessive talking, leading to inappropriate self-disclosure and social friction; inability to spend time alone; attention seeking and overly dramatic expression of emotions; reckless excitement seeking; inappropriate attempts to dominate and control others.
Low Openness: Difficulty adapting to social or personal change; low tolerance or understanding of different points of view or lifestyles; emotional blandness and inability to understand and verbalize own feelings; alexythymia; constricted range of interests; insensitivity to art and beauty; excessive conformity to authority.
Low Agreeableness: Cynicism and paranoid thinking; inability to trust even friends or family; quarrelsomeness; too ready to pick fights; exploitive and manipulative; lying; rude and inconsiderate manner alienates friends, limits social support; lack of respect for social conventions can lead to troubles with the law; inflated and grandiose sense of self; arrogance.
High Conscientiousness: Overachievement: workaholic absorption in job or cause to the exclusion of family, social, and personal interests; compulsiveness, including excessive cleanliness, tidiness, and attention to detail; rigid self-discipline and an inability to set tasks aside and relax; lack of spontaneity; overscrupulousness in moral behavior.

The Behavior Perspective

Motivations/Behaviors

Associated Disorders

Depression (Styron).

The Life Story Perspective

Childhood

Universal Personality Disorder

Basic Passions

Depressive

Value System

Passive-Aggressive Personality Disorder is the typological representation of a particular pathological value system ( see The Stoic account of why people behave badly). The passions listed below (derived mostly from Beck, Freeman, and associates, pp. 45-46) have as their objects those indifferent things which the passive-aggressive personality typically and incorrectly judges to be good and bad. I would look to Evolutionary Psychology and Behavior Genetics for the scientific explanation of the origin of these impulses.

Passions
Desires/ Pleasures	Fears/ Distresses
freedom to do as one pleases oppositional style the goodwill of authorities recognition from authority figures support of authority figures benefits conferred by authorities autonomy passivity submissivenes self-sufficiency strong figures strong organizations social approval social support attachment social acceptance the caring of others doing things one's own way deviousness evasion or circumvention of rules delaying tactics the line of least resistance solitary pursuits	compulsory activity encroachment by others intrusiveness of others demandingness of others interference by others control by others dominance by others rules which restrict freedom of action expectations of others, especially authority figures compliance competition reprisals the cutting off of "supplies"

Passions

Desires/ Pleasures

Fears/ Distresses

freedom to do as one pleases
oppositional style
the goodwill of authorities
recognition from authority figures
support of authority figures
benefits conferred by authorities
autonomy
passivity
submissivenes
self-sufficiency
strong figures
strong organizations
social approval
social support
attachment
social acceptance
the caring of others
doing things one's own way
deviousness
evasion or circumvention of rules
delaying tactics
the line of least resistance
solitary pursuits

compulsory activity
encroachment by others
intrusiveness of others
demandingness of others
interference by others
control by others
dominance by others
rules which restrict freedom of action
expectations of others, especially authority figures
compliance
competition
reprisals
the cutting off of "supplies"

Cognitive Effects

Basic Belief: I could be stepped on. Strategy: Resistance (Beck, Freeman & associates, pg. 26).
In Cognitive Therapy of Personality Disorders, Aaron T. Beck, Arthur Freeman, and associates list typical beliefs associated with each specific personality disorder. Here are some of the typical beliefs that they have listed (pg. 360) for Passive-Aggressive Personality Disorder:

The only way I can preserve my self-respect is by asserting myself indirectly--for example, by not carrying out instructions exactly.

I like to be attached to people but I am unwilling to pay the price of being dominated.

Authority figures tend to be intrusive, demanding, interfering, and controlling.

I have to resist the domination of authorities but at the same time maintain their approval and acceptance.

Making deadlines, complying with demands, and conforming are direct blows to my pride and self-sufficiency.

It is best not to express my anger directly but to show my displeasure by not conforming.

I know what's best for me and other people shouldn't tell me what to do.

Beck's Cognitive Therapy for Personality Disorders

A Preliminary Study of Stoicism as Psychotherapy

American Psychiatric Association (1994). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: DSM-IV. 4th ed. Washington: Author.

American Psychiatric Association (2000). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: DSM-IV. 4th ed., text revision. Washington: Author.

Beck, Aaron T. and Freeman, Arthur M. and Associates (1990). Cognitive Therapy of Personality Disorders. New York : Guilford Press.

Gunderson, John G. and Philips, Katherine A. (1995). Personality Disorders. Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry/VI, Vol. 2. Eds. Harold I. Kaplan and Benjamin J. Sadock. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins.

McCrae, Robert R. (1994). "A Reformulation of Axis II: Personality and Personality-Related Problems." Costa, Paul T., Jr., Widiger, Thomas A., editors. Personality Disorders and the Five-Factor Model of Personality. Washington, D.C.: The American Psychological Association.

Perry, J. Christopher (1989). Personality Disorders: Passive-Aggressive Personality Disorder. Treatments of Psychiatric Disorders, Vol. 3. American Psychiatric Association. Task Force on Treatments of Psychiatric Disorders. Washington, DC : American Psychiatric Association.

Styron, William (1990). Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness. New York: Random House

The Leisurely personality type is a nonpathological representation of this category.

Passive-Aggressive Personality Disorder: links

Personality Disorders

Passive-Aggressive Personality Disorder: Diagnostic Criteria, DSM-III-R
Dual Diagnosis and the Passive-Aggressive Personality Disorder
Negativistic Personality: Functional and Structural Domain Descriptions - Theodore Millon
Interpersonal Reconstructive Therapy for Passive-Aggressive Personality Disorder with Lorna Smith Benjamin, PhD
Archives of PAL@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU
Dealing with Difficult People in the Workplace
May 98 Ask the Expert - Passive-Aggressive Co-worker
March 97 Ask the Expert - Passive-Aggressive Behavior
Fact Sheet: Oppositional Defiant Disorder
Predictors of Outcome In Depression
Dad accused of killing daughter will plead insanity (Naples, FL)
Dr. Judith's Advice Column: Angry, rude, hateful person wants to know how to change
Google Search: passive-aggressive personality disorder
Google Search: passive-aggressive.personality ~control

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