How Can You Identify Defensive Behavior

Let’s Find Out

Afshara
2 min readJan 8, 2023
Photo by Liza Summer from Pexels

When someone is feeling hurt or humiliated, they might use defensive behaviour. The person might feel good about himself/herself temporarily but over the long term, they usually feel worse.

What are the signs that someone is defensive?

Although it’s not easy to identify defensive behaviours, however, there are some obvious signs that can help us to recognize defensive behaviours. For instance,

  • Not being a good listener in a conversation
  • Giving justifications if the defensive person is being criticized about something
  • Blaming the other person whenever they are being criticized
  • Trying to defend their actions
  • Accusing the other person of doing the same thing
  • Pointing out other person’s mistakes from the past rather than the current issue
  • Telling the other person that their feelings are inappropriate

Final Takeaways

Speaking with a mental health professional can help with defensive behaviour issues. Also, therapy can help the person regulate their defensive emotions and communicate more effectively.

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Afshara
Afshara

Written by Afshara

Ph.D. in Management | Educator | Content Writer | Editor | https://beacons.ai/afshara17

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