Defensiveness implies protecting ourselves from a perceived threat. The universal tendency is to try to “save face” by defending our presenting self when we perceive that it has been attacked by what social scientists call “face-threatening acts.” Frequently, this results in creating a climate that leads to a negative defensive spiral.
Discuss the following in your paper:
1. Explain who tends to be defensive: yourself, the other person, or both?
2. Explain what topics, issues, and/or concerns trigger this defensiveness.
3. Explain the consequences of defensiveness–How does it affect resolution, for example?
4. Label the defensiveness with the type of climate according to one of the six Gibb categories.
5. Explain what you could do to create one or more of the opposing supportive communication climates.
6. Explain how the defensiveness could be tamed. If you are not the one being defensive, consider the techniques you could use to address the defensiveness as explained in the text.