Individual Styles of Communication

One concept I found interesting was individual styles of communication. I thought it was interesting that the way we communicate can’t be separated from who we are and there are 4 basic types of communication styles. These are: Assertive style, aggressive, passive, and passive aggressive. On page 77 of THINK by Judith A. Boss, there is a self-evaluation questionnaire that gives 6 scenarios and you pick the best response that matches how you would react to them. I got 3 “A’s” and 3 “C’s”. According to the back of the book, A’s = a passive communication style, and C’s= Assertive. According to the text passive communication is based on compliance and efforts to avoid confrontation at all costs. Assertive style, according to the text, is how we express ourselves when we are confident and our self-esteem is strong. I feel like those two are complete opposites, but I guess we act different when dealing with strangers, than dealing with people we know.