What is the difference between assertiveness and aggressiveness?
Assertiveness means standing up for your rights without threatening the self-esteem of the
other person while aggressiveness involves hurting others and putting them on the
defensive.
What are the steps that one can take to reduce defensiveness?
(1) Back off and cool down. (2) Use “I statements.” (3) Avoid absolute words such as
“always” and “never.” (4) Make positive assumptions about the other person or persons
involved. (5) Learn to separate your work from who you are.
Explain the concept of script that is used in transactional analysis.
Much of what we do and say in our daily lives is based on scripts that most people have
heard repeatedly as children. A psychological script is very much like a movie or theater
script. Like the ones in show business, your scripts have a cast of characters, dialogue,
acts, scenes, themes, and plots—but you didn’t write them yourself. Instead, they have
come from parents, other family members, friends, adult role models, the media, and
teachers—in short, from nearly all human influences during your first years of childhood.