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Five Key Differences Between Aggressive and Assertive Communication Styles

LaToya R Jefferson-James
12 min readJan 11, 2025

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In the world of work, regardless of where you work, people are often confused about what constitutes aggression, bullying behavior and what assertive communication looks like. Sadly, some assertive people have been demoted or even fired while aggressive ones have been tolerated and promoted.

Dear Reader, I know that I have not shared this with you all, but I have a second degree in Psychology. Psychology and English are married, you know. Around the late 1800s/early 1900s, all of creative literature was cycled through psychology. As a matter of fact, some stories read as case studies. For a great example of fiction-as-psychological-case-study, read the short story, “Paul’s Case,” by Willa Cather (it’s free): https://cather.unl.edu/writings/shortfiction/ss006

Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood was a literary experiment in which he used a real case in order to create fictional psychological profiles of the killers.

Picture courtesy of Amazon.com

In my other, fantastic, amazing life with absolutely all of the time in the world and no economic restrictions whatsoever, I am an Industrial Organizational psychologist who tours the country and helps make the world a better place to work. While some of my I-O postings come directly from personal experiences, many of them are based on trends (for the good and the…

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LaToya R Jefferson-James
LaToya R Jefferson-James

Written by LaToya R Jefferson-James

LaToya Jefferson-James has a Ph.D. in literature. Welcome! The professor is in! Come in and stay a spell. Let’s discuss and learn from one another.

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