Submissiveness is a behavioral pattern characterized by compliance to the authority of others, usually at the expense of one’s personal needs, opinions, or harmonizing one’s desires with the dominant individual’s preferences. Psychologically, submissiveness is understood as a temporary phenomenon or a trait of one’s personality. For example, an individual might withhold their views even when they disagree in a group discussion to appease the dominant member of the group. While some degree of submissiveness is necessary for social cooperation and for the maintenance of social order, extreme, unmitigated forms of submissiveness are characterized by social and clinical psychologists as the consequence of low self-esteem, learned helplessness or social withdrawal. Within social and clinical psychology, this behavior is primarily examined in the contexts of power relations, attachment theory, and the lack of assertiveness. It occurs in personal relationships, organizational settings, or social systems with strong hierarchical power distances.
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