Coping with Seven Disruptive Personality Types in the Classroom

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merited, do not be stingy. If they are not, do not extend inauthentic compliments for shabbywork; instead, offer heartfelt empathy, encouragement, and hope for something better nexttime.A question that arises from time to time is whether procrastination is alwayspassive-aggressive as opposed to simply being an innate tendency that a certain person has.This topic comes up frequently in counseling and therapy conversations with students. Ifyou closely examine the behavior, the motives, and the attitudes of students who engage inprocrastination, it becomes apparent that it is a form of passive-aggressive behavior. Underinvestigation, we find that it is not just an innate tendency. That is what students wouldprefer for you to believe. Their view is, “Oh, it just happens. I’m just lazy,” and they write thebehavior off.Procrastination is not just laziness. There is an underlying dynamic here. When you look atthese students’ behavior closely, you see that they take the assignment, go home, and atsome point turn away from it. They have an aversion to it, and that leads to a moment ofrebellion. That is the moment of defiance. The feeling is, “I don’t want to do this,” and they donot put it in words. They cannot even articulate it.The student, perhaps subconsciously, thinks, “Look, I’ve had enough of people telling mewhat to do. My parents have done this, and now here comes an instructor giving me anassignment to do. It’s one more thing I don’t like, and I’m not going to do it when thatinstructor wants me to do it. I’m going to do it on my terms—when I want to do it—even if it’sthe night before the exam.” And that is quite clearly an act of defiance andpassive-aggressive behavior.In contrast, what about those students who require accommodations such as extensions onan assignment because of legitimate reasons? Where would an instructor draw the linebetween understanding real need and enabling students to continue to procrastinate? Thiscan be a big issue on campuses that deal with a lot of nontraditional students, many of whomare working full time or are single parents.The fact is that too many instructors assume the burden, the onus, of taking care of otherparts of the student’s life. That is usually a mistake. One can be very empathic andunderstanding and, at the same time, encounter a pitfall when students appeal forextenuation because they had to take care of their kids that night, somebody had strep, orsomething else. The kids were sick. They had to go to the doctor. The boss asked this personto stay on a few extra hours, or they couldn’t get enough sleep, etc., etc. The list goes on andon.20
The issue here is that a great many students are attending colleges and universities acrossthe country and are managing to get to class punctually and regularly. This should not beforgotten or dismissed lightly. It is a disservice to those students when instructors provideextenuations to students who petition for them by telling those students, “All right, I’ll havea different standard for you.” It is not to say that the students are lying about thecircumstances, but, ultimately, it really is the student’s responsibility to take care of his orher own life.If the student discovers over time that child care responsibilities are precluding his or herability to attend class on time or to take tests on time, then the student is faced with thedecision about whether he will have to give up some or all of his classes at some point if hecannot properly take care of all that. That is the student’s decision.The same holds true for a job. This situation is only getting worse. Without beinghard-hearted about this, it is true that this situation is increasing on college campuses, andinstructors can expect to hear more and more of these appeals and these petitions forextenuation.Where does it all end? Keep in mind, when you give an extenuation to one student, what areyou going to do about the next one who comes in with the same reason or excuse? And whatabout the student after that? Are you going to keep doing it? We all have our breakingpoints.If you continue granting exceptions and extensions, you are going to open the floodgates tolying. To some extent, you are giving students the impression that you are an enabler who iswilling to carry them through all kinds of extenuating circumstances so that they at leastcomplete the semester. Do you want to be in that position? It is a tough question, but thisprobably is not a position that you want to maintain.Now, there are some special circumstances, and these go beyond child care and work, andone should be on the lookout for these situations, such as when there has been a death or anaccident. Obviously, if somebody comes into your office in a full body cast and says that hehas been run over by a Mack truck and could not be there for class, for common sense andlegal reasons, you want to provide that extenuation.Also, sometimes there really are extenuating circumstances to consider. A universitylocated near a military air base, for example, had to institute a set of empathic, flexibleaccommodations for students who were called away on military duty. The policy allowedthese students to compensate for missed or incomplete attendance without compromisingtheir or the university’s academic integrity. If your college is faced with a similar challenge,21
Page 1 and 2: Coping withSeven DisruptivePersonal
Page 3 and 4: About This White PaperThis Magna Pu
Page 5 and 6: IntroductionThe typical college pro
Page 7 and 8: kThe Explosive StudentCharacteristi
Page 9 and 10: However, in situations in which the
Page 11 and 12: lThe Antisocial StudentCharacterist
Page 13 and 14: when detected and verified, have ad
Page 15 and 16: mThe Passive-Aggressive StudentChar
Page 17 and 18: • Keep records; mention in syllab
Page 19: play equally escapist video games.
Page 23 and 24: nThe Narcissistic StudentCharacteri
Page 25 and 26: A short, straightforward comment to
Page 27 and 28: Without much ado, the consultant to
Page 29 and 30: pThe Litigious StudentCharacteristi
Page 31 and 32: qThe Compulsive StudentCharacterist
Page 33 and 34: imaginative tales nonetheless.It se
Page 35 and 36: Appendix A: Additional Issues and C
Page 37 and 38: of it. That could result in you bei
Page 39 and 40: had seen him as a potential menace
Page 41 and 42: to say, “Well, we agree to disagr
Page 43 and 44: As we know, some college football p
Page 45 and 46: Imitation of murderers is another r
Page 47 and 48: #3: Passive-AggressiveStyleCharacte
Page 49: We Value Your FeedbackWe hope you

Coping with Seven Disruptive Personality Types in the Classroom

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