Diagnostic Criteria for Passive-Aggressive Personality Disorder

A pervasive pattern of passive resistance to demands for adequate social and occupational performance, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by at least five of the following:

1. procrastinates, i.e., puts off things that need to be done so that deadlines are not met
2. becomes sulky, irritable, or argumentative when asked to do something he or she does not want to do
3. seems to work deliberately slowly or to do a bad job on tasks that he or she really does not want to do
4. protests, without justification, that others make unreasonable demands on him or her
5. avoids obligations by claiming to have "forgotten"
6. believes that he or she is doing a much better job than others think he or she is doing
7. resents useful suggestions from others concerning how he or she could be more productive
8. obstructs the efforts of others by failing to do his or her share of the work
9. unreasonbly criticizes or scorns people in positions of authority

Source: American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Third Edition, Revised. Washington, DC, American Psychiatric Association, 1987. pp. 357-358.