Patterns

Personality tendencies and common patterns

People often have a dominant response but may switch between styles depending on context, age, trauma history, and relationships.

• Fight-dominant personalities: Assertive, sometimes combative. Strength: boundary-setting and protection. Challenge: conflict escalation, relationship strain, chronic anger.

• Flight-dominant personalities: Independent, restless, safety-seeking through avoidance. Strength: adaptability and self-preservation. Challenge: isolation, missed opportunities for repair, anxiety.

• Freeze-dominant personalities: Thoughtful, observant, steady under low stress. Strength: calm in acute crisis. Challenge: dissociation, inertia, difficulty asserting needs.

• Fawn-dominant personalities: Empathic, cooperative, relationship-focused. Strength: strong social attunement. Challenge: loss of identity, burnout, exploitation.

• Flop-prone (severe overwhelm): May appear passive, deeply exhausted, or unable to engage. Often follows chronic or complex trauma.

Note: These tendencies are adaptive strategies formed in response to the environment — especially during childhood. They are not character flaws.