Defensiveness (defensive): Any of a number of strategies designed to protect oneself from imagined harm or presumed attack. Defensiveness may come in many guises, some of which are harder to recognize that others: hostility, idle chatter, quietness, passivity, non-commitment, introversion, argument, insincere agreement, physicality, distracting activity, unavailability (i.e., being spread too thin to be deeply accountable anywhere), emotional or physical breakdown, tiredness, inattention, Pollyanna positiveness, mock certainty, obsessive dedication, doubt, thoughtfulness, etc.