Sarah needs funding to research the efficacy of a certain drug for the treatment of cancer. Though her initial trials have been inconclusive, Sarah is sure that the drug will prove to be effective. However, the organizations she plans to approach for funding will not be very impressed with the results of the previous trials and may withhold funding. Sarah has to structure her proposal in such a way that she emphasizes the positives about the drug and minimizes the negative information. Which of the following best describes Sarah's technique of writing her proposal?

A) diagonal communication

B) filtering

C) defensiveness

D) jargon

The answer to this question would be defensiveness or option C) mentioned in the answer list or options.

Explanation:

Defensiveness or defensive behavior basically arises from any doubt, fear, prevention of negative outcome/s and/or apprehension of rejection or disapproval. In this case, Sarah is apprehensive or doubtful about the funding that she needs to receive from the various organizations. She is skeptical that if she reveals the negative outcomes or the information about the cancer medicine or drug that she is working on, she might loose funding for her research and experiments. Therefore, in this case, Sarah's approach towards the construction of the research proposal can be ideally identified as a defensive mechanism to prevent any undesirable outcome, reflected by the potential possibility of rejection of the research funding. This defensive mentality led her to eliminate all the negative information or results and only include the positive ones about the concerned drug.