Glossary

Accommodating: An individual neglects their own concerns to satisfy the concerns of the other person.

Active Listening: A communication procedure wherein the listener uses nonverbal behavior, such as eye contact and gestures, as well as ver­bal behavior, including tone of voice, open-ended questions, restate­ments, and summaries, to demonstrate to the speaker that he or she is being heard.

Arbitration: Intervention into a dispute by an independent third party who is given authority to collect information, listens to both sides, and makes a decision as to how the conflict should be settled.

Assertiveness: To state, express, defend, or maintain your wishes, ideas, needs, beliefs, or goals.

Avoidance: The practice of nonengagement.

Basic Needs: Needs that underlie all human behavior, such as survival, self-esteem, belonging, self-actualization, power, freedom, and fun. Like individuals, groups have basic needs, including the need for identity, security, vitality, and community.

Bias: A preconceived opinion or attitude about something or someone. A bias may be favorable or unfavorable.

Body Language: Nonverbal communication expressed by your body.

Brainstorming: A storm of ideas. A group thinking technique for help­ing disputants create multiple options for consideration in solving a

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problem. Brainstorming allows all criticism and evaluation of ideas to be postponed until later.

Clarify: To make clearer or to enhance understanding. With a conflict resolution style/method, open-ended questions are often used for clarification.

Collaboration: Working with the other to seek solutions that completely satisfy both parties. This involves accepting both parties’ concerns as valid and digging into an issue in an attempt to find innovative pos­sibilities.

Common Interests/Common Ground: Needs and/or interests that are held jointly by the parties in a negotiation.

Community: A social group with common interests, identity, and customs.

Competing: A strategy in which one pursues the satisfaction of his/her own positions or interests at the expense of others—a win-lose ap­proach.

Compromising: Seeking an expedient settlement that only partially satisfies both people. Compromising does not dig into the underly­ing problem, but rather seeks a more superficial arrangement, for example, “splitting the difference.” It is based on partial concessions.

Conflict: An expressed struggle between at least two interdependent par­ties who perceive themselves as having incompatible goals, needs, values, ideas, and beliefs. Parties regard each other as interfering with the achievement of their own goals.

Conflict Responses/Modes: Typical styles of conflict resolution used by individuals. These styles include competing, avoiding, accommodat­ing, and collaborating.

Conflict Resolution: A spectrum of processes that employs communica­tion skills and creative thinking to develop solutions that are accept­able to those concerned in a dispute.

Consensus: An agreement reached by identifying the interests of all concerned parties, and then building an integrative solution that maximizes satisfaction of as many of the interests as possible.

Consequences: A result that logically follows an action.

Cooperation: Associating for mutual benefit; working toward a common end or purpose; considers the interests of the other party.

Culture: That part of human interactions and experiences that determines how one feels, acts, and thinks. It is through one’s culture that one establishes standards for judging right from wrong, for determin­ing beauty and truth, and forjudging oneself and others. Culture includes one’s nationality, ethnicity, race, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic background, age, and physical and mental ability.

De-escalate: To engage in actions that decrease the intensity of a conflict.

Diversity: The fact or quality of being distinct.

Empowerment: A method of balancing power in a relationship wherein the lower party acquires more power by gaining expertise, obtaining extra resources, building interpersonal linkages, and/or enhancing communication skills.

Escalate: To engage in actions that increase the intensity of a conflict.

Facilitation: The use of a third party or parties to provide procedural as­sistance to a group attempting to reach consensus about a problem.

Framing: The manner in which a conflict solution or issue is conceptual­ized or defined.

I-statements: three-part communication process that describes another person’s behavior, your feelings, and requests a behavioral change.

Impartiality: Attitude of the third party; unbiased opinion.

Influence: Power to sway or affect.

Interest/Need: A substantive, procedural, or psychological need of a party in a conflict situation; the aspect of something that makes it significant.

Listening for Feeling: Being able to identify and differentiate facts and feelings.

Managing Emotions: Staying aware of your emotions, biases, and preju­dices and realizing their impact on the conflict process.

Mediation: Intervention in a dispute by an impartial third party who can assist the disputants in negotiating an acceptable settlement.

Negotiation: An interaction between two or more parties who have an actual or perceived conflict of interest. In a negotiation, the partici­pants join voluntarily in a dialogue to educate each other about their needs and interests, to exchange information, and to create a solu­tion that meets the needs of both parties.

Neutrality: The statement of not favoring or biased to either side in a dispute.

Option: An alternative course of action; a possible solution that may satisfy the interests of a party to a dispute.

Peace: A process of responding to diversity and conflict with tolerance, imagination, and flexibility; fully exercising one’s responsibilities to ensure that all fully enjoy human rights.

Perception: One’s viewpoint or understanding of a situation.

Position: A point of view; a specific solution that a party proposes to meet her/his interests or needs. A position is likely to be concrete and ex­plicit, often involving a demand or threat and leaving little room for discussion. In conflict resolution, an essential activity is for partici­pants to move beyond positions in order to understand underlying interests and needs.

Power: The ability to act or perform effectively; the ability to influence.

Questioning: A skill used to gather meaningful conflict information while not creating a defensive reaction by the disputant.

Reframing: The process of changing how a person or party of conflict conceptualizes her/his or another’s attitudes, behaviors, issues, and interests; how a situation is defined. Reframing during conflict resolution processes help to mitigate defensiveness and de-escalate tension.

Restating: Skill used to assure accurate understanding of each disputant.

Resolution: A course of action agreed upon to solve a problem.

Summarize: To restate in a brief, concise form. Summarizing is an aspect of active listening used by both disputants and mediators to increase common understanding.

Synergy: Cooperative thoughts and/or actions of two or more people working together to achieve something neither could achieve alone.

Trust: To have confidence in or feel sure of; faith.

Value: A principle, standard, or quality considered worthwhile or desir­able.

Violence: Psychological or physical force exerted for the purpose of injur­ing, damaging, or abusing people or property.