Issue 4: Understanding the Role of Positive Affect in Conflict Interaction
Research on conflict and emotion has primarily focused on negative emotions. Yet people can experience positive emotions such as fondness, admiration, and empathy during conflict.
Indeed, the trick to managing conflict constructively may be to alleviate negative affect and, ideally, to experience some positive affect during the conflict episode. Constructive conflict behaviors may be effective not only because they help couples tackle issues and solve problems but also because they detract from negative emotion and can sometimes lead to positive affect. Cooperative behaviors may also facilitate rather than impede goals, and goal facilitation has been linked to happiness and love (Ellis & Malamuth, 2000). Positive affect also promotes openness and creativity in problem solving and conflict negotiation (Isen, 1993). It is critical, then, for researchers and practitioners to understand how couples can inject expressions of positive emotion into conflict interactions.
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