SOME QUESTIONS ABOUT CONFLICT
Conflicts such as these three suggest many questions pertinent to conflicts of all sorts—interpersonal, intergroup, and international. These questions relate to fundamental processes that have been studied extensively by social psychologists.
The chapters in this book address many of the fundamental social psychological processes involved in conflict and develop the implications of these processes for understanding conflict and for managing conflicts more effectively. Here is an outline of some of the processes affecting conflict that are addressed in one or more chapters.• Cooperation-competition. Each of the conflicts I have described had a destructive phase characterized by a win-lose or competitive orientation to the conflict. What determines whether a conflict takes a destructive, win-lose course or a constructive, cooperative, problem-solving one?
• Social justice. All of the parties in the three conflicts had initially differing conceptions of what would be a fair resolution. What are the important sources of perceived injustice?
• Motivation. What needs do the parties in conflict have? Are their needs the same as their positions? What motives foster conflict, and which are fostered by conflict and tend to perpetuate it? Which facilitate constructive conflict resolution?
• Trust. Distrust is common whenever a conflict takes a destructive course. What processes give rise to trust, and which give rise to distrust?
• Communication. Faulty communication engenders misunderstanding, which may lead to conflict, and conflict often leads to breakdown of communication. What are the characteristics of effective communication in terms of the communicator and the listener? What can be done to develop such communication?
• Language. What role does language usage play in affecting the course of conflict? Do metaphors, images, and words relating to war and competition (for example, battle, struggle, fight, coercion, defeat, enemy, suspicion) dominate the discourse, or does the language use reflect terms related to cooperation and peace (for example, constructive controversy, problem solving, creativity, mutual enlightenment, persuasion, trust)?
• Attribution processes.
Our emotional responses toward the actions of another are very much influenced by what intentions we attribute to the other as well as how much responsibility for the actions we attribute to that person. What are the nature and consequences of common errors in attribution?• Emotions. What emotions make a constructive conflict resolution less or more likely? What gives rise to these emotions? How can one control one’s destructive emotions during a conflict?
• Persuasion. In most negotiations and conflicts, much of each party’s effort is channeled into attempting to persuade the other of the soundness of the former’s position. What insights into the conditions resulting in effective persuasion have resulted from systematic research of the processes involved in persuasion?
• Self-control. Effective goal-directed actions, particularly those that have to be sustained over a period of time, require effective self-control. During the course of conflict, various distractions, unexpected events, and emotions (such as rage, wounded pride, despair, anxiety) may, when uncontrolled, lead one to lose sight of one’s important, enduring needs and goals. Knowing how to keep oneself on course during a conflict is obviously valuable; what help does theory provide?
• Power. The distribution of power among parties in conflict and how power is employed strongly influence conflict processes. How do the bases of each party’s power (including economic resources, weapons, information, legitimate authority, effective social organization) determine the type of influence exerted during a conflict?
• Violence. When conflict takes a destructive course, it sometimes leads to violence. What factors contribute to violent behavior? What sorts of intervention reduce the likelihood of violence?
• Judgmental biases. A host of misunderstandings, misperceptions, and potential biases interfere with the ability to resolve a conflict constructively. What gives rise to misunderstandings and biases, and how can their occurrence be reduced?
• Personality.
How do unresolved self-conflict and individual personality characteristics affect how conflict is managed? How important is it to know the conflictual styles of various types of people (anxious, obsessive, analytical, and so on)?• Development. What differences typically exist in managing conflict depending on whether it is between children, adolescents, or adults? How does psychological development (such as acquisition of language, increase in physical strength, and decreasing dependence on adults) affect response to conflict?
• Group problem solving and creativity. Constructive management of conflict can be viewed as a creative, cooperative problem-solving process in which the conflict is defined as the mutual problem to be solved. What leads to effective group problem solving, and what enables individuals to be creative in their approach to nonroutine problems?
• Intergroup conflict. Conflict between groups that differ in ethnicity, race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, and the like appear to have become prevalent and salient in recent years. How do the processes involved in intergroup conflicts differ from those in interpersonal conflicts?
• Moral conflict. Conflict over basic values (for example, “pro-choice” versus “pro-life”), which are often experienced as moral conflict, are often difficult to resolve. Why are they so difficult to resolve and wha approaches have been developed to manage such conflicts constructively?
• Religious conflict. Despite the fact that the major religions of the world share many values throughout the ages, religious differences have given rise to many destructive conflicts. Why? It is also evident that religious leaders have often been instrumental in preventing deadly conflict. How can leaders of the different religions be encouraged and helped to foster more cooperative relations among the different religions and more constructive conflict resolution within their own communities?
• Family and gender conflict.
Some of the most destructive interpersonal conflicts occur within families between genders (husband and wife) and between parents and children. What are the conflicts about, why are they so emotionally intense, and how can the participants learn to manage their conflicts constructively?• Organizational conflicts. Most of us spend a considerable portion of our lives in organizations: as students in schools, as workers in economic organizations, as citizens in community organizations, and so on. We experience interpersonal conflicts with peers, subordinates, or superordinates; intergroup conflicts with other groups within our organizations, and interorganizational conflicts with other organizations. How are such conflicts managed constructively?
• Culture. How does the culture in which an individual or group is embedded affect how conflicts develop and are managed? What problems are faced by negotiators from diverse cultural backgrounds?
• Intractable conflicts. Difficult, long-standing, intractable conflicts occur at all levels—interpersonal, intergroup, and international. When are such conflicts “ripe” for intervention? What methods of intervention are likely to be productive? How can reconciliation and forgiveness be encouraged between historically bitter enemies?
• Mediation. Third-party intervention, such as mediation, can sometimes help people resolve their conflicts when they are unable to do so by themselves. When is mediation likely to be effective? What are the processes involved in mediation?
• Managing conflict in large groups. When the conflict occurs among factions within a large group, are there ways of bringing the total group, or its relevant components, together so that the group as a whole can contribute to resolving the conflict?
• Constructive controversy. Conflict can take the form of lively, constructive controversy, which stimulates creativity and richer thought processes; yet differences in belief and opinion often produce quarrels that lead to hardening of positions and breakdown of relations.
What leads to lively controversy rather than deadly quarrel?• Culture and conflict. Is conflict theory, largely developed in Western culture, applicable elsewhere? Can it be usefully applied in China, for example? What modifications, if any, are necessary?
• Teaching the knowledge, attitudes, and skills of constructive conflict. What are the methods employed by some of the most experienced educators (practitioners and trainers to help students acquire the knowledge, attitudes, and skills of constructive conflict resolution?
• Research. The field of conflict resolution is relatively young. There is still much basic research needed to acquire fundamental knowledge about all of the issues mentioned in the preceding paragraphs. What are the most important and urgent questions to investigate? Also, there are many practitioners doing training and intervening in relation to many different kinds of conflicts. There is much need for research that helps us to know what kinds of intervention or training, with what kinds of clients, in what sorts of circumstances, produce what types
of effects.
These and other questions relevant to all sorts of conflict are addressed in one or more of the chapters of this handbook—sometimes directly and sometimes indirectly by articulating the fundamental social psychological processes that occur in all sorts of conflict.