Conflict in Interpersonal Relationships

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Recommended: Reflect on the nature of conflict in terms of how conflict is defined ESSAY

Conflict in Interpersonal Relationships
Conflict. It could happen with a friend, romantic partner, co-worker, or complete stranger. There are many researchers out there who study conflict and all of the aspects to it. One thing that is clear is that conflict is inevitable in every interpersonal relationship, and it requires understanding, management, and reconciliation to prevent damage to the relationship.
Dean Tjosvold and Lin Wang both of Lingnan University out of Hong-Kong wrote Developing a Shared Understanding of Conflict: Foundations for Sino-Western Mediation. This provided a very concrete understanding of conflict. They provided the definition of conflict as “opposing interests involving scarce resources and goal divergence and frustration” (Pondy 1967). This definition is very relatable to an interpersonal relationship. The first part states “opposing interests”, this is self-explanatory but true that every conflict starts with some sort of opposing interest. Say you and you’re girlfriend are going to rent a movie. You want to watch Superbad but she hates that type of comedy and she would rather watch bridesmaids but you hate chick flicks. Right there is the opposing of interest. Scarce resources can be used in this example by saying that these are the only two movies you can watch thus creating more strain. Then have goal divergence, which could be that the goal is to watch a movie but the two people being stubborn are hindering that goal. And finally there is the frustration that is accompanied with the initial conflict and the stalemate.
In addition to the definition that they provided they said that the problem with this would mean that conflict is a win or lose situation and it would always be negative. When in ...

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...ke control of and not let it ruin relationships.

Works Cited

Tjosvold, D., & Lin, W. (2013). Developing a Shared Understanding of Conflict: Foundations for Sino-Western Mediation. China Media Research, 9(4), 76-84.

Pondy, L. R. (1967). Organizational conflict: Concepts and models. Administrative Science Quarterly, 12, 296-320.

Thomas, K. W. (1990). Conflict and negotiation process in organizations. In M. D. Dunnette & L. M. Hough (Eds), Handbook of industrial and organizational psychology, (Vol. 3, pp.655-728). Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press, Inc.

Ledlow, G. R. (2009). Conflict and Interpersonal Relationships. Health Organizations: Theory, Behavior, and Development, 149.

Bar-Tal, D. (Jun., 2000). From Intractable Conflict through Conflict Resolution to Reconciliation: Psychological Analysis. Political Psychology , Vol. 21, No. 2, pp. 351-365

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