Love and money are important aspects of the everyday lives of couples. This book focuses on the daily routines of disagreement, conflict and joint decisions on these, and other issues such as work, leisure and children, create in the household. Central to the authors' research is a unique diary study of forty couples, who kept a daily record of their joint decisions over the course of a year. The diaries show how challenging, varied and complex the conflicts and decision making of normal everyday life can be and reveal that goals frequently change during the decision-making process with the result that the final outcome often achieves a goal distinct from the original intention. Furthermore, the dynamics of decision making differ according to the problem at stake, the decision-making history of the couple, and the quality of the partnership. The results of the diary study are discussed within the overall context of current research in the field as a whole, including discussion of joint decision-making case studies, close relationships, decision-making research in general and special research methods. Numerous results of psychological, sociological, economic and consumer behaviour studies are summarised and integrated into a model of household decision-making. This book will be primarily of interest to students and researchers in social psychology and economic psychology, but its interdisciplinary and applied nature will also make it of relevance to professionals working in the fields of family therapy and consumer behaviour.
Communicating Interpersonal Conflict in Close Relationships: Contexts, Challenges, and Opportunities provides a state-of-the-art review of research on conflict in close personal relationships. This volume brings together both seasoned and new voices in communication research to address the challenges in evaluating conflict. Contributors review the current state of research on themes related to power, serial arguments, interpersonal and family dynamics, physiological processes, and mechanisms of forgiveness by presenting theoretical reviews, original unpublished data-driven research, and discussions about the methodological challenges and opportunities in studying interpersonal conflict. An essential resource for graduate students and faculty interested in interpersonal conflict in close relationships between romantic partners, families, or friends, this volume is intended for advanced coursework and individual study in communication, social psychology, and close relationship scholarship.
Dis-Solving Conflict from Within presents a new paradigm for looking at conflict. Written by a professional mediator (and an occasional adventure motorcyclist), this book presents a mindfulness-based framework for understanding conflict, and more importantly, responding to conflict with strength, clarity, and ease as opposed to reacting to it with fear, avoidance, or aggression. The first part of the book takes the reader step by step through the method, drawing on famous teachings in both conflict resolution and mindfulness, real-life examples from the author’s own practice, and colorful anecdotes from his personal adventures, which included riding a motorcycle across the Himalayas. The rest of the book is a very practical application for how these teachings can transform the way we live our lives – in conflicts ranging from arguments with your spouse and debates about current affairs at your dinner table to greater societal conflicts and existential challenges facing us. At once spiritually based, and yet also immensely practical, this book is relevant not just for conflict resolution professionals, but for anyone who wants to live more peacefully with the people around them. In a signature style that is both educational and funny – and always all his own – Henry Yampolsky draws on his formal education, his life experiences, and his knowledge and acceptance that all people, no matter their beliefs, are infinitely connected. Distilling conflict down to our most basic needs as human beings leads the reader to the inevitable conclusion that we are not so different after all. While acknowledging the validity of the stories of conflicts created by humans, Yampolsky gently but firmly guides the reader to the same conclusion he has come to – that conflict can be transformed into an opportunity for growth, connection, and dialogue once we learn to turn within.
This volume explores how the choruses of Ancient Greek tragedy creatively combined media and discourses to generate their own specific forms of meaning. The contributors analyse choruses as fictional, religious and civic performers; as combinations of text, song and dance; and as objects of reflection in themselves, in relation and contrast to the choruses of comedy and melic poetry. Drawing on earlier analyses of the social context of Greek drama, the non-textual dimensions of tragedy, and the relations between dramatic and melic choruses, the chapters explore the uses of various analytic tools in allowing us better to capture the specificity of the tragic chorus. Special attention is given to the physicality of choral dancing, musical interactions between choruses and actors, the trajectories of reception, and the treatment of time and space in the odes.
This clearly articulated statement offers a hopeful and workable approach to conflict—that eternally beleaguering human situation. John Paul Lederach is internationally recognized for his breakthrough thinking and action related to conflict on all levels—person-to-person, factions within communities, warring nations. He explores why "conflict transformation" is more appropriate than "conflict resolution" or "management." But he refuses to be drawn into impractical idealism. Conflict Transformation is an idea with a deep reach. Its practice, says Lederach, requires "both solutions and social change." It asks not simply "How do we end something not desired?", but "How do we end something destructive and build something desired?" How do we deal with the immediate crisis, as well as the long-term situation? What disciplines make such thinking and practices possible? A title in The Little Books of Justice and Peacebuilding Series.
Unresolved conflict is workplace kryptonite. Learn how to develop the mindset and skills to defuse disagreements, overcome division, and turn conflict into an opportunity for growth. Unresolved workplace conflict wastes time, increases stress, and negatively affects business outcomes. But conflict isn't the problem, mismanagement is. Leaders unintentionally mismanage conflict when they fall into patterns of what Marlene Chism calls “the Three As:” aggression, avoidance, and appeasing. “These coping mechanisms are ways human beings avoid the emotions that come with conflict, but in the end it's all avoidance,” says Chism. In this book she shows how to fearlessly deal with conflict head-on by expanding your conflict capacity. Conflict capacity is a combination of three elements. The foundation is the Inner Game—the leader's self-awareness, values, discernment, and emotional integrity. The Outer Game is the skills, tools, and communication techniques built on that foundation. Finally, there's Culture—the visible and invisible structures around you that can encourage or discourage conflict. Chism offers exercises, examples, and expert guidance on developing all three elements. Leaders will discover techniques to increase leadership clarity, identify obstacles, and reduce resistance. They'll develop powerful skills for dealing with high-conflict people and for initiating, engaging in, and staying with difficult conversations. Readers will learn that when they see conflict as a teacher, courageously face it, and continually work on transforming themselves, they can get the resolution they are seeking. They can change minds.
Learning From Conflict is written for trainers, facilitators, team leaders, and educators. The fully reproducible sample training designs, case studies, and activities can be applied in a variety of training situations, including communication, supervision, and interpersonal relationships.
How is violent conflict socially possible? To answer this question, the paper discusses conflict in terms of sociality and develops an angle on the process of sociocultural “closure” that is necessary for any representation of radical polarisation. Social uncertainty is viewed as a regulator of tendencies towards closure, while institutions are understood in terms of promoting individual competition and averting polarisation. By looking at closure against the background of the distinction between modern. and developing. societies, it becomes clearer that the potential for closure in different socioeconomic conditions differs significantly. Depending on the extent and density of an institutional web of infrastructure, individualist perceptions of one.s society and one.s future make collective polarisation unlikely. Conflict presupposes closure and closure presupposes a collectivity that can become increasingly centripetal in conditions of uncertainty. Multiple options and choices (or the illusion that they exist) counter that tendency and provide peaceful, albeit not socially just, alternatives. A theoretical scheme for the sociological conception of this dynamics is proposed.
Relationship Conflict is an excellent contribution in the tradition of Sage′s series on close relationships. Like the other books in this series, Relationship Conflict provides a concise and compelling synthesis of research and thinking on a particular aspect of intimate relationships. In this case, Daniel J. Canary, William R. Cupach, and Susan J. Messman provide an accounting of conflict of text. As such, this volume constitutes the perfect companion text to undergraduate courses on interpersonal conflict. The clarification of definitions of conflict and approaches to studying conflict in chapter one is a particularly useful framework for organizing the wealth of research on relationship conflict. Similarly, the review of methods for studying conflict in chapter two is a concise assessment of the pros and cons of different methodologies. The remaining chapters nicely synthesize research illuminating conflict in parent-child, friendship, dating, and marital relationship contexts. The consistent limitation in traditional textbooks for the undergraduate course in interpersonal conflict is a failure to include a review of research on conflict in different relationship contexts; Relationship Conflict fills that gap and quite satisfactorily. --Denise H. Cloven in Personal Relationship Issues "The theories, research, analysis, and conclusions will interest a wide range of readers in communication, family studies, psychology, and sociology. Graduate through professional." --Choice "This is an excellent book which should be read by all those in the business of helping couples in their relationships. I can also see a clear role for parts of this book... as providing the basic reading for training seminars." --Padmal de Silva in Sexual and Marital Therapy "My favorite features of the book are the inclusion of different types of relationships and a developmental perspective on relationship conflict. . . . Relationship Conflict provides an easily readable overview for those newly interested in interpersonal conflict and for those working on conflict in formal or business relationships." --Renate Klein in Journal of Marriage and the Family Conflict is a natural, even inevitable, aspect of most ongoing close relationships--a given. What distinguishes most successful relationships from unsuccessful ones is not the absence of conflict, but how conflict is managed. Relationship Conflict skillfully portrays the different types of conflict that we encounter in our most significant personal relationships: parent-child, friendship, and romantic relationships. The authors capture the essence of current research and theory to shed light on conflict′s role in human interaction. Drawing from the findings of multiple disciplines, this volume takes a developmental look at childhood friendships through dating to married relationships. The result is a richer understanding of interpersonal involvement that is accessible to close relationship researchers and professionals and students in many service-based fields. Relationship Conflict provides up-to-date information on interpersonal conflict pertinent to many different disciplines: researchers as well as advanced undergraduate and graduate students in communication, family studies and human development, and sociology and professionals in psychology, social work, and nursing.
