Intrapsychic and Personal Factors
Note: The Assignment is due by Day 3, prior to the Discussion.
In this Assignment, you will examine two of three intrapsychic or personal factors that impact conflict and its resolution. The first is bias. Personal beliefs and cognitions may lead to misperceptions and misunderstandings that may, if undetected and unidentified, have detrimental effects on attempts at resolution. A second factor is emotion. Emotions can have positive and negative effects on conflict and its resolution and, conversely, conflict and its resolution impacts emotions. This interaction between conflict and emotions occurs at all levels of conflict, from the interpersonal to the international. Personality is a third factor that affects conflict and its resolution. However conceptualized, and whatever the theory that explains it, personality influences behavior during conflict and attempts to resolve it. Understanding the role of personality and personality differences can provide information valuable to the successful resolution of a conflict.
Resources
Be sure to review the Learning Resources before completing this activity.
Click the weekly resources link to access the resources.
WEEKLY RESOURCES
To prepare for this assignment:
Select two of the three intrapsychic or personal factors covered in this week’s readings from your course text, The Handbook of Conflict Resolution: bias, emotion, and personality.
Review the chapters focusing on the information asked for in the assignment specific to your chosen factors, listed below.
The assignment: (2-3 pages)
Briefly describe your Final Project conflict, its central issues, and the parties involved.
For two of the three intrapsychic or personal psychological factors that you selected, respond to each of the bulleted items related to the factors. Be sure to relate each factor specifically to your conflict.
Bias
Explain the importance of understanding bias as it relates to conflict and conflict resolution.
Describe two biases that might arise in your conflict and why you think each might arise (whether or not consciously or detected).
For each bias, explain how it might come into play and what its effect might be on the conflict itself and/or its resolution.
Explain two ways that you might reduce or eliminate each bias that you selected.
Emotions
Explain why an understanding of emotions as they relate to conflict and its resolution is important.
Describe one negative and one positive emotion likely to arise or be present in resolving your conflict.
Explain the probable effect of each emotion on the conflict, and vice versa. Explain in terms of your specific conflict.
Explain two ways by which you might either intervene with the emotion, control negative emotions, and/or foster positive emotions in your specific conflict situation.
Personality
Explain why an understanding of personality is useful as it relates to conflict and conflict resolution.
Describe two ideas, one from each of two theories, that are useful in accounting for reactions and behaviors in your conflict resolution situation and explain why.
Explain how you might use information about personality to enhance the possibility of positive results.