Ch2 Listen to some songs or pay attention to the messages in movies for metaphors about conflict. Write down these messages for a small period of time. Finally, discuss your opinion of how these messages influence your views on conflict and/or others’ views on conflict.
Identify your underlying interests regarding these statements. Use the following guidelines from William Wilmot for help. Once you have identified your “interests,” practice writing goals that would you get what you want or need. Additionally, identify what “type” of goals you are writing (such as topic, relational, identity, process, prospective, trans-active, retrospective, or collaborative) and provide rationale for your choice.
Types of Interests
a.
Topic
What do we want?
b.
Relational
Who are we to each other?
c
Who am I in this interaction?
What communication process will we use?
Write about how you feel about “power.” Talk about the times that you’ve used your power and when those around you have used theirs. How did you feel in each situation?
What styles of conflict have you noticed around you? Do the conflict styles vary from one person to another? What conflicts seem to spark the more adversarial conflict styles? What conflicts seem to be accompanied by cooperative styles?
