NCJ Number
116557
Journal
Communication Research Volume: 15 Issue: 4 Dated: (August 1988) Pages: 349-359
Date Published
1988
Length
11 pages
Annotation
This article summarizes six studies that illustrate how interaction processes are fundamental to understanding conflict in diverse arenas.
Abstract
One study tests three models for achieving integrative outcomes in buyer-seller bargaining, and another posits that the type of causal account a manager gives for denying a subordinate's request shapes conflict predispositions. A third study tests the theory that a disputant's knowing where a coworker stands on an issue and what tactics he or she prefers (co-orientational accuracy) influences how differentiation occurs during conflict. A fourth study examines the types of goals involved in participants' descriptions of past conflicts. After classifying goals into proactive and reactive categories, the researchers test for links between goal types, locus of control, gender, and conflict tactics. Third-party intervention in roommate conflict is the focus of the fifth study. The study addresses how mediator gender and training affect control of the interaction and disputants' perceptions of mediator performance. The final study refines phase development in conflict literature by uncovering differences in the communicative sequences of agreement and no-agreement mediations. 39 references.