NCJ Number
100701
Journal
Mediation Quarterly Issue: 10 Dated: (December 1985) Pages: 75-89
Date Published
1985
Length
15 pages
Annotation
This study supports the hypothesis that successful mediators are effective in reframing interventions and structuring tactics to defuse parties' verbal attacks on one another.
Abstract
The study identified the communicative challenges mediators face in formulating solutions to disputes. A set of mediator communication interventions was developed based on a qualitative analysis of mediation transcripts and prior research. The interventions were tested by coding and analyzing mediators' interventions in 20 mediations, 10 in which disputants reached an agreement and 10 in which they did not. The mediators made 2,022 interventions in the 20 transcripts. Successful mediators are more likely than unsuccessful ones to spot one disputant attacking the other, to interrupt that attack and enforce interaction rules, to refocus the discussion on the topic, or to terminate the discussion. Successful mediators are also more likely to interrupt attacks by presenting alternative proposals, negatively evaluate the disputants' contribution, and reframe the utterance as a proposal. The study develops a method of coding mediator interventions that can be used to evaluate mediator communicative competence. 15 references.