Conflict In Interpersonal Relationships

Conflict in interpersonal relationships
“Interpersonal conflict, is an internal strain that creates a state of ambivalence, conflicting internal dialogue, or lack of resolution in one’s thinking or feeling”. Interpersonal conflict has multiple dimensions, but ultimately focuses on the interaction among humans. Although the word conflict has a negative connotation, conflict often helps individuals solve problems and help relationships develop and move forward.
My name is Vonda McKay, and I have experienced several interpersonal conflicts with family, friends, co- workers, employers, and total strangers. Throughout this paper I’m going to discuss an interpersonal conflict that I experienced with my parents.. I will do this by addressing the fundamental elements of a conflict which include the parties involved in the conflict, the actual issue of the conflict, and the context of the conflict and later identifying conflict management strategies, behaviors, outcomes, and the conflict aftermath using the
Conflict Lens Model.
First I will begin with an historical overview of how I grew up dealing with conflict in my family. According to Wilmot and Hocker families deal with conflict in one of three ways; they either avoid conflict, discuss conflict in a collaborative manner, or they’re extremely aggressive when they experience a conflict. My family unfortunately dealt with conflict in an aggressive manner. When a conflict would arise in my family we always tried to talk the problem through, but within five to ten minutes of discussing the issue name calling, yelling, and dramatic behavior would always transpire. This would happen because everyone in my family always believed that they were right even if it was blatantly obvious that they were incorrect.
The arguing would go around and around with no feasible outcome.
Usually, after a night of arguing everyone would go to bed upset, but wake up the next morning and act as if the big blow up from the night before did not occur. The conflict then would be avoided until it was imperative that it needed to be discussed and managed. Never dealing with conflict in a proper manner has put a strain on many of my relationships, especially with my family. The interpersonal conflict that I experienced with my parents occurred back in September of 1997 my sophomore year of high school. My parent were getting a divorce. And my father was moving out. My mother went into a great depression and start do hard drugs and drinking all the time. There was no more structure for us kids. Well, then I went down the wrong road of drugs and drinking to escape my home life. I felt betrayed, by my parent. It would never be the same again. No more holiday together, no birthday together, no vacation together. I still to this day blame my mother for it. But I’m try to mend that road. I haven’t seen my dad in six years.
The conflict goals in this interpersonal conflict with my parents. I didn’t want any help from anybody, and I was going to go to all measures to make sure I did not loose anything that I already had. Parents were deeply concerned about my well being, and were willing to go to all measures to change my life style.