Sibling Conflict
Sibling Conflict and Interpersonal Development
Introduction
Conflict is defined as "the perceived and/or actual incompatibility of values, expectations, processes, or outcomes between two or more parties over substantive and/or relational issues" (Ting-Toomey, 1994, p. 360). It is natural part of life and interpersonal relationships. Conflict can be good, bad, or both and can present us with interesting challenges and opportunities. It can destroy relationships and expose our greatest weaknesses. When people think of conflict, they most often recall the negative aspects of the feature. However, it can also help strengthen relationships and resolve problems among other things.
It is important to study conflict within the field of communication because communication is precisely the means by which people recognize and express conflicts. You simply cannot have conflict without communication of some form. Communication also aids in distinguishing between destructive and productive conflict.
Conflict can be experienced and expressed in every type of interpersonal relationship; husband-wife, parent-child, boss-employee, between co-workers, classmates, friends, and lastly, between siblings. The type of relationship examined for the purpose of this literature review is the sibling relationship.
Sibling relationships are important to study because they are a fundamental part of most people 's lives. Much research has been done on such topics as marital communication and conflict, but research dealing with sibling relationships and conflict is relatively rare. This fact is surprising considering that 96% of American adults in the 1998 General Social Survey reported having at least one sibling (National Opinion Research Center, 1998).
The sibling relationship is one of the longest relationships that most people have and in many cases, the strongest. It also differs from other interpersonal relationships because it is one of the few relationships that
Introduction
Conflict is defined as "the perceived and/or actual incompatibility of values, expectations, processes, or outcomes between two or more parties over substantive and/or relational issues" (Ting-Toomey, 1994, p. 360). It is natural part of life and interpersonal relationships. Conflict can be good, bad, or both and can present us with interesting challenges and opportunities. It can destroy relationships and expose our greatest weaknesses. When people think of conflict, they most often recall the negative aspects of the feature. However, it can also help strengthen relationships and resolve problems among other things.
It is important to study conflict within the field of communication because communication is precisely the means by which people recognize and express conflicts. You simply cannot have conflict without communication of some form. Communication also aids in distinguishing between destructive and productive conflict.
Conflict can be experienced and expressed in every type of interpersonal relationship; husband-wife, parent-child, boss-employee, between co-workers, classmates, friends, and lastly, between siblings. The type of relationship examined for the purpose of this literature review is the sibling relationship.
Sibling relationships are important to study because they are a fundamental part of most people 's lives. Much research has been done on such topics as marital communication and conflict, but research dealing with sibling relationships and conflict is relatively rare. This fact is surprising considering that 96% of American adults in the 1998 General Social Survey reported having at least one sibling (National Opinion Research Center, 1998).
The sibling relationship is one of the longest relationships that most people have and in many cases, the strongest. It also differs from other interpersonal relationships because it is one of the few relationships that
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