Chapter 12 - conflict and applications Flashcards
(25 cards)
conflict
A perceived incompatibility
of actions or goals.
peace
A condition marked by low levels of hostility and aggression and by mutually beneficial relationships.
what causes conflict - social dilemmas
When individually rewarding choices become collectively punishing, we have a dilemma: How can we reconcile individual self-interest with
communal well-being?
social trap
A situation in which the conflicting parties, by rationally pursuing their own self-interest, become caught in mutually destructive behaviour.
eg. the Prisoner’s Dilemma
- This dilemma often traps each one in a maddening predicament in which both realize they could mutually profit. But, unable to communicate and mistrusting each other, they often become “locked in” to not cooperating.
Tragedy of the Commons
The “commons” is any shared
resource, including air, water, energy
sources, and food supplies. The tragedy occurs when individuals consume more than their share, with the cost of their doing so dispersed among all, causing the ultimate collapse—the tragedy—of the commons.
fundmental attribution error
to explain their own behaviour situationally
Evolving motives
motives often change. At first, people are eager to make some easy money, then to minimize their losses, and finally to save face and avoid defeat (Brockner et al., 1982; Teger, 1980). These shifting motives can make it harder to negotiate a solution.
non-zero-sum games.
Games in which outcomes need not sum to zero. With cooperation, both can win; with competition, both can
lose. (Also called mixed-motive
situations.)
Resolving social dilemmas
Regulation - We develop rules to safeguard our common good. eg. Fishing and hunting have long been regulated by local seasons and limits
Keep things small - Make the group small. In small commons, each person feels more responsible and effective
communication - communication enables cooperation - Discussing the dilemma forges a group identity, which
enhances concern for everyone’s welfare.
changing the payoffs - Laboratory cooperation rises when experimenters
change the payoff matrix to reward cooperation and punish exploitation
Appeals to altruistic norms - One way is through the influence of a charismatic leader who inspires others to cooperate or by defining situations in ways that invoke cooperative norms.
Competition
Hostilities often arise when groups compete for scarce jobs, housing, or resources.
- Sherif introduced the seeming essentials into several three-week summer camping experiences. In one study, he divided 22 unacquainted boys into two groups, took them to a Boy Scout camp in separate buses, and settled them in bunkhouses about a half-mile apart at Robber’s Cave State Park. For most of the first week, each group was unaware of the other’s existence. By cooperating in vari-
ous activities—preparing meals, camping out, fixing up a swimming hole, building a rope bridge—each group soon became close-knit.
Group identity thus established, the stage was set for the conflict. Near the first week’s end, the Rattlers discovered the Eagles “on ‘our’ baseball field.” When the camp staff then proposed a tournament of competitive activities between the two groups (baseball games, tugs-of-war, cabin inspections, treasure hunts, and so forth), both groups responded enthusiastically. This was win–lose competition. The spoils (medals, knives) would all go to the tournament victor.
The result? The camp degenerated into open warfare.
equality
The equal distribution of rewards to all individuals.
need-based distribution
The distribution of rewards based on
need for those rewards.
Misperception
Recall that conflict is a perceived incompatibility of actions or goals. Many conflicts contain but a small core of truly incompatible goals; the bigger problem is the misperceptions of the others’ motives and goals
eg. self serving bias, fundamental attribution error, tendency to self-justify
mirror image perception
To a striking degree, the misperceptions of those in conflict are mutual. People in conflict attribute similar virtues to themselves and vices to the other.
Simplistic thinking
When tension rises—as happens during an international crisis—rational thinking becomes more difficult
Views of the enemy become more simplistic and stereotyped, and hasty, uninformed judgments become more likely.
Shifting perceptions
If misperceptions accompany conflict, then they should appear and disappear as conflicts wax and wane. And they do, with startling regularity. The same processes that create the enemy’s image can reverse that image when the enemy becomes an ally.
contact and its effect on attitudes
with more contact, there is less prejudice and more acceptance
except for when there is self-imposed segregation
equal-status contact
Contact on an equal basis. Just as a relationship between people of unequal status breeds attitudes consistent with their relationship, so do relationships
between those of equal status. Thus,
to reduce prejudice, interracial
contact should ideally be between
persons equal in status.
cooperation increases cohesiveness
cooperation and working together builds cohesiveness
Common external threats build cohesiveness
Such friendliness is common among those who experience a shared threat. John Lanzetta (1955) observed this when he put four-man groups of naval cadets to work on problem-solving tasks and then began informing them over a loudspeaker that their answers were wrong; their productivity, inexcusably low; their thinking, stupid. Other groups did not receive this harassment. Lanzetta observed that the group members under
duress became friendlier to one another, more cooperative, less argumentative, and less competitive. They were in it together. And the result was a cohesive spirit.
superordinate goals
Shared goals that necessitate cooperative effort: goals that override people’s differences from one another.
To promote harmony among his warring campers, Sherif
introduced such goals. He created a problem with the camp water supply,
necessitating both groups’ cooperation to restore the water. As well, given
an opportunity to rent a movie, one expensive enough to require the joint
resources of the two groups, they again cooperated.
types of communication - bargaining
Seeking an agreement through direct negotiation between parties.
types of communication - mediation
An attempt by a neutral third party to resolve a conflict by facilitating communication and offering suggestions.
types of communication - arbitration
Resolution of a conflict by a neutral third party who studies both sides and imposes a settlement.
