Criminal Justice Communications

Conflict Resolution

Norma Wright

Professor Staub

Everest University Online

        A conflict is defined as a disagreement between individuals through which the parties perceive a threat to their needs, interests or concerns.  Conflict tends to be accompanied by significant misunderstandings.  The thing about conflict that needs to be remembered is that it’s not just something that happens.  Conflicts build over time.  Every person in the world has been involved or will be involved in some sort of conflict, whether it’s a brother, sister, mother, daughter, husband, wife, or lovers, its part of life.  The key to resolving conflict is to learn to discuss the issues as adults.

        To be an effective communicator in a conversation and in conflicts an individual needs to be flexible and adaptable to the situation.  The effective communicator is mindful and aware of the situation, as well as the available communication choices and capable or using non-verbal clues to avoid uncertainty.  One suggestion I would give someone faced with a conflict starter statement is to reword the statement to something that doesn’t sound as harsh to ensure you understand the other person’s point of view and feelings, also to remember to keep your composure.  Some individuals are unable to solve their own frustrations so they take their internal conflict and turn it outward into an external conflict, which is then directed towards others.  

        In order to avoid conflict an individual needs to have openness is the ability to reveal information about yourself and also to your openness to listening to another person.  This also involves the degree to which you own your own feelings and thoughts, the degree to which you acknowledge responsibility for your thoughts and feelings.  Openness also requires that the individuals make use of I-messages instead of you-messages.  Another method to avoid a conflict is to empathize with the other individual.  To empathize with the other person is just a fancy way of saying put yourself in their shoes.  Many people don’t understand that the words they say really do hurt others that’s why being able to empathize with another helps to avoid a conflict.  Having empathy for an individual doesn’t mean you agree with what the other person says or does.  Empathy allows you to understand, emotionally and intellectually, what the other person is experiencing.

        Positive comments and compliments work well to help avoid a conflict.  Make sure that your verbal and nonverbal messages are consistent if your comments are genuinely felt; your verbal and nonverbal messages are likely to be consistent.  Positiveness in attitudes demonstrates a positive feeling for the general communication situation makes participants feel a welcomed part of the conversation.  Positiveness can be seen most clearly in the way you phrase statements.

        An effective communicator manages the interaction to the satisfaction of both individuals.  Maintaining your role as speaker or listener and passing back and forth the opportunity to speak are interaction management skills.  Avoid interrupting the other person; interruption signals that what you have to say is more important than what the other person is saying and makes him or her feel inferior.  Expressiveness refers to the degree to which you display involvement in the interpersonal interaction.  An individual who is an expressive speaker plays the game instead of just watching it as a spectator.  This quality also includes taking responsibility for both talking and listening and in this way is similar to interaction management.  Expressiveness also means that when you communicate you are signaling personal involvement and a willingness to share your feelings.  Also use appropriate variations in both voice and body, things such as your vocal rate, pitch volume and rhythm all communicate to help avoid conflict.  

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