Week 16 - Post 3

Going into this class, I had already had some experience in how to manage conflict.  But, with that said I still have learned a lot from this class.  I learned a lot of different types of conflict, ways to think about conflict in a more positive light, different skills in order to deal with conflict, the STLC system was one of my favorite and finally a nice refresher on mediation and the different tools we can use during mediation.  I took so much away from this class and I know for a fact that I will use almost, if not all of the tools and skills that I have learned during this class.  I think my favorite thing that I learned was how to manage stress.  As a college student I enjoy learning different ways to mange stress, I feel that I do a pretty good job as it is, but it never hurts to learn different ways to deal with stress.  

Week 16 - Post 2

The part I liked the most about this class was the knowledge I gained about conflict management.  As I have said multiple times, I am currently mediating and I was extremely excited to take this class.  I figured this class would help me gain better knowledge and different techniques when dealing with conflict and communication.  I was very pleased with what I was able to take away from this class.  I think the strengths of this class were the information we learned and the workshop project.  I really enjoyed putting the workshop together.  I cannot think of one weakness about this class.  I feel that everything was laid out very well and it was an easy class to follow.  Online classes can be tough when directions are not clear or the schedule of what is due is hard to follow.  I felt everything easy clear and I never found myself confused.  I would recommend this class to other students because I think it is very important for people to understand conflict and understand how to manage it properly.  

Week 16 - Post 1

I think that a lot of people have such negative views of conflict because of past negative experiences with conflicts.  I think that a lot of people think that the word conflict is a negative word.  Conflict can be positive depending on how you approach it and how the conflict is resolved.  I think that yes, as people know more about conflict they fear it less.  I feel this way from experience.  As I have learned more about conflict and now have a better understanding of how to deal with conflict, I do not fear conflict.  I feel that other people can feel this way as well.  I think that the more educated a person is about conflict there is less unknown territory for them to explore.  In order for people to have a better understanding of any topic, they need to be educated.  The more education the less fear that is involved.   

Week 11 - Post 3

I found the social exchange theory in chapter twelve to be interesting.  I feel that all relationship values are determined.  I believe that people determine their value in conflicts as well.  For example, we might ask ourselves, is it worth it to be in conflict with him/her since I value the satisfaction and commitment of the relationship?  If we did not value those things in our relationship the likely hood of a conflict might be greater. 

I value the relationship I have with my boyfriend.  We have been together almost six years now.  The level of satisfaction in our relationship is high.  We have been through a lot and I am satisfied with how much we have grown together.  The level of commitment is extremely high in our relationship.  We have a give and take relationship.  We both give all the time and in return we both receive as well.  It’s a matter of balance and it seems to work very well.  Therefore, with our level of satisfaction and commitment it shows that we both value this relationship very much. 

The value of my relationship with my father is the opposite of the value of the relationship I have with my boyfriend.  I have talked about this relationship before and it is one that I do not value.  The level of satisfaction I have with this relationship is low.  The amount of positive experience versus negative experience is much lower.  The commitment I have with this relationship is very low as well.  For my father is was more of what he could get out of it that what he could give.  It was always about what made him happy and not about what made me happy.  This relationship determined value is very low.  

Week 11 - Post 2

I do not want to say that I have made a lot of false attributions, but I have made some in my lifetime.  I feel that false attributions are normal because we are all humans.  I know that I have made internal and external attributions about others before.  I can think of a recent conflict that occurred with my mother and I.  To make a long story short, it had to do with my upcoming graduation and my feelings that my parents did not seem to acknowledge it was rapidly approaching.  I made a false attribution and thought that they were not proud of me and were not planning on having a dinner to celebrate.  I confronted my mother about it and everything turned out great.  They were planning on doing a dinner for me, they just did not want to bring it up yet because they know how stressed I am.  My false attribution created a conflict that never needed to occur. 

These false attributions are rare, but they do occur.  I have had false attributions about my boyfriend, my friends and even family.  I have also experienced others having false attributions about me.  It is something that one cannot avoid.  They will happen it; it just depends on how you deal with these false attributions and how to avoid them in the future.  Everyone needs to learn from past false attributions and find different ways of confronting people about an attribution and not let it blow out of proportion.  

Week 11 - Post 1

When searching for the term “forgiveness” I found a lot of sites talking about forgiveness and how to forgive.  A lot of links to videos and presentations came up as well.  I did not find this to be surprising, I was expecting though to see some religious sites because religions are all about forgiveness.

When searching for the term “reconciliation” I found a lot of religion based sites.  Besides religion focused sites, my results provided definitions for the term reconciliation.  I was not surprised by these results either.  I think reconciliation and forgiveness are more popular in a positive outlook.    

When searching for the term “revenge” it was all television based.  Since that show is popular, television sites were what came up the most.  When I browsed through the millions of results, I found more and more sites dealing with revenge in television, movies, and video games.  I was shocked that there were really no results for a definition or presentations about revenge like the other terms showed. 

I was not surprised by the fact that the term revenge produced more sites than the other terms.  Revenge is a word that is used by many television shows etc.  It is a great word to use in entertainment because it keeps viewers interested.  Forgiveness and reconciliation are words that are claiming and “boring” to viewers of television shows.  When looking on the web, it proves that revenge is more popular because media wants it to be.  When looking at the results for forgiveness and reconciliation, they were all based on the definition and the positive aspects of the term. 

Results:

Forgiveness: 64,300,000

Reconciliation: 61,000,000

Revenge: 297,000,000