Conflict Resolution Skills
Conflict ResolutionPaper 10/9/10
Conflict resolution and relationship skills should go hand in hand. Learning conflict resolution skills means learning productive, effective, and non-destructive ways to face, cope with, and resolve conflict in all areas of life. This entails conflict in one’s personal and professional life. Relationship skills pertain to all the relationships in our lives- family, friends, spouses, coworkers and acquaintances. How we interact with the people in our lives has a direct bearing on our level of happiness, success, stress, and contentment. Oftentimes these different relationships involve conflicts and how we handle these conflicts affects the condition of these relationships. It is probably safe to say that a significant percentage of people could use some education to help improve their ability to resolve conflicts and improve their relationship skills. For many of us, what we learned while growing up was either dysfunctional or inadequate and we were left to figure the best ways out on our own. Society has taught us to have unrealistic expectations of the relationships in our lives especially from our significant others. We have come to expect others to know what we expect and want without really telling them. We have also grown up to believe that telling others how we feel and what we want is being pushy, demanding, or somehow unacceptable. One of the reasons that many people turn to alcohol and drugs is because of their inability to deal with the world around them and because they are not getting the things they need in their lives. As time goes on and they sink deeper into their addiction, their perception of the world around them becomes more and more distorted. It only stands to reason that their ability to handle conflict and function in their relationships also becomes more flawed and distorted. When you add in the fact that this whole process further damages their
Conflict resolution and relationship skills should go hand in hand. Learning conflict resolution skills means learning productive, effective, and non-destructive ways to face, cope with, and resolve conflict in all areas of life. This entails conflict in one’s personal and professional life. Relationship skills pertain to all the relationships in our lives- family, friends, spouses, coworkers and acquaintances. How we interact with the people in our lives has a direct bearing on our level of happiness, success, stress, and contentment. Oftentimes these different relationships involve conflicts and how we handle these conflicts affects the condition of these relationships. It is probably safe to say that a significant percentage of people could use some education to help improve their ability to resolve conflicts and improve their relationship skills. For many of us, what we learned while growing up was either dysfunctional or inadequate and we were left to figure the best ways out on our own. Society has taught us to have unrealistic expectations of the relationships in our lives especially from our significant others. We have come to expect others to know what we expect and want without really telling them. We have also grown up to believe that telling others how we feel and what we want is being pushy, demanding, or somehow unacceptable. One of the reasons that many people turn to alcohol and drugs is because of their inability to deal with the world around them and because they are not getting the things they need in their lives. As time goes on and they sink deeper into their addiction, their perception of the world around them becomes more and more distorted. It only stands to reason that their ability to handle conflict and function in their relationships also becomes more flawed and distorted. When you add in the fact that this whole process further damages their