Conflictologists usually identify common typical causes of conflicts and a universal source of confrontation, which lies in the mutual exclusion of the parties' claims due to the limited potential for satisfying them. Among the general reasons, sociologists identify: opposite perceptions by subjects of attitudes, goals, inclinations, values, styles of behavior, different status of individuals, discrepancies between expectations and actual actions of people, lack of information or its poor quality.
The key link in all economic conflicts is considered to be the lack of funds necessary for subsistence. Most conflictologists are convinced that the satisfaction of all human needs solves the problem of the emergence of conflicts, but at the same time, the absence of any conflicts stops the development of society.
Causes of conflicts
The emergence and formation of various confrontations is due to the influence of four groups of reasons. Below are the main causes of conflicts: organizational and managerial, objective, personal and socio-psychological.
The first two groups of listed reasons are mostly characterized by an objective orientation, while the others are mainly subjective.
Reasons of an objective nature include the conditions of social interaction of individuals that caused a conflict of their opinions, interests, beliefs, etc. They lead to the formation of a pre-conflict event - an objective component of the pre-conflict situation. Subjective factors that provoke confrontations are characterized by a connection with the individual characteristics of the opponents, leading to the choice of a conflict path to resolve the resulting objective confrontation. In other words, subjective reasons lead to a subjective way of responding.
There is no strict classification of objective reasons, since they are quite diverse. Among the most common, we can highlight the following causes of conflict between human subjects:
— the natural divergence of significant spiritual values and material aspirations of human subjects in the course of their existence;
— low preparedness of regulatory and legal procedures that allow regulating and adequately resolving contradictions that arise in the course of human interaction;
- shortage of material goods and spiritual values important for the normal interaction and life of individuals;
- the lifestyle of most people;
- stable stereotypes of interpersonal interaction and intergroup relations of citizens, provoking the occurrence of clashes.
As a rule, objective reasons lead to the formation of a pre-conflict microclimate. Psychology divides the objective causes of conflicts into imaginary, that is, a reason artificially invented by a person, and real.
When a pre-conflict situation develops into direct confrontation, the subjective psychological causes of the conflict begin to operate. It is believed that in almost all pre-conflict situations, an individual has the opportunity to choose ways of resolution: constructive or destructive, conflict or non-conflict. The subject chooses one or another behavioral style based on the subjective characteristics of the individual’s temperament and character. In a conflict there is no one who is guilty or innocent. Both participants are always at odds.
Levels
Conflict relationships can be in varying degrees of severity. Even if misunderstanding occurs for the same reason, different people experience this condition differently. Three main levels of conflict development can be noted.
- Low level. This is where the conflict is just beginning. Some people prefer not to notice it, to turn a blind eye to the changes taking place. It seems to them that with the help of silence they will be able to get rid of the growing misunderstanding.
- Average level. At this stage, it becomes impossible to ignore that something unpleasant is happening. Some people become despondent, others try to somehow improve the situation.
- High level. The situation is at its peak and requires urgent resolution. Many efforts must be made to mitigate the ravages of conflict.
Social confrontations
A necessary condition for social development is social confrontation, which acts as a result of the incompatibility of the beliefs of individual individuals. Confrontation makes it possible to expose problems in society, which in turn contributes to their resolution or leads to anarchy.
The heterogeneity of society, differences in status, differences in wealth - all this inevitably leads to the emergence of confrontations and, consequently, to the escalation of social confrontation.
The foundation of each individual clash is always various obvious and hidden psychological causes of the conflict. The main social prerequisites for the emergence of contradictions include, first of all, social inequality, since every society is rich in poor people and oligarchs, and cultural heterogeneity, which consists in the existence of different value interests and behavioral systems in society.
There are many factors provoking social confrontations. The social causes of conflicts are summarized below.
The ideological reasons for confrontation lie in the existence of a certain value-ideological system that determines the prevalence and subordination in any society. Participants' views on such a system may vary significantly.
Different values are also considered a fairly common cause of social confrontation. Each participant in the confrontation, be it a social group or an individual, has an individual set of value benefits. Each such set is strictly subjective, and is often opposed to the set of the other party involved. The ultimate goal of the described type of conflict is to satisfy exclusively one’s own needs. This is what causes the interaction of oppositely directed interests, giving rise to confrontation.
Economic and social factors are associated with the division of power and wealth. Conflicts of this type appear when one of the parties involved feels that they have been left out. This type of causes of social contradictions is considered the most common.
Social confrontations can be classified by the number of warring parties (internal and interpersonal, intergroup), by the source of occurrence (subjectively and objectively determined), by functions (integrative and disintegrative), by form (externally directed and internal), by spheres of social life (political, ethnic, economic, family and household).
In turn, each of the listed types of confrontations is characterized by individual reasons that provoke their occurrence. For example, the main causes of family conflicts are jealousy, established stereotypes in intimate life, the commitment of one of the partners to the abuse of satisfying their own needs (alcohol, financial spending exclusively on themselves), differences in opinions and, consequently, needs for spending joint leisure time, selfishness, everyday problems. Not all causes of family conflicts are listed, since in each individual unit of society there are specific problems and individual causes.
How to overcome
Living in a state of constant conflict is very difficult. As a result, too much vital energy is wasted that could be directed toward something positive and positive. The decision should be aimed at harmonizing relationships, at starting to experience more joy. Unfortunately, very few people know what it means to live in a state of happiness. It is necessary to take decisive steps that will lead to inner satisfaction. How to overcome conflictual relationships?
Building personal boundaries
Every person needs to have personal space. It lies not only in physical space, but also in emotional space. A person needs to freely express his point of view, express the feelings that currently exist. Everyone needs emotional space. It will take a lot of effort to truly feel inner comfort and satisfaction. If a person is accustomed to suppressing another, this means that it is difficult for him to determine his boundaries. The habit of taking and giving nothing in return is very destructive. When a person acquires the habit of constantly adapting to the opinions of others, he cannot make the right decision. The sense of inner balance is lost, self-confidence disappears. Devastation and self-doubt gradually develop. Against this background, there is a loss of self-esteem and necessary life guidelines.
Listening skills
In the rush to defend their personal interests, people often forget that it is important to be able to listen to others. To understand the motives of your interlocutor, you need to learn to delve into his thoughts and feelings. And this presupposes a fairly high level of empathy. Unfortunately, most people are seriously focused on satisfying their own needs. There is no time or energy left to take into account the wishes of others. The emotional resources of the individual are also not unlimited, no matter how much we would like to think otherwise.
Empathic listening is the ability to concentrate on the thoughts of the interlocutor, his emotional state. It is important at this moment to isolate yourself from extraneous matters and focus on the present moment. Only in this case will it be possible to understand the opponent and take into account each other’s interests. Sometimes you have to reconsider your attitude towards life in general, to see hidden perspectives.
Effective goal setting
The ability to set and achieve goals is necessary for a sense of self-sufficiency. Only by constantly moving forward can a person feel self-confidence and an unsurpassed sense of inner comfort. Goals must correspond to your inner aspirations. You need to rely on the values that are important to you. Then internal strength and desire to realize what is planned will appear. It is better to write down your aspirations on paper. This is how an internal vision of the situation is formed. Over time, self-confidence and the desire to achieve more and better will come.
Thus, conflictual relationships always indicate that something needs to change in the interaction. Most often, you will need to show patience and wisdom. If you cannot cope with the problem on your own, we recommend contacting the community of psychologists and rehabilitation specialists Irakli Pozharisky. Working with a high-level specialist will help overcome anxiety and despair.
Interethnic confrontations
Increasingly, interethnic conflicts arise in the modern world. To establish a dominant position in relation to the rest of the inhabitants of the planet, people usually resort to the use of various means. And more often these means are weapons and brute force.
Rivalry between human subjects of different nationalities, confrontation, intense competition in the struggle for the prevalence of their own interests, which are found in various demands, is called interethnic conflict.
In interethnic confrontations, two participating parties clash, defending their own point of view and striving to achieve personal goals. When both participants are equal, in most cases, the parties strive to resolve the problematic issue peacefully. However, as a rule, in the confrontation between people of different nationalities there is a prevailing side, that is, superior in some respects, and a weaker side, as a result of which it is more vulnerable.
Conflicts of an interethnic nature can arise for various reasons. The most common causes of conflict between nations can be identified:
— social dissatisfaction of people within one state or different ones;
— expanding the boundaries of business interests beyond the borders of one country;
- economic superiority;
— disagreement with the geographical establishment of the boundaries of settlement of different peoples; cultural and linguistic claims of peoples;
— political forms of behavioral response of those in power;
- numerical dominance of one nationality over another;
- a historical past rich in contradictions in the relationships between peoples;
- the struggle for natural resources of nature and the possibility of their use for the purpose of consumption by one nation to the detriment of another;
- confessional and religious differences.
Psychology explains the causes of conflicts based on the study of experience accumulated in different parts of the planet. Varying in social significance, scale, genesis, “age,” and tension, interethnic confrontations are characterized by one “ultimate nature” that promotes ethnic mobilization. The deep roots of all interethnic confrontations are hidden behind the violation of the rights of one or another ethnic group, the lack of equality and justice in interethnic relations.
The main causes of conflicts can be described in a few words: interethnic confrontation provokes the presence of economic, territorial, political, social and psychological contradictions between states. In addition, it is not uncommon for the emergence of confrontation between nations to have several causes at the same time. It should also be noted that the most important role in the emergence of confrontation between ethnic groups is played by the subjective factor, which significantly complicates its course and resolution. The subjective factor itself influences the escalation, intensity and “explosiveness” of interethnic confrontations.
Kinds
It should be noted that conflict in relationships can be caused by different life situations. Accordingly, a different approach to resolving the dispute will be required. The main thing is not to panic, to approach the issue with full responsibility, and to be able to isolate yourself in time from the emotional outburst of your opponent. Let's consider the types of conflict relationships.
Misunderstanding between children and parents
Child-parent relationships are considered one of the most difficult. The fact is that grown children want autonomy, they want to feel free and self-sufficient. Misunderstanding on this basis will certainly arise when the child’s personality becomes strong enough to begin to conflict with the parent. Gradually, starting from adolescence, a person begins to realize his boundaries, fights for his rights, and feels personal interests. Parents and children cease to be close enough. If new hobbies go against what parents taught, conflict inevitably arises. When interests collide, people prefer to distance themselves from each other at a considerable distance.
Marital conflicts
They exist within a married couple. Even two people who selflessly love each other find it difficult to come to an understanding. You need to make an effort and consciously look for a way out. Starting to live together, a young couple goes through a crisis: they have to get used to each other, learn to understand their partner’s desires. Misunderstanding may cause the husband and wife to begin to hide various details and details from each other. The decision must begin with a conscious desire to reach a common agreement. Only in this case is reconciliation guaranteed.
Intragroup conflicts
Man is a social being, therefore he cannot live alone. We live in society and sometimes depend on the opinions of others. It is impossible to have your own opinion if it is constantly suppressed and someone else’s point of view is imposed. Most often, conflicts arise at work, where people spend too much time alone. All because in the same space there are different people whom life forced to be together. Colleagues often provoke conflicts. This happens due to different ideas about life,
Common opinions about conflicts. And nothing has changed
There is an opinion that conflicts between people are inevitable and there is no escape from this “karma”. All that remains is to learn the skills and techniques of conducting “close combat” with other people. Conflict psychology is looking for answers to questions about how to behave correctly in the face of inevitable conflicts between people, studying what kind of conflicts there are in social groups, what are the causes of conflicts between people.
In the classification of conflicts, separate types are distinguished:
- ideological conflicts,
- social and domestic conflicts,
- interpersonal conflicts,
- destructive conflicts,
- constructive conflicts.
Numerous rules and recommendations are given on how to respond to one type of conflict or another; in psychology they are trying to develop tactics and strategies for resolving conflict.
The common denominator is the same starting postulate of the psychology of conflicts: a clash of opposing interests between people is inevitable. And as a result, negative, painful experiences caused by a conflict situation are inevitable.
The concept of the causes of conflicts in psychology is explained by contradictions in the opinions of the opposing parties. Quote from Internet sources: “Conflict is an inevitable component of relationships...”.
Active calls by psychologists to use various tactics in conflict situations lead to the false belief that conflict situations in relationships with other people are the norm.
Talking about the constructive functions of conflict situations makes things even more confusing. Allegedly, the form of “civilized conflict” is a motive for achieving goals, for moving to another level of beneficial communications, excluding the destructive development of the conflict.
And in life, conflict is always unpleasant, offensive, painful and annoying. Nobody consciously wants to be participants in a conflict. Every person wants to receive positive emotions from communicating with other people.
What to do with the desire to enjoy interaction with other people and the supposed impossibility of getting it? Should you reconcile or use tactical methods of combat with your opponent, defending the right to be heard? Is it possible to constructively and happily communicate with other people without the concept of “conflict”?
Any question about conflicts is fundamentally a search for answers about the reasons for this or that behavior. If a person is prone to conflict behavior, there must be a reason for this.
At the System-Vector Psychology training by Yuri Burlan, you receive unmistakable knowledge of the true causes of conflicts between people.
“Why are you as angry as a dog?”
From the moment of birth, each person is endowed with unique mental properties, which are manifested in life values, priorities, aspirations and desires, shape a person’s behavior and the forms of his relationships with others.
The basic need of every person is the desire to receive pleasure and joy through the realization of their natural aspirations and desires.
We unconsciously strive to fulfill and satisfy our desires, to achieve what we want. When it is impossible to get what you want, tension grows inside a person. The stronger the desire and the longer the lack of its fulfillment, the stronger the tension and irritation.
I want and do not receive, I desire and do not have. The person begins to experience dissatisfaction and tension. When a desire is not fulfilled for a long time, a person’s behavior is directed not at finding ways to realize what he wants, but at relieving internal discomfort and tension.
Reaching the peak of tension and irritation, the human psyche strives to regain a comfortable, balanced state, dumping negativity outward on other people. Expressing dislike for other people brings some relief. I yelled at a restless child, reinforcing my dissatisfaction with a slap on the head, I “didn’t allow myself to be offended” in the queue at an ATM to a rogue who was getting ahead of my dad, I swore at the conductor on the bus for showing distrust - phew, it became a little easier! And so on until the next voltage peak.
Sometimes the degree of tension is so high that the clash is not limited to verbal conflict. A person with certain mental properties (in the presence of chronic dissatisfaction in the desires of the anal vector) has a tendency to aggression and causing physical harm to an opponent. This behavior brings a feeling of temporary relief, perpetuating the conflict scenario of relationships. A bonus to scandalous, aggressive behavior is loneliness and anger towards the whole world.
And I really want to feel happy, receiving joy and pleasure from life!
What to do? How to get rid of the scenario of living life in conflicts, quarrels and misunderstandings? The only answer is to realize the nature of your desires and the desires of other people! This is fully possible at the training “System-vector psychology” by Yuri Burlan.
Everyone has their own “I want”
Interpersonal conflicts, or more simply put, quarrels between people, always proceed violently, at the peak of emotions, often involving and traumatizing third parties. A quarrel never ends in a positive compromise. After the quarrel, the participants in the scandal are still shaken for some time from the negative emotions they have experienced. Inside each opponent, indignation boils, seethes and bubbles towards the other: “How can he not understand me (my desires)?”
When we find ourselves in a conflict situation, the thought that others have their own desires, different from ours, dictated by different natural characteristics, does not occur to us.
Let us give a simple, real-life example of a quarrel arising in a family.
An energetic, active wife requires her leisurely, thorough husband to do several things quickly. She is annoyed with her husband for his sluggishness and slowness. The man tries to justify his wife’s demands to be more mobile, but he slows down even more, falls into a stupor, and becomes offended in response to his wife’s constant tugging. The orderly rhythm of his thoughts is disrupted, he experiences stress from the inability to efficiently complete a hundred things at the same time. The tension between both increases and turns into a quarrel with mutual accusations “why don’t you understand me?”
If we consider this example through the prism of System-Vector Psychology by Yuri Burlan, then the reasons for the conflict between spouses are clear and explainable.
The active, efficient wife is the owner of the skin vector. People with the skin vector are naturally endowed with an agile psyche. Organization, discipline and self-discipline are features of the psyche of owners of the skin vector. They not only know how to discipline themselves, but also demand that others obey laws and rules.
The main natural feature of the skin vector is the desire to save money. A person with a skin vector saves energy, time, information, space. The ability to solve several problems at the same time, manage to get to many places, and quickly switch attention from one issue to another is a manifestation of the desire to save money.
Wanting to realize the natural desire to save and having innate properties for this, a person with the skin vector often expects the same from other people. He will be irritated by the manifestation of slowness in others (what a lot of time wasted!) - verbally this is expressed in endless hasting and pulling back on those around him.
How does a person feel when he hears accusations of being “slow” and sluggish? Most often offended. Because the owner of the anal vector is not a slowdown by nature! He is as ordered as possible - in thoughts and actions. Owners of the anal vector are by nature leisurely and thorough. They are perfectionists and professionals in their field, responsible and efficient. The family has the best husbands and wives, attentive and caring.
The psyche of such a person is fundamentally different in its characteristics from the psyche of a person with a skin vector.
The psyche of the owner of the anal vector is rigid and inflexible. The owner of the anal vector does not have the natural ability to quickly switch attention from one task to another. A person with an anal vector has different natural desires (and therefore abilities). One of them is the desire to be an excellent performer of your job, a respected professional. And to obtain a high-quality result (so as not to be ashamed to look people in the eye), haste is unacceptable.
A person with an anal vector needs approval and recognition of his merits. In childhood, the desire to be approved by the mother is expressed in obedience and complaisance. In adult life, such a person, wanting to experience a feeling of approval from the outside, strives to justify the demands of people significant to him. For example, spouses with a skin vector. Trying with all his might to become fast, flexible and maneuverable, to catch up and overtake his rivals, a person with the anal vector, not having the properties given by nature for such manifestations, experiences stress, falls into a stupor and cannot move from a dead point. In this situation, he suffers from the inability to meet the expectations of the woman he loves and is offended in response to her claims.
Misunderstanding of the differences in each other's innate natural characteristics leads to quarrels and scandals.
