Week 16 - Post 3

            Over the course of this semester, I learned so many valuable things about handling conflict. I learned what to do when a conflict occurs, how to handle my anger when something really gets to me, how to forgive, how to handle revenge, and tips and techniques on what to do during conflicts. The most important things that I learned in this class throughout the semester was the different process views of conflict, the different behaviors (self, relationship, or other-centered), the S-TLC system, how to manage stress and anger, and forgiveness. I really enjoyed learning about these specific topics because I was able to apply it to my life and the people around me. Since I live in my sorority house, there will be conflicts that I will be in and that I will witness. Through taking this class, I have a better grasp on what to do when I am in conflict as well as when I am witnessing them. I feel that I can better advise my friends, family, and sorority sisters with numerous tips on things that really do apply to our lives, such as stress and being assertive. I loved everything I learned in this class and can honestly say that everything was extremely beneficial. 

Week 16 - Post 2

            The thing that I liked the most about this class was the fact that I was able to do everything on my own time. I was able to do my discussion posts way in advance and I would post each one as soon as I could. I loved how I was able to get my blogs for the class done and out of the way in the beginning of the week, that way, I was able to enjoy my weekend or focus on things for my other classes. The only thing that I didn’t like about this class was the fact that we had to post our blogs 12 hours after the post before. Although I do understand that we do that so we can constantly be engaged with this class and check in on other blogs, I wish I could have posted all three for the week at once since I had them all done in advance. One strength of this class is the fact that it was online. I love online classes because of the flexibility it gives me. Although it takes extreme self-discipline and a huge deal of organization, I possess both of those traits, which makes online classes perfect for me. Another strength was that we had all the information about each discussion post, essay, and project at the start of the semester. I saw no weaknesses in this class! I would definitely recommend this class to another student because learning about how to handle and deal with conflict is very important in everyone’s life since conflict is inevitable. 

Week 16 - Post 1

            I think that people have such negative views of conflict because they don’t know how to handle conflict the right way. Most people have had negative experiences with conflict and just associate those experiences with the fact that conflict in general is negative. For example, conflict is a disagreement; therefore people who disagree with each other handle the other’s opinions in different ways. If you or the person who you are in a conflict with is an aggressive person, you’re experience with that conflict will most likely be negative, resulting in a negative view of conflict in general. The negative emotions that come from conflicts often times give conflict a negative connotation. Although, I definitely think that as people know more about conflict, they fear it less. I believe that is true because once you learn about conflict and how to manage it, it becomes less of a pain. You learn about ways to improve the way you conflict with other people as well as how to deal with people who don’t necessarily know how to deal with conflict themselves, such as the act of listening. 

Week 11 - Post 3

            One concept from this week’s assigned reading that I found interesting was in chapter twelve about the psychodynamic theory. Abigail describes this theory as when “people experience conflict because of their intrapersonal states”. When I see the actual word “psychodynamic”, I tend to think of an unstable, dramatic person who has deeply rooted issues with themselves or others. As I read further about this theory, I learned that frustration, tension, and anxiety are important to understanding and explaining an individual’s state of mind that can lead to aggressive behavior as well as intrapersonal conflict. After seeing those traits that can lead to the psychodynamic theory, I have come to my own conclusion that stress is a probably cause for people to be defined as this specific theory. Stress causes those specific emotions, which, in turn, causes overblown conflict and displaced conflict. Thinking back to chapter seven about managing stress, it would be wise to take that chapter’s advice about how to manage stress in order to avoid the negative effects of the psychodynamic theory. 

Week 11 - Post 2

            In chapter 12, the attribution theory “states that people act as they do in conflict situations because of the inferences they make about others based on their behavior”. There is no definite description of a “false attribution” in the textbook but I would assume that it is false judgment of someone and how they act during a conflict. This is similar to attribution error, which is taking full credit if you do something great, or blaming someone else when something negative happens. I can honestly say I don’t think I have ever experience false attributions, but it might be because I have never known what it was. I think that because I am aware of what it is now, I will be more aware if I do it. I like to think that I am pretty good at making accurate attributions because I can read people very well. This has helped me to handle conflicts better because I can predict how a person will react to conflict situations. 

Week 11 - Post 1

            I used Google to do my Internet search of the three terms, forgiveness, reconciliation, and revenge. First, I searched each term separately and then I searched the three words together in one search. When I searched “forgiveness” by itself, I got a Wikipedia website about forgiveness and then a few sites about how the Bible says to forgive. I also got a few YouTube videos and psychology websites. Next, I searched “reconciliation” by itself. For this term, I just got a bunch of websites that defined the word. The first two were Wikipedia sites as well, but two different Wikipedia sites on reconciliation. The first was regarded the United States Congress while the second was the word in general. When I searched “revenge” I only got websites regarding the TV series that is quite recent. Finally, when I searched them all together I got a bunch of scholarly journals and books. The term “forgiveness” happened to have the most diverse websites produces, probably because it is such a broad topic.