Hannah Rebernisek CTP Blog #2

Part of interpersonal communication involves conflict. Conflict is never fun and can even be awkward but it comes along with interpersonal communication. There are five categories of conflict. The five categories are affective conflict, conflict of interest, value conflict, cognitive conflict, and goal conflict. Value conflict is when values differ between partners. An example of value conflict was when my parents were deciding what breed of dog our family should have. My mom grew up with large dogs and wanted to get a labrador retriever. Her reasoning was that they're great family dogs and that it will get the family more active by taking the dog to the park. My dad had a different view. My dad grew up with two chihuahuas and thought that our family should get one. He believes that small dogs are better because they're not as messy and are cheaper to take care of. Plus with our house being so small, he thought a chihuahua would be best. Although their values on what breed of dog our family should get differed, they eventually were able to come to an agreement.

There are also a few strategies you can use to manage conflict. These include dominating strategy, obliging style,compromising style, avoidance, and integrating. The avoidance strategy can be seen in my photograph. This is a picture of my ten year old chihuahua, Hershey. Hershey likes to shred up tissues and leave the mess all over the house. When one of my family members or I find the mess she made, we immediately look for the culprit. Hershey is not a fan of conflict. Instead, whenever she does something she isn't supposed to, she likes to hide from us behind the toilet. This is her go-to spot to avoid all conflict. This usually is not an effective way to manage conflict because avoiding your problems will not make them magically go away.