Young Adults Use With Their Parents example essay topic

John Blaze Intro to Communications Term paper 12/4/01 Conflict Management Styles How many people have conflicts with there parents? This is not a uncommon thing for young adults to show conflict with their parents. Conflicts are something that occur very often and it seems as though young adults have lots of conflicts with their parents. Some young adults feel as though, if they are eighteen, nineteen, or twenty that they are able to make their own decisions. Whether it be staying out past curfew, borrowing the car, or staying over a friends house, the young adult or teenager doesn't see eye to eye with their parents and this is where the conflict comes into play. In this paper the conflict management styles that young adults use with their parents will be discussed.

When talking about conflict management styles there are five terms that must be discussed. According to a study done by Rahim and Magner, the five terms are Accommodating, Avoiding, Collaborating, Competing, and Compromising. Every person has used each of these methods depending on the situation they are in at the time. The Accommodating tactic would be used if you know you are loosing the argument and to save face you agree with your opposition.

Another way the Accommodating tactic may be used is if, the argument is not important enough for you too win so you sit back, listen to their side, and learn from it. There are more ways to use the Accommodating tactic but these are just a few. The Avoiding factor is used when a confrontation is almost impossible to avoid. When you see there is zero chance to satisfy your point of view in the conflict, or when people are so mad that they loose their cool, to let them regain their composure and to cool down. The Collaborating tactic may be used when your whole objective on the conflict is to learn. Also it is a good idea to use the Collaborating tactic when you want to work through feeling that have interfered with the relationship with the other person in the conflict.

Competing tactic is excellent when you want to cut the through all of the non sense and get to a resolution of the conflict quickly. When quick decisive resolutions are very important, or when people attempt to disagree with you and your right without a doubt. The last tactic that Rahim and Magner talk about is the Compromising tactic. This is good for when, goals are important to you but they are not worth all the trouble they may cause. To achieve rather quick and easy resolutions to rather complex disagreements So, next time there is a conflict with your parents, try to use the accommodating, collaborating, competing, compromising or even avoiding tactic to resolve the problem so both parties feel satisfied.

Bibliography

Dum lao, Rebecca. Botta, Renee". Family communication patterns and the conflict styles young adults use with their fathers". Communication Quarterly. Vol. 48 no. 2 Spring 2000: 174-189.
End res, Thomas G. : Father-daughter dramas: A Q-investigation of rhetorical visions". Journal of Applied Communication Research. November 1997: 317-340.
Huang, Li-Ning. "Family Communication patterns and personality characteristics". Communication Quarterly. Vol. 47 no. 2 Spring 1999: 230-243.
Rahim, M. & Magner, N. "Confirmatory factory analysis of style of handling interpersonal conflict: first order factor model and its variance across groups". Journal of Applied Psychology. Vol. 80 (1) 1995: 122-132.