Moreover, superficial harmony, like genuine harmony, can be distinguished into three subtypes, the segmentation, alienation, and inhibition types. The inhibition-type superficial harmony is the strongest form of unobservable conflict and can transform into explicit conflict at any time Table 1 ; arrows indicate the direction of transformation.
TABLE 1. Various type of interpersonal harmony: Main characteristics and transformative relationship. In the second substantial theory, interpersonal conflict was defined as a verbal or other visible behavior that openly expresses a difference of opinion, incompatible goals, requirements, or concerns, and the accompanying emotions; conflict was also classified into genuine and superficial types according to the level of focus on the issue and the degree of diffusion of emotion.
Genuine conflict refers to a conflict in which the dispute is focused and emotion is diffused. When emotion is not diffused, a genuine conflict could transform into a superficial conflict, which would lead to a reduction in the clarity of the conflict focus. Here, conflict refers to the explicit type of conflict, and implicit conflict is equivalent to superficial harmony. Huang further classified interpersonal conflict into three types of genuine conflict and three types of superficial conflict Table 2 ; arrow: direction of transformation.
A Reasoning-Persuasion genuine conflict Type 1, , the most rational type of conflict, occurs when people engage in a debate with others to defend their values, or when they persuade others to agree to support their viewpoint. If the process becomes emotionally charged and loses focus on the contended point, the conflict might transform into a Quarreling superficial conflict Type 4, ; this type of conflict occurs when the dyad disputes orally with a high level of wit, repartee, tension, and competition, and the participants are unable to maintain emotional control and lose the point of the discussion.
A Contending genuine conflic t Type 2, arises when people sense that they are being treated unfairly by others and thus fight for their own benefits or rights. If this type of conflict is over emotionalized, it might transform into a Fighting superficial conflict Type 5, ; this conflict results when in order to win, each party uses all available resources, such as power, legal action, physical force, or even a weapon, with anger, rejection, rage, and hostility until the dispute is settled.
A Friction genuine conflict Type 3, occurs either when people sense that their autonomy has been constrained or their intentions have been misperceived, or when one party is dissatisfied with the other.
If the accumulated dissatisfaction from the past emerges during a current conflict, this type of conflict might transform into an Entanglement superficial conflict Type 6, , the most emotionally escalated type of conflict.
The dispute leaves the problem unresolved and the participants filled with complaints, hate, disappointment, and a sense of helplessness. The dynamic model of Huang proposes that the degree of focus on a problem moves gradually from high to low from Type 1 to Type 6, whereas the degree of emotionality increases gradually from Type 1 to Type 6. Thus, conflict is at the lowest level in Type 1 and at the most escalated level in Type 6.
The relationship between the two elements problem and emotion is identical to the relationship and transformation between Yin and Yang. While the two essential theories were constructed from the qualitative study conducted using the grounded-theory approach, certain new concepts and their relationships were also developed. Subsequently, the author conducted a series of quantitative studies to verify the construct validity or predictive validity of the two essential theories of dynamic model of interpersonal harmony and conflict.
According to the first substantial theory, the six basic types of interpersonal harmony and their main interaction rules were systematically investigated Table 2. Adjustment-oriented interaction mostly appears in role-fitting harmony , and in this interaction, the two parties follow their own roles carefully, although affection will occasionally be involved in making the relationship between the parties smooth. In Domain-oriented interaction, the parties aim to simplify their relationship and avoid becoming involved with irrelevant events; this interaction mostly appears in segmentation harmony.
In Form-oriented interaction, the parties interact with each other in a plain manner and maintain a light and almost spurious relationship; this interaction mostly appears in alienation harmony.
Lastly, inhibition harmony invariably leads to Suppression-oriented interaction, in which one party must suppress its anger or dissatisfaction toward the other party, because failure to do so will offend or cause an argument with the other party. To verify the construct validity of the six types of harmony, two self-report questionnaires were designed and each was administered to approximately adults total living in northern Taiwan Huang, Six scenarios were presented to demonstrate each of the six types of harmony, and six statements were also prepared to indicate the aforementioned six types of oriented interactions related to distinct types of harmony.
In the questionnaire, each scenario was presented first, and this was followed by a series of questions on the scenarios and the oriented interactions. Moreover, background information on the participants was collected. Two versions of the questionnaire were used, each questionnaire included three scenarios each of genuine harmony or superficial harmony, and the order effect was balanced in the questionnaires.
The result obtained in the study supported the construct validity of the six types of interpersonal harmony Table 3. The statistical values along the diagonal in Table 3 are higher than the adjacent statistics, which supports the conclusion that the main harmony was correlated more closely with the main oriented interaction and was less correlated irrelative with other oriented interactions.
The results also indicated that various types of harmony exist according to distinct relationships and concerns, and further that maintaining superficial harmony is more common than conflict externalization among Chinese people.
TABLE 3. Interaction orientation under six types of interpersonal harmony. Consequently, a laboratory study imitating the strange situation experiment, which was originally developed to classify attachment relationships in children Ainsworth et al. Parents expect their children to cooperate and follow rules, whereas children seek to either engage in activities that they enjoy, such as watching TV or playing video games, or simply behave as they wish to.
First, although the six basic types of conflict were derived from adult samples, the six types of conflict should also be identifiable in the relationship between mothers and young children.
Second, if conflicts occur in a seminatural mother—child supervisory scenario, as pressure gradually increases, conflicts should typically develop with increased ease and become progressively more emotionalized.
The participants were 45 pairs of mothers and sons or daughters living in southern Taiwan. All children were fourth-grade students in elementary school, and the study included an almost equal number of boys and girls.
The average length of marriage was Most of the mothers enrolled in the study were the primary caregivers of the children. A semi-natural scenario was designed to induce mother—child conflict. Based on previous research and observations, in the scenario established, the mothers could monitor their children doing homework in our laboratory, and pressure was gradually increased to induce conflict.
Each mother—child pair was required to complete three tasks of distinct levels of complexity: sorting materials low complexity , solving a puzzle medium complexity , and completing mathematical exercises high complexity.
The procedure was divided into six stages, with the stress level being increased gradually across the stages to provoke conflict. To induce conflict between mother and child, distraction elements and time pressure were included.
The distractions were cartoon videos for the child and the filling out of a family information questionnaire for the mother. When the child was distracted from the task, the mother was required to urge the child to concentrate. Time pressure was applied in the form of informing participants of the amount of working time remaining, and this would result in the mother urging the child to complete the task.
Table 4 displays the design of the mother—child conflict procedure used in the laboratory. A workbook for the experiment was organized and compiled after the pretest; the workbook contained detailed information on the experimental procedures, methods, and working definitions used for observation and classification of mother—child conflict. The formal test involving the 45 pairs of participants was then conducted according to the workbook. Two observers monitored the behavior of the mother and the child separately from behind a one-way mirror through all stages of the trials, and all trials were video-recorded.
Each observer coded the behaviors of the participants and, after each trial, classified the type of mother—child conflict.
Mother—child conflict was classified based on the dynamic model of interpersonal harmony and conflict of Huang ; as noted in preceding sections, the classification system is based on transformations derived from Yin—Yang dialectics Table 2. The details of the operational definition of classification and the experimental procedure have been described previously Huang and Huang, The results obtained were the following: almost half of the study participants The results also revealed that with an increase in the applied pressure, genuine conflict transformed into superficial conflict and reached its peak during the last two stages of the trial, and further that the conflict became progressively less focused and more emotionalized.
As anticipated, mothers maintained focus on genuine conflict to a greater extent than the children did at the initial stage of the trial. When persuading a child to agree with her opinion or follow her directions, the mother initiated verbal conflict with the child, and at this point, there was comparatively less emotional argument and more guidance.
However, the children frequently assumed that they were being treated unfairly, or that their wellbeing was not being considered contending-type conflict.
Thus, the children lost control of their temper more frequently than the mothers did. The study demonstrated that all six types of conflict predicted by the model could be successfully induced using the quasi-experimental design, and further showed that genuine versus superficial conflict can be reliably observed and classified, much like the transformation between the distinct types of conflict.
The study also indicated that a small amount of experimentally induced pressure is adequate for provoking dyadic conflict, and that as the pressure is increased, such a conflict can transform from an issue-focused conflict into a conflict in which focus is lost and emotions escalate.
These results validated the dynamic model of interpersonal harmony and conflict. This study represents the first attempt to experimentally operationalize a dynamic model of conflict that originated in indigenous Chinese theory.
Because the mother—child relationship can be considered the most elementary of all relationships, the prototypes identified here could be applied validly and effectively in diverse dyadic conflicts involving other types of actors and other types of relationships.
The aforementioned study also presents key implications for indigenous Chinese psychology. The Yin—Yang dialectic is a unique and central element of traditional Chinese thought; however, because of the complexity of the transformations between Yin and Yang, previous researchers have found it extremely challenging to operationalize them into a quantifiable psychological theory.
The research discussed in this section represents a first step in showing that a science of transformations can potentially be developed. Such a science would hold critical implications for conflict resolution. When conflict and harmony are conceptualized as ongoing sequences of dialectical transformations between problem focus and emotionalization, it represents the identification of the current stage of the process and its prototypical sequences of change that are most relevant for conflict resolution, and not the determination of the existence or absence of a particular cause and effect.
Traditional Chinese thought was centered on the concept of transformations occurring over time, not on the isolation of cause and effect. The type of contribution that such an indigenous approach can make to social science remains to be ascertained. After verifying the construct validity of the concepts of harmony and conflict in the dynamic model of interpersonal harmony and conflict, studies were conducted to both verify the dynamic model and concurrently apply the model to various relationships and distinct cases of harmony and conflict.
A literature review reveals that the bidimensional five-style framework of conflict resolution avoiding, accommodating, collaborating, competing, and compromising is now universally accepted Thomas, ; Rahim, Moreover, even the so-called win—win and lose—lose types of concepts have been derived from this structure, which has also been confirmed by several cross-cultural studies. All previous cross-cultural studies have supported the concept that in a collectivist culture, people tend to adopt the compromising, accommodating, obliging, or avoiding styles of conflict resolution, whereas in individualist cultures, people commonly adopt direct, competitive, and dominating styles of conflict resolution Ting-Toomey et al.
However, recent research suggests that people typically do not use only a single conflict-resolution style when handling interpersonal conflict: they instead adopt a combination of several styles Munduate et al.
Western studies have indicated that the relationship between two parties involved in a conflict plays no role in the pattern of conflict resolution Munduate et al. By contrast, a theory developed in a culturally Chinese context commonly treats relationships as a major factor when determining conflict-resolution patterns. In addition to emphasizing the dynamic nature of conflict, the dynamic model of harmony and conflict stresses the role of relational context in the conflict-resolution style of culturally Chinese people Huang, ; Leung et al.
The study conducted by Huang et al. In the study, the first requirement was to confirm that the patterned conflict-resolution behaviors could be observed and to identify the specific patterns of conflict-resolution behavior in a culturally Chinese society. The second requirement was to determine whether the type of relationship between two parties in a conflict influences the selection of the conflict-resolution style, and whether the patterns of conflict resolution affect the subsequent relationship.
In the study, the critical incident technique Flanagan, was used to collect instances of common conflict between supervisors and subordinates.
This technique is well-suited for examining conflict as a dynamic process because it can capture conflict issues and scenarios, the reactions of each party, and the results of the conflict-resolution style s applied. Culturally Chinese people commonly hold a negative attitude toward conflict Huang, , and thus they might not wish to describe conflicts with their supervisors to strangers. Even where a large sample size is obtained through the use of questionnaires, the study participants might not include adequate details regarding such conflicts.
To avoid this drawback, all data for this study were collected through personal interviews conducted in a private setting. The interviewees were 23 people in Taiwan 13 males , aged between 25 and 47 years old, who reported a total of 28 instances of conflict, 23 of which were conflicts with supervisors.
Each participant reported at least one conflict with a supervisor. This result is similar to the results from Western studies. Thus, the concept of conglomerated conflict resolution also applies in the case of culturally Chinese people. The most prevalent pattern of conflict resolution identified was direct encounter followed by compromise. The people who adopt this pattern first seek to achieve their own target or have their demands met or opinions accepted, and failing that, they attempt to reach an agreement in order to create a win—win scenario.
These two strategies could be combined to create the second major pattern, direct encounter followed by avoidance. In this pattern, subordinates initially present their own demands or opinions but eventually discard them, which creates a win—lose scenario.
This pattern has not been identified in Western studies Munduate et al. In more than two-thirds of the cases, the prevailing reaction to conflict with a supervisor was neither accommodation nor avoidance. This result clearly differs from the previous finding that culturally Chinese people tend to adopt avoiding or accommodating conflict-resolution styles Trubisky et al. The result is also distinct from the finding reported by Hwang — that obliging is the dominant reaction in a vertical conflict, particularly in the case of a child—parent or subordinate—supervisor conflict.
However, the results of this study Huang et al. When analyzing the study data, new insights were gained through an examination of how preconflict and postconflict relationships between supervisors and subordinates were related to the conflict-resolution patterns adopted. The results showed that when the superior—subordinate relationship was a genuine harmony, the direct-encounter or the direct-encounter-then-compromise pattern was highly likely to be adopted; this means that subordinates expressed their own opinions and attempted to reach a compromise or used integration as the solution to problems.
When the subordinates stated their own opinion, although the conflict was typically resolved through accommodation or avoidance, the postconflict relationship typically continued to be of the genuine harmony type. By contrast, when the preconflict relationship was a superficial harmony, subordinates were comparatively less inclined to expose the conflict, and they commonly adopted either the accommodating or avoiding style or the direct-encounter-then-yield pattern to handle the conflict.
The postconflict relationship here fell under the inhibition subtype of superficial harmony. Thus, the nature of the preconflict relationship affects the style and pattern of conflict resolution, and then continuously influences the postconflict relationship.
Conversely, if the preconflict relationship is considered to affect the type of conflict, then the type of conflict could be expected to influence the postconflict relationship. To further analyze the study data, explicit conflict was classified into the following six types based on the dynamic model for harmony and conflict proposed by Huang : three types of genuine conflict reasoning, contending, and friction , which are clearly issue-focused; and three types of superficial conflict quarreling, fighting, and entanglement , which are highly emotional and not issue-focused.
The analysis results showed that half of the reported conflicts were genuine conflicts and were triggered by matters of reasoning, power or privilege, or resource allocation. These conflicts tended to remain rational and focused when the preconflict relationships were of the genuine harmony type, and then the postconflict relationship also continued to be a genuine harmony.
Similarly, when preconflict relationships were of the superficial harmony type, the postconflict relationship continued to be a superficial harmony. However, in some of these cases in which the preconflict relationships were of the superficial harmony type, the parties became emotional and the conflict lost issue-focus and transformed into a superficial conflict. The fighting type of conflict was the main type of conflict that developed.
In cases in which the conflict became superficial fighting or quarreling type , the postconflict relationships remained at the level of superficial harmony. Thus, the preconflict relationship appeared to exert a stronger effect on the postconflict relationship than the conflict type did.
Four instances of hidden conflict inhibition harmony with the supervisor were also reported in the study. The participants involved might have strongly disagreed with their supervisors on certain matters but not have exposed this, and thus the supervisors might not have been aware of the disagreement. Subordinates in this type of a scenario typically harbor strong negative feelings toward, and keep their distance from, the supervisors. Consequently, morale was low among these four participants.
Lastly, the accommodating style tended to cause the conflict to remain implicit, and thus only the inhibition type of superficial harmony remained in the relationship. However, one previous study Huang and Hsu, , which is discussed here, used the dynamic model of interpersonal harmony and conflicts of Huang , a model that is highly favorable for understanding this relationship and can precisely portray the progress in the transformation of the relationship.
Analysis of the data gathered from 19 in-depth interviews revealed an extensive range in the harmony between mothers- and daughters-in-law. Search for:. The Conflict Perspective Brief Conflict theory suggests that men, as the dominant gender, subordinate women in order to maintain power and privilege in society. Learning Objectives Describe gender from the view of the conflict perspective. Key Takeaways Conflict theory asserts that social problems occur when dominant groups mistreat subordinate ones, and thus advocates for a balance of power between genders.
Frederich Engels compared the family structure to the relationship between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat , suggesting that women had less power than men in the household because they were dependent on them for wages. Men, like any other group with a power or wealth advantage in Conflict Theory, fought to maintain their control over resources in this case, political and economic power.
Key Terms Dominant — Ruling; governing; prevailing; controlling. Subordinate — To make subservient. If, after the revolt, conditions were adjusted to favor the concerns of the proletariat, the conflict circle would eventually repeat but in the opposite direction. The bourgeoise would eventually become the aggressor and revolter, grasping for the return of the structures that formerly maintained their dominance. In current conflict theory, there are four primary assumptions which are helpful to understand: competition, revolution, structural inequality, and war.
Conflict theorists believe that competition is a constant and, at times, an overwhelming factor in nearly every human relationship and interaction.
Competition exists as a result of the scarcity of resources, including material resources—money, property, commodities, and more. Beyond material resources, individuals and groups within a society also compete for intangible resources as well.
These can include leisure time, dominance, social status, sexual partners, etc. Conflict theorists assume that competition is the default rather than cooperation. Given conflict theorists' assumption that conflict occurs between social classes, one outcome of this conflict is a revolutionary event. The idea is that change in a power dynamic between groups does not happen as the result of a gradual adaptation.
Rather, it comes about as the symptom of conflict between these groups. In this way, changes to a power dynamic are often abrupt and large in scale, rather than gradual and evolutionary. An important assumption of conflict theory is that human relationships and social structures all experience inequalities of power. In this way, some individuals and groups inherently develop more power and reward than others.
Following this, those individuals and groups that benefit from a particular structure of society tend to work to maintain those structures as a way of retaining and enhancing their power. Conflict theorists tend to see war as either a unifier or as a "cleanser" of societies.
In conflict theory, war is the result of a cumulative and growing conflict between individuals and groups, and between entire societies.
In the context of war, a society may become unified in some ways, but conflict still remains between multiple societies. On the other hand, war may also result in the wholesale end of a society. Marx viewed capitalism as part of a historical progression of economic systems. He believed capitalism was rooted in commodities , or things that are purchased and sold. For example, he believed that labor is a type of commodity.
This can create an imbalance between business owners and their workers, which can eventually lead to social conflicts. He believed these problems would eventually be fixed through a social and economic revolution. Max Weber, a German sociologist, philosopher, jurist, and political economist, adopted many aspects of Marx's conflict theory, and later, further refined some of Marx's idea.
Weber believed that conflict over property was not limited to one specific scenario. Rather, he believed that there were multiple layers of conflict existing at any given moment and in every society.
Whereas Marx framed his view of conflict as one between owners and workers, Weber also added an emotional component to his ideas about conflict. Weber's beliefs about conflict extend beyond Marx's because they suggest that some forms of social interaction, including conflict, generate beliefs and solidarity between individuals and groups within a society.
In this way, an individual's reactions to inequality might be different depending on the groups with which they are associated; whether they perceive those in power to be legitimate; and so on.
Conflict theorists of the later 20th and 21st centuries have continued to extend conflict theory beyond the strict economic classes posited by Marx, although economic relations remain a core feature of the inequalities across groups in the various branches of conflict theory. Conflict theory is highly influential in modern and post-modern theories of sexual and racial inequality, peace and conflict studies, and the many varieties of identity studies that have arisen across Western academia in the past several decades.
For example, conflict theorists view the relationship between a housing complex owner and a tenant as being based mainly on conflict instead of balance or harmony, even though there may be more harmony than conflict.
They believe that they are defined by getting whatever resources they can from each other. In the above example, some of the limited resources which may contribute to conflicts between tenants and the complex owner include the limited space within the complex, the limited number of units, the money which tenants pay to the complex owner for rent, and so on. Ultimately, conflict theorists see this dynamic as one of conflict over these resources.
The complex owner, however gracious, is fundamentally focused on getting as many apartment units filled as possible so that they can make as much money in rent as possible, especially if bills such as mortgages and utilities must be covered.. This may introduce conflict between housing complexes, among tenant applicants looking to move into an apartment, and so forth.
On the other side of the conflict, the tenants themselves are looking to get the best apartment possible for the least amount of money in rent. Conflict theorists point to the financial crisis of and the subsequent bank bailouts as good examples of real-life conflict theory, according to authors Alan Sears and James Cairns in their book A Good Book, in Theory.
They view the financial crisis as the inevitable outcome of the inequalities and instabilities of the global economic system, which enables the largest banks and institutions to avoid government oversight and take huge risks that only reward a select few. Sears and Cairns note that large banks and big businesses subsequently received bailout funds from the same governments that claimed to have insufficient funds for large-scale social programs such as universal health care.
This example illustrates that conflict can be inherent in all types of relationships, including those that don't appear on the surface to be antagonistic.
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