Conflict is an inevitable phenomenon of social life that every person faces sooner or later. In 2016, a significant interpersonal conflict arose between two Hollywood actors, Vin Diesel and Dwayne Johnson, which continues nowadays. Interpersonal conflict is associated with a clash of opposing goals, motives, points of view, and interests of the participants in the interaction. This phenomenon can be characterized by psychodynamic, behavioral, and cognitive approaches.
Ideas about interpersonal conflicts within the framework of the psychodynamic approach lie in the intrapsychic factor. According to representatives of this approach, including Z. Freud, the causes of interpersonal conflicts lie in the unconscious sphere. Hanaway (2020) notes that from this approach, the essence of the conflict lies in the inevitable contradiction between the unconscious instincts, needs, desires of a person, primarily sexual and aggressive, and social norms and prohibitions. Thus, according to the psychodynamic approach, a person is in constant internal and external conflict with others and the world as a whole.
The opposition to understanding conflicts as phenomena of intrapsychic origin was the shift in emphasis to the external determinants of their occurrence. According to Hanaway (2020), under the behavioral approach, the conflict is situational and is understood as a particular form of aggressive response to a frustrating situation. Based on the basic ideas of behaviorists, the pathology of behavior is a consequence of learning incorrect, inadequate, or deviant behavior, which, having received some reinforcement, becomes part of the individual’s behavioral repertoire.
Therefore, the psychodynamic approach considered internal factors as the main ones in regulating behavior, and behaviorism gave priority to situational, external ones. In turn, cognitivists combined them, giving external factors an internal, subjective character. Hanaway (2020) asserts that, within the framework of the cognitive approach, conflict is characterized as a situation in which an individual is affected by oppositely directed, simultaneously acting forces of approximately equal magnitude. Thus, cognitivists present interpersonal conflict as a contradiction between a person’s own needs and external coercive power. In my opinion, this approach most fully reflects the specifics of interpersonal conflict, including the situation of Hollywood actors.
Reference
Hanaway, M. (2020). Psychologically informed mediation: Studies in conflict and resolution. Taylor & Francis.