Personal Conflict Management Style Analysis

My goal is to assess and analyze my personal conflict management style through my unresolved conflict with my parents concerning my upcoming summer plans, with the purpose of collaborating to create a plan we can mutually agree on. My relationship with my parents is a familial relationship, this should show why we go about solving are conflicts the way we do. I am an only child; therefore, I am equally close to both parents. As a family, we have a very open relationship, meaning I can tell them anything. Whether it is how I am feeling or what I did over the weekend while I’m off at college, I know that I can be honest with them about any subject or situation without any judgments in return. This is one of the main reasons why my parents and I get along so well. I can be expressive without worrying about what they are thinking or going to say. My parents are the same way, they are not passive about their thoughts and opinions concerning my life and the decisions I make. They know I am going to take in what they say with thought and consideration as they would mine because we are more than understanding of each other. Having such supportive parents has made me feel the security and comfort I need to be completely honest and open about not only my life, but also my decisions. Although my parents and I have a very solid and open relationship, we also have disagreements. The conflict in need of resolution is about my plans for the upcoming summer break. My position is to stay in Honolulu, Hawaii for the summer and my parents’ position is for me to come home to Washington. My interest is to stay in Hawaii over the summer because I plan on possibly renting an apartment as close to the University of Hawaii at Manoa campus with the purpose of taking summer classes. Staying in Hawaii would make it easier for me to take how ever many summer classes on campus because there are very limited online classes offered if I decided to go home and take only online classes. My parents interest, however, is for me to come home because it would be cheaper to live at home for the summer rather than paying for an apartment near the university. They think that I could find classes online that would suffice a few general requirements I still need for graduation. It would also be difficult for them because they are use to seeing me for more than just a few weeks out of the year. So if I stayed for the summer, they would only be seeing me during this years winter break. Being that we are family means that care about our relationship with one another, which has led us to choose compromise as both of our chosen conflict managing styles to resolve our opposing positions. To compromise is to seek middle ground, meaning that even though both parties will gain something they wanted from the start, they both must give up something in return. My parents are in the process of finding new living accommodations because they sold the house in which we lived for most of my life. With this in mind, I suggested that if they chose to reside in …show more content…
The problem in need of resolution is our opposing opinions concerning my summer plans, so I can stay in Hawaii and my parents can also spend time with me. My “I Message” to my parents would be that I feel frustrated when we cannot reach a decision we can both be satisfied with because I think we both want to secure our plans for the summer. I wish we could weigh the costs of both sides of our positions so we can come to a mutual …show more content…
Not only do we value the importance of our positions we also value our relationship with one another, this has this has led us to compromise with each other with the hope of coming to a mutual agreement regarding our conflict. Although both parties may have to give up something to get something in return, the key to resolving a conflict is through collaboration, that way the needs of both parties can be satisfied. Even though conflicts tend to have negative connotations, knowing how to mange the conflicts in a way that helps both parties can ease the the resolution