Growing up in a family with five children, an alcoholic father, and a mother who worked hard to keep a roof over our heads and food in our bellies gave me a great deal of experience in conflict resolution which I continue to develop and use to this day.
A student entered my office this afternoon in distress due to an ongoing conflict between her and her group of friends. Thankfully, my past experiences, current reading assignment, and prayer enabled me to talk to her, calm her down, and set the stage for a group meeting tomorrow with all parties concerned; I will be mediating this discussion.
Myers defines mediation as “An attempt by a mutual third party to resolve a conflict by facilitating communication and offering suggestions” (2015, p.385). When mediating two parties, I try to remember to communicate that in conflicts there are always three sides: side A, side B, and somewhere in the middle is side C (the truth). The only undeniable truth in life is the word of God; people are fallible, and truth is easily distorted as a result of poor communication. In anger, people do not correctly remember exactly what they said, how they said it, or exactly what they heard the other person say. …show more content…
According to Heshmat, “Confirmation bias occurs from the direct influence of desire on beliefs” (2014, 2). He gives an example by saying, “A person with low self-esteem is highly sensitive to being ignored by other people, and they constantly monitor for signs that people might not like them. Thus, if you are worried that someone is annoyed with you, you are biased toward all the negative information about [how] that person acts toward you. You interpret neutral behavior as indicative of something really negative” (Heshmat, 2015, 4). In addition, we often do not effectively communicate what we are
A student entered my office this afternoon in distress due to an ongoing conflict between her and her group of friends. Thankfully, my past experiences, current reading assignment, and prayer enabled me to talk to her, calm her down, and set the stage for a group meeting tomorrow with all parties concerned; I will be mediating this discussion.
Myers defines mediation as “An attempt by a mutual third party to resolve a conflict by facilitating communication and offering suggestions” (2015, p.385). When mediating two parties, I try to remember to communicate that in conflicts there are always three sides: side A, side B, and somewhere in the middle is side C (the truth). The only undeniable truth in life is the word of God; people are fallible, and truth is easily distorted as a result of poor communication. In anger, people do not correctly remember exactly what they said, how they said it, or exactly what they heard the other person say. …show more content…
According to Heshmat, “Confirmation bias occurs from the direct influence of desire on beliefs” (2014, 2). He gives an example by saying, “A person with low self-esteem is highly sensitive to being ignored by other people, and they constantly monitor for signs that people might not like them. Thus, if you are worried that someone is annoyed with you, you are biased toward all the negative information about [how] that person acts toward you. You interpret neutral behavior as indicative of something really negative” (Heshmat, 2015, 4). In addition, we often do not effectively communicate what we are