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The characteristics of one's moral code determine how often and in what life situations inner conflict is aroused, influence the ways such conflict is experienced, and set limits on the techniques that can be used to resolve it. The goal of this paper is to convey the theoretical richness of the topic and to clarify some of the research implications. Therefore, only a brief outline of empirical work on the acquisition of moral needs is explained here. Details of the latter are presented elsewhere. Instead, the article describes a number of the problems that have been encountered in the development of the investigations. The paper closes with a discussion of some hypothetical interrelationships between moral standards and other facets of personality.

This paper suggests that if it is possible to ascertain individuals' primary motivation in dating, their degree of instrumental orientation, and their degree of emotional involvement; it will be possible to predict the likelihood of conflict occurring in their relationship, which partner is likely to control the relationship, and which partner is likely to experience the greater distress. It is further suggested that motivations in dating are affected by social variables, as are the actual choice of dating partners and the course of the dating relationship. An illustrative dating situation is presented and analyzed in which the females' primary motivation in dating is courtship and the males' primary motivation is recreation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An attempt is made to add conceptual strength to the conflict approach toward the study of family process. The concepts developed aim to provide analytical access to the nature of the family negotiating process. The focus thus is on the conceptions of bonding, aggression, appeasement, and threat. In addition the extramarital nature of familial and marital conflict management is discussed. Throughout the argument, findings from the field of ethology are used, heuristically, to aid in the attempts at problem formulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The non-zero-sum noncooperative Prisoner's Dilemma game was used to study marital conflict. Sixty husbands and wives played the game thinking they were playing their spouse when actually they were playing a non-systematic response protocol supplied by the experimenter. The results indicated: (1) personality characteristics were more predictive of conflict behavior for wives while person perception characteristics were more predictive for husbands, (2) such variables were predictive early in the game for wives and only late in the game for husbands, and (3) both sexes tended to exhibit conflict behavior to the extent that they either saw themselves as different from the opposite sex or saw their spouse as different from their own sex. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The premise that psychopathology is frequently associated with unresolved role conflict in the family may be examined within the framework of Spiegel's theory that disturbances In role cornplementarity result in family disequilibrium which may be gradually resolved through changes it, role expectations. Preliminary data on weekend home visits of middle-aged women hospitalized for depression support the hypothesis that improvement in the patient's clinical stale is associated with increasing agreement between the patient and her family concerning role expectations and performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problem of structural conflict between occupational and conjugal roles among clergy couples is investigated. It is found that church-type couples resolve this conflict by allowing occupational role at certain times to go unfulfilled while they carry out expressive conjugal roles. Sect-type couples are not as apt to consider it legitimate to allow occupational roles to ‘cool off,’ and therefore, they tend to experience less expressive conjugal interaction than do church-type couples. It is suggested that further research into conflict resolution between other occupations and the family might investigate the presence or absence of orientations analogous to those within church and sect groups. For example, a ‘total-work’ orientation might result in behavior similar to that of sect clergy, whereas a ‘work-home’ outlook might result in the mode of resolution practiced by church clergy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the hypothesis that youthful incarcerated heroin addicts show a cognitive deficiency with regard to solving typical real-life, primarily interpersonal problems in the U.S. In the study, real-life problem-solving ability is defined as being able to address one's self to the successful resolution of real-life situations. Moreover, the studies have been carried out on several diverse populations including adult psychiatric patients, impulsive teenagers in a residential treatment setting, and adolescent psychiatric patients.

Preliminary findings are presented bearing on several hypotheses derived from exchange theory. Postulating a relationship between the breakdown of intrafamilial exchange and parent-youth conflict, support for the general hypothesis is found. No significant relationships are found, however, between key structural variables and conflict. Moreover, with the exception of family size and the use of physical punishment, the availability of alternative resources, nuclear family isolation, and the homogeneity of age and sex composition in the family are not related to the use of overt control techniques, the use of which are hypothesized as necessary to induce the compliance of adolescents when exchange breaks down. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The IMC is an interaction technique which was developed to provide valid and reliable interaction data on decision-making processes and conflict resolution in couples. The IMC consists of 18 vignettes which present various types of marital conflicts that are generally relevant to couples. The IMC has several advantages compared to other marital interaction techniques and a new 29-category coding system has been developed to score the interaction material. The IMC also provides win scores and information on the relevancy of the material for each couple. Data has been collected from 1,000 couples married one and two years, with and without children. In addition to its possibilities as a research tool, the IMC also has potential as a diagnostic tool for marital therapy and as a means of evaluating process change resulting from treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies of the relationship between family conflict and adolescent divergence from parental political views have produced inconclusive findings. A notable weakness of pass research has been its reliance on recall data from respondents concerning the level of conflict experienced during adolescent years. By analyzing data directly from a sample of junior-high adolescents, the relationship of family conflict to political orientation has been reexamined. Findings indicate a positive and moderately strong relationship between family conflict and male adolescent divergence from father's political position and a weaker relationship for divergence from mother under a condition of high parental interest in politics. No significant relationships were established for females and their departure from parental political views under a condition of either varying conflict or parental political interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study which describes a method for examining experimentally the relationship between Rorschach responses and other behavior of individuals in specific, induced conflict situations involving feelings of hostility. The technique of hypnosis was selected to alter the intensity of these feelings. By means of the induced conflict and repeated administration of the Rorscbacb method, the design permitted a measure of changes, if any, paralleled by psychiatric interview material. The psychiatric interview material revealed in four of five subjects amnesia for the artificially induced conflict, and behavioral changes were definite.

The central problems of most complex societies cannot be adequately understood without focusing on the phenomena of social conflict and power. Power has been defined alternatively as the capacity to limit the action-alternatives of others, and as generalized means for the attainment of common goals. The views of Dahrendorf and Parsons, on the relation of power and authority, are critically examined. In conclusion, power is conceived as generalized means, the capacity to ‘get things done’. But when this involves ‘getting one's way’ in the face of opposition (dissension over goals), power assumes its coercive aspect. Frequently this aspect remains unrecognized by those involved; this enhances the importance of a critical attitude to social reality, also in the international field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on personality dynamics and social conflict. A hereditary conception of aggression leads nowhere with regard to social conflict. If man is born with a given potential for aggression, one must apparently assume that in the course of his life he will act out this potential in some form. But aggression, as even the Freudians agree, may be channeled into face-to-face hostility, into competitive behavior, and even into work, or it may be vented in group competition and conflict of a non-violent nature. Thus, the theory cannot logically lead to any kind of prediction about the occurrence of violent social conflict, whether between nations, or classes, or races. As a practical problem neither an instinctivist nor an environmentalist theory of aggression has much value from the point of view of blunting or disarming social conflicts.

This article focuses on the study on the adjustment in a Middle Eastern family and patterns of family living. Parental happiness and discord is compared between Middle Eastern families of Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq with that of a typical American family. Child-parent conflict are expressed through complaints against parents and doesn't seem related to Western or modern influences. Conservative and liberal patterns of family living show important differences in parental roles, conjugal, and parent-child relations. The imagery of what a good mother-wife and father-husband role is described in a typical Middle Easter family by the respondents. Issues concerning children of Middle families centers on discipline, punishment, and rewards.

This article discusses various issues related to interpersonal conflicts in Chulsanto, a village in Chiapas in Mexico. Chulsanto is a community of one thousand people who speak a Mayan language. It is located in the southern highlands of Mexico. The article author has observed a few types of interpersonal conflicts and the means by which they are reduced. The source of conflict in relationships seems to be a failure to meet expectations of one or both parties to an existing relationship. Each role relationship between two individuals or coalitions of individuals has a recognized range of jeopardy or imperfection of performance which is acceptable, that is, which does not require the dissolution of the relationship. The severance of some role relationships is more serious than the severance of others. The source of conflict in highly relational role is in fact functional in one's role as community member. An individual can be a bad community member and continue to be a good husband if the imperfection in his role performance is specific to the lowly relational role. Individuals are constantly coming into conflict and restoring or severing role relationships while the community at large remains essentially disinterested. Conflicts which involve role performance demonstrate various regularities.

The article presents a discussion related to self-control and interpersonal violence. Correctional institutions often handle assaulters in traditional or expedient ways without reference to empirical evidence. Rehabilitation is often used euphemistically to describe procedures which have little theoretical or empirical justification and no demonstrated effectiveness. Neural dysfunction may amplify the personality dispositions of the impulsive or overcontrolled person. Assault has been associated with epilepsy and drinking. The assaults may be manifestations of neural irregularities in critical areas of the brain related to emotional control. A large number of studies report a peculiarly slow electroencephalogram wave pattern which appears to be evidenced among young people, particularly among young assaulters. It appears to be associated with both personality types. It would appear that the impulsively assaultive person has a low inhibition threshold associated with hypothalamic disorder and is apt to respond to instigations to aggress repeatedly but with generally mild intensity.

This article examines the effectiveness of using the scientific method in solving human relations problems. Case records of conflict episodes, the solutions of which were approached with the help of the human relations formula, tend to substantiate the belief that human relations problems can be solved scientifically. Records, from the files of the Center for Human Relations Studies, New York University, show that cases were often brought to a successful conclusion. However, even when a solution was not immediately apparent, the analysis helped in the solution of other problems. Some of the problems which the formula has been addressed include the riot which occurred at a Paul Robeson concert in Peekskill, New York in 1949, and the conflict which originated from withdrawal of state aid from the Child Care Center.