Causes of Conflict – Varsity Education

Understanding Conflicts

Main Idea: Conflicts can arise for a variety of reasons.

The term conflict refers to any disagreement, struggle, or fight. Some conflicts are fairly trivial, such as a squabble between two siblings over control of the TV remote. Others can be serious or even deadly, such as turf wars between rival gangs. Conflicts between people or groups of people are known as interpersonal conflicts. They tend to arise when one party’s needs, wishes, or beliefs clash with those of another party. Interpersonal conflicts can involve groups of any size, from individual people to entire nations. Internal conflicts, by contrast, take place within an individual. For example, if your best friend’s birthday party and your sister’s championship soccer game fell on the same day, you might go through an internal conflict over which event to attend.

Common Causes of Conflict

Interpersonal conflicts can arise for a variety of reasons. Some arise out of misunderstandings. For instance, Lauren and Jesse got angry at each other over a miscommunication.

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Sometimes, misunderstandings occur when an individual misinterprets another person’s language, gestures, or sense of humor. This type of conflict might occur between people of different cultures or age groups. In other cases, someone deliberately starts a conflict, for example, by insulting or shoving someone else. Causes of conflict include

Power Struggles. A teen and her parent might have a conflict over how late she is allowed to stay out at night.
Personal Loyalties. A teen might be angry with his best friend for taking another person’s side in an argument.
Jealousy and Envy. A teen might be upset when her friend starts going out with a boy she likes.
Property Disputes. A teen might be angry with his brother for borrowing his iPhone without permission.
Conflicting Attitudes and Values. Two friends might have an argument because one wants to hang out only with the “cool” crowd, while the other wants to be friendly to everyone.
Lack of Respect. A teen might be rude to a classmate because of a prejudice against that student’s ethnic group.

Understanding these causes of conflict may help you avoid some conflicts before they start. If it looks like a conflict is developing, you may be able to keep it from escalating. Escalate means to become more serious. Conflicts can escalate into fights when emotions get out of control. Feelings such as hurt pride, embarrassment, or the desire for revenge can turn a simple conflict into a situation that could be unsafe for everyone involved. In some cases, it’s best to walk away before the conflict escalates.

Results of Conflict

Conflict is a normal part of life. Because each individual is different, it’s inevitable that people will disagree sometimes. Learning to manage conflicts and deal with them before they get out of hand will strengthen all aspects of your health.

Sometimes conflict can actually bring about positive results. Working to resolve a conflict can help people improve their communication and problem solving skills. It can also improve their social health by teaching them how to get along with people who disagree with them. In addition, dealing with conflicts can strengthen relationships. When two people make the effort to work through a conflict together, it shows their commitment to each other.

Unfortunately, conflicts can also have negative effects. They can be a major source of stress, resulting in problems such as headaches and lost sleep. Conflicts can harm your emotional and social health if they lead to anger, frustration, fear, and emotional pain. In addition, conflicts in the workplace can cause people to lose their jobs. In the worst cases, conflicts can escalate to violence, resulting in serious injury or even death.

Preventing Conflicts

It’s often easier to prevent a conflict than it is to resolve it. For instance, if you know someone who is always trying to provoke you into an argument, you might decide to avoid that person. If you get involved in a minor disagreement with someone, you can remind yourself that the argument isn’t that important in the long run. It’s not worth damaging your relationship over something trivial.

Sometimes you can prevent conflicts by adjusting your own behavior. Suppose you have a friend who always forgets to bring money when you go out. Instead of feeling annoyed every time, you might just make a point of reminding this person to stop at the ATM beforehand.

Adjusting your attitude can also help. If you tend to interpret any kind of personal remark as an attack on you, you might try to relax and not be bothered so much by what other people say.