Ego Conflicts

On Wednesday we talked in class about conflicts between siblings, and since I am an only child I had nothing to share on the topic.  However, this doesn't mean I haven't seen my fair share of conflicts/arguments.  I still also stand by the fact that just because you don't have a sibling does not make you any less capable of using strategies during conflict or having the ability to work through problems.  In fact, I think a lot of people who HAVE siblings still struggle to resolve conflict.

For example, I have two friends whose personalities always seem to clash.  They seem to get into arguments over the tiniest things. ( The other day the argument was about who's hometown was more ethnically diverse--clearly not a subject of mass importance since they are now both living in West Lafayette.)  Honestly, I think that THEY need to be taking COM 320 so they can learn some ways to work through their ego conflicts.  Most of their arguments are yelling, which does not help the other member understand your points better--so they should try to maintain a cool emotional climate by lowering their voices and speaking more calmly.  Also, they could learn to be more descriptive rather than judgmental (in this case they were attacking the other person's hometown).  And lastly, the goal of their conflicts should not always be about who is right and who is wrong.  They should both try to take a more objective view to turn the discussion in a problem that needs to be solved.  

When I was growing up, most of my conflicts and arguments were with my parents because I was the only other one in the house with them.  Any time that I would get into an argument with my mom or dad, our family always had the rule that you couldn't leave the house angry or with an unresolved conflict.  I was taught that you had to try and recognize why the other person was upset, and then be the bigger person and apologize for any boundaries that you might have crossed.