STUDYING CONFLICT THEORY

Different practices in various cultures and the effect of it to the society and to an individual.
By Trishia Ituralde and Mark Guzarem

ADAMSON UNIVERSITY 2 Studying Conflict Theory

INTRODUCTION
The importance of conducting this study is to contribute helps the society in developing each individual, also to help individual in forming a good society. Another is to add or contribute a new and unique finding in the study of Conflict theory. In doing so this study let everyone be knowledgeable and open their minds that yes it is important and it will provide a solution to prevent this issue. In this study we are able to understand more about this topic and we are curious about this study many things are playing in our minds and to end it up we choose to conduct a study about it. This study is a brief discussion about Conflict theory and its aims are to know what about Conflict theory and to know on how it affects our society and every individual in this society. This study also focuses on the situations of this social issue in the Philippines and the practices of it to the culture of the said country, and also to identify the possible recommendations or solution to change the society. Conflict theory is something to do with a society ruling over an individual, not obtaining the highest possible goal of a individual. In reading this study you will encounter the different definition of Conflict Theory, the different types of Conflict Theory, difference and meaning of the oppressed and ruling class, reasons of having a conflict theory in the social institution such as religion, mass media, family and education, some people who study about Conflict theory, different Situations that practices conflict theory in various culture and the modern approach in our world today especially the Philippines, some situations that causes Conflict theory, and the effect of it to our society, and we will prove to you that society can be change by giving some solutions and recommendation about this study. Research methodology is also considered, requires gathering elevant data from books, articles and from other specified documents and compiling the databases and materials in order to analyze the databases and materials and arrive to a more complete understanding and historical reconstruction of conflict theory situations in the Philippines. We will also conduct questions and interviews to some student of Philippines on how are they dealing in terms of their goal attainment, and what are they obstacles or what are the stopping forces to them. Of course we will give our own insights, conclusion and findings to this study. To arrive in a solution on how society can be change.

ADAMSON UNIVERSITY 3 Studying Conflict Theory

This study will also contribute to the field of sociology because it is somewhat sociological perspective that uses sociological imagination. Relations in society, in this view, are mainly based on exploitation, oppression, domination and subordination. This is also a study of Karl Marx and Max Weber. This analyzes the problem of an individual and society. Also, because of the findings of this study will help develop a body of knowledge about human social activity. DISCUSSION Many things interrupt peoples ability to attain their highest goal in life: Peer pressure, fear, and to some point, that people in your environment can control or dominate what you should choose or what you should be. Furthermore do our cultures or practices, together with the social institution family mass media, religion and education- help or destroy ones goal? What are the effects of it to the society and to the individual?

Do you sometimes feels like dominated by someone? Do you feel alien to yourself? Do you choose the right path, the path you like, or the path they like you to be?

One theory that is concerned with the collision of people is the Conflict theory. It is somewhat said to be the alternative of functionalism. It is a Macrosociological theoretical perspective. It also says that hatred is a constant element in a society. Ruling class wanted to have the power to fight for the scarce and for their advantages over others. Competition puts society off-balance until dominant group gains control and stability through power. Several significant people that influence Conflict Theory:

Karl Marx, in the mid- 1800s, he explain the human society that it is a conflict between social classes, in capitalist society it is a conflict between ruling class (Bourgeoisie) those who owned the means of production- and the oppressed class (Proletariat) workers-. Their class can be differentiating by the means of their private property. Karl Marx is also explaining about an individual that wanted to attain his full human potential. Max Weber; he included the emotional social actions, means that the ability of ones individual to affect social relationship. Believe in two other factors, social prestige and political influences. Social prestige, example of it is when a poor has a power because of

ADAMSON UNIVERSITY 4 Studying Conflict Theory

social prestige, Mother Theresa. While Political influences, example of it was a politician that has a power but doesnt earn big salary. However Max Weber also believes that power and authority is the bases of conflict. Max Weber understand power as, People have it wants to keep it and People dont have it seeks for it.

George Simmel, He disagrees with Marx, because he considers that the relationship between the leader, follower, superior and subordinates is the most important. He also believes that social action always involve harmony and conflict, love and hatred. Another conflict is that, groups are formed in secrets and call them secret societies that formed a hierarchy that have a conflict with greater society.

These Conflict theorist see the society not as a basically cooperate each other but as a divided, with individuals and groups in conflict with each other

In social institutions it is essential to have a conflict. Social institutions have formal and informal rules that constrain individual behavior. They include Family, Education, Religion, Political institution and mass media.

Family, it is socially defined as set of relationship in two people related to each other by birth, marriage, adoption or having a long ties of affection. In Functionalist, Husband is the bread winner and the Wife is the one who takes care of the children, and they perform their respective task and responsibility. In conflict perspective, and in some cultures, family is composing of conflicting class, husbands are the ruling class and the oppressed class is the wives.

Education, it is an institution that teaches and develops formal knowledge, skills, and values. It is systematically transmitted from one individual to another or to a group. As a function, education includes transmitting knowledge and others as stated above. In Conflict perspective, Education reinforces inequalities and other differential treatment to the students. This also serves or gives order that produce skilled worker as the oppressed class and dominated by this institution. Functionalists claim that schools sort based upon merit; conflict theorists argue that schools sort along distinct class and ethnic lines. According to conflict theorists, schools train those in the working classes to

ADAMSON UNIVERSITY 5 Studying Conflict Theory

accept their position as a lower-class member of society. Conflict theorists call this role of education the hidden curriculum.

Religion, it is a institution that unified system of beliefs and practices pertaining about the right way in life, that is supernatural and shared by a group of believers. In conflict perspective according to: Marx, religion is the opium of the people it prevents the domination from rebelling against it. Weber, it is an approach to salvation.

Political Institutions, it is the government in our society. a formal distribution of authority, this is used as a force to the society. In functionalism, political institution includes protection from external enemies, resolving external conflict. According to Weber, it defines the state as an authority that maintains a monopoly on the use of violence in its territory. In conflict theory Pluralism and democracy are illusions that invite the powerless to believe that they have a voice in governance, when in fact their control is quite limited.

Mass media, it is the one who help in coordinating, gathering together valuable information in various parts in this social system. It also act as powerful agents of socialization, because it transmit the norms and values of the culture of society. In conflict perspective, It is one of the ruling class that reinforce shared ideas: Justice, individualism, democracy and respect for the law. It is also consider as somewhat social conflict because it serve as the power of the dominant class. Role of media is to distract and pacify people by feeding those standardized images and messages which stifle capacity for independent and critical thought.

Cultures are very essential into a conflict. Generally we can define culture as socially inherited, shared, and learned ways of living obtained by persons by the virtue of being a member of those social groups. Cultures affect the ways we name, frame, blame, and attempt to tame conflicts. Whether a conflict exists at all is a cultural question.

ADAMSON UNIVERSITY 6 Studying Conflict Theory

Culture is always a factor in conflict. One example is the difficult conflicts like the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or the India-Pakistan conflict over Kashmir they are not just about territorial, boundary, and sovereignty issues, they are also about

acknowledgement, representation, and legitimization of different identities and ways of living, being, and making meaning.

Another it the Conflicts between teenagers and parents are that shaped by many generations in our culture. Also the conflicts between spouses or partners are influenced by gender culture. In organizations, conflicts arriving from different disciplinary cultures, the increasing tensions between co-workers, workers sometimes being alienated to their own, they are working for a specific task but even them doesnt have what they are working for. It is creating distorted or inaccurate communication and stressed relationships. From then we can say that Culture spread conflict no matter what. Sometimes it is pushing to its intense, other times it is quietly shaken, we cant see its presence until we fall through it.

How would your community resolve the following conflicts? From: (http://psychosocial.actalliance.org/default.aspx?di=65440)

Example 1 Two people are arguing. One bought a piece of land from the other. When he went to the land to build a house, a neighbor claimed he owned some of the land and showed an official document to prove it. The buyer went back to the seller to ask for money back for the part of the land that belonged to the neighbor. The seller refused, saying they had agreed on the price and the deal was closed.

Example 2 A husband and wife are arguing. The wife would like to get a job to pay for their children, a boy and a girl, to go to a private school. The husband says he is the head of the house and will decide about things relating to money. If she gets a job, she must bring the money to him, and he will decide how it is used. He agrees the boy should go to private school, but not the daughter. For her, the local school is good enough.

ADAMSON UNIVERSITY 7 Studying Conflict Theory

Example 3 Rudin works as a technician for a large firm. He works in a team of seven people who prepare material for shipping. On the team are four women and two other men. The people come from three different countries. One of the men on the team feels Rudin works too slowly and is not doing his share of the work. He laughs with the other team members about Rudin and talks about him in nasty ways. When Rudin has tried to talk about this problem, the rest of the team seems to be against him. It is a very uncomfortable situation for him to work in; he is constantly made fun of and criticized. He does not know what to do

This conflict takes effect in our society, or even to an individual, from then on. Because of this it is said to be an unequal society. Inequality strengthens up, and social deviance will be legalized. Of course to an individual their Goal attainment will be permitted, another is that we will be alienated to ourselves. When the oppressed class realized their worth it will result to a class struggle.

Expanding its concept we can also see that there are positive effects of this said theory. It helps individual in human development and conflict are the basis of experience and human experience are the best lessons in life. We must just take it as a challenge to face, not as a simple thing to lose.

CONCLUSIONS In our Study in Conflict theory and its different practices in various cultures and the effect of it to the society and to an individual: We then understood that conflict is essential in our culture; Stopping an individual in attaining his/her full potential; Resulting an unequal, discriminating society. It is also in here that in conflict theory is always made up of two classes the ruling and oppressed class.

In every social institution we can therefore interfere that they are not always consider as a function to an individual sometimes they are the reason of the downfall of

ADAMSON UNIVERSITY 8 Studying Conflict Theory

an individual or we can say the whole society, and then the conflict is made. It is also proven that it is a conflict between I and We, as explained above We is the ruling class who is responsible of giving a rules or practices that I should do.

We also concluded that it is being alienated to yourself, meaning you are not who you want you to be. You are being alien to yourself, and a time will come that you wouldnt know who you really are. The higher the pressure put unto you the faster is the break of yourself.

Conflict theory is very useful in understanding: why an individual rebel against their parents, why are two relationship that always use the power and authority for you partner didnt last, why there is so many people in this society that have low self confidence and self esteem, and why war, wealth and poverty, the have and the have not, revolutions, political strike, exploitation, divorce, discrimination and prejudice, domestic violence, rape, child abuse, slavery, and more conflict-related social phenomena is happening. It is also says that this society is competing for the resources we all need.

Many significant people or what we call Conflict theorist define this conflict theory but they all see society not as a basically cooperate each other but as a divided, with individuals and groups in conflict with each other. It is all proven that: If you have interaction, you have conflict, meaning no human society or group exists which does not possess conflicts of interest and conflict is necessary for growth and social change; Conflict and change are normal, inevitable and ubiquitous in family relationships and society; conflict is endemic, meaning Goal is to manage conflict so it does not escalate to damaging levels to reduce the group to totally separate individuals; the problem with allowing conflict to increase to damaging levels is the couple or group will inevitably split apart and individuals will become separate. Oftentimes this is what occurs in a divorce with chronic unresolved anger and conflict; there is a scarcity of resources; Human societies consist of varying degrees of inherently unequal elements,

therefore hierarchies emerge since power is not distributed equally, individuals and groups usually try to maximize their own positions within the hierarchies instead of completely changing the society.

ADAMSON UNIVERSITY 9 Studying Conflict Theory

We live in a world that every one of us is competing for resources and every one of us wanted to have profit. If we are parent we wanted our children to be professionals without knowing what they really like and their emotional reaction that will affect they decisions in life.

ADAMSON UNIVERSITY 10 Studying Conflict Theory

REFERENCES Journals Schlomer, G. L., Del Giudice, M., & Ellis, B. J. (2011). Parent-Offspring Conflict Theory: An Evolutionary Framework for Understanding Conflict within Human Families. Psychological Review, 118(3), 496-521. Smol'yakov, E. E. (2011). A general approach to the theory of conflict problems with collateral interests of participants. Doklady Mathematics, 84(2), 756-760. doi:10.1134/S1064562411060391 Yeager, D. S., Trzesniewski, K. H., Tirri, K., Nokelainen, P., & Dweck, C. S. (2011). Adolescents' Implicit Theories Predict Desire for Vengeance after Peer Conflicts: .Correlational and Experimental Evidence. Developmental Psychology, 47(4), 1090-1107. Busch, D. (2012). Cultural theory and conflict management in organizations: How does theory shape our understanding of culture in practice?. International Journal Of Cross Cultural Management, 12(1), 9-24. doi:10.1177/1470595811413106 Elliott, G. R. (2011). When Values and Ethics Conflict: The Counselor's Role and Responsibility. Alabama Counseling Association Journal,37(1), 39-45. Books Paraskeva, J. M. (2011). Conflicts in Curriculum Theory: Challenging Hegemonic Epistemologies. Education, Politics and Public Life. Palgrave Macmillan. Ahluwalia, P., Atkinson, S., Bishop, P., Christie, P., Hattam, R., & Matthews, J. (2012). Reconciliation and Pedagogy. Postcolonial Politics. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. Schofield, D., National Association of Elementary School Principals, W. C., & ERIC Clearinghouse on Educational Management, E. R. (1975). Conflict Management in Education. NAESP School Leadership Digest Series, Number 10. ERIC/CEM Research Analysis Series, Number 12. Apple, M. W., Au, W., & Gandin, L. (2011). The Routledge International Handbook of Critical Education. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. Broadhead, P., & Burt, A. (2011). Understanding Young Children's Learning through Play: Building Playful Pedagogies. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. Websites Kevin, M. (2009). Evolution, Psychology, and a Conflict Theory of Culture. Retrieved from http://www.epjournal.net/wp-content/uploads/ep07208233.pdf Wikipedia. Conflict Theory. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conflict_theory Chegg.Definition of Conflict Theory. Retrieved from http://www.chegg.com/homework-help/definitions/conflict-theory-49 Dr. Plunkett . Conflict Theory. http://www.csun.edu/~whw2380/542/Conflict%20theory.htm