Approaches to conflict

Name

Id
 The conflict that I was involved happened after I joined first year. It was between me and a
classmate that pretty did not like me for absolutely no reason. May be the way I was active and
participative in class, my thoughts. Then we got to be put in the same group given an assignment
by our English tutor. We were a group of five members and on our first meeting we got to acquit
ourselves so that we could know one another better. Then we chose a group leader and the other
members suggested I be one but the student who did not like me automatically denied and stated
words that hurt me such as, I like pretending to know it all. I think our conflict started there. The
discussion did not go on well, being that I know how to speak up for myself, I told him that he
should also be participative and more vibrant in class rather than feeling jealous of my progress.
From there we did not meet eye to eye and made it impossible to work with him in the same
group because most of the times we exchanged words which were not healthy and wasted a lot of
time arguing during the discussions.

Given the conflict I just described, symbolic interactionist perspective best describes the
conflict that I experienced with my classmate. I say this because, it was a conflict between us
two and mainly influenced by interaction. The behaviour that my classmate revealed to me was
influenced by definitions and meanings that were definitely created through symbolic
interactions. I believe the theory helped me realise that how we see and view ourselves is largely
shaped by social interactions. Probably, my classmate behaviour and attitude towards me was
shaped by a past interaction that largely affected how he viewed himself and such. The conflict
perspective highlights on the class conflict in society given the unequal distribution of resources.
With this perspective, I understood the social inequality that exist in our society is because of the
classes. Further, the functionalist perspective helps me realize that all aspects of society largely
depend or are interdependent hence important since they are necessary as they serve the society
at large to achieve some form of stability.

Conflicts in society are bound to happen be it among friends, family members and those
closest to us. This is so because we are different in our unique ways which makes the society
beautiful and colourful due to the different opinions that we all bring to the table. Resolving the
conflict so that it does not escalate and hinder progress is the most important thing. I experienced
a conflict where by if I had understood the symbolic interactionist perspective approach, I would
have resolved the conflict with my classmate earlier.