Conflict- The triangle.

This ABC (Attitude-Behaviour-Context) Conflict Triangle was first

developed by Prof. Johan Galtung and provides an excellent basic
concept for the analysis of even very complex conflict situations
A First, there are the Attitudes of the conflicting parties, which
tend to become more defensive or even hostile as the conflict
escalates. In order to finally reach settlement of the conflict, the
parties must first become aware of their attitudes and perceptions
towards each other.
B Attitude in conflict situations not only influences ones own
Behaviour (B), but is very much affected by the Behaviour of others.
Insults or provocations make it more difficult to see the mutual
benefit of ending a conflic
C Finally, we need to consider the Context within which the
conflict is being waged. Context is the objective reality to which the
conflict relates and the environment in which it takes place. If we
ignore the influence of the context, all changes in attitudes and
behaviour will be in vain

PLUS SCHEMA
Issues in conflict
Issues in conflict define the logical structure of a conflict situation.As
parties in conflict differ so widely in terms of their values and benefits it is
expected that they`ll differ with respect to their perception of the issues in
conflict.
The more satisfactory way would be to define issues in conflict in terms of
a) the parties evaluation, b) the reward associated with various issues and
c) their content.
a) Conflict evaluation-when conflict issues are defined in terms of
interest the basic incompatibility between them is perceived as
differences on the preferred distribution of resources. When they are
defined in terms of difference of belifs the basic in compatibility is
perceived in terms of cognitive structures.
b) Differencial rewards- Another way of looking at conflict issues is to
ascertain the rewards and punishments which can acrue to each
party from various reason.
c) Contending content-the most common way to analyzing issues in
conflict.

Attitudes and behaviour in conflict

The concept of attitude is one of the most widely used concepts in social
sciences.

Attitude defines the parties evaluative and response tendencies in social

situations and has 3 dimensions

Cognitive-referes to the parties beliefs and ideas about their environment

Affective referes to the parties feelings and emotions
Behavioural refers to the specific readiness to respond
Each of these dimensions are affected by,and influences a conflict
situation.The result is that the attitudes in conflict are made more
negative or extreme.
Conflict behaviour can be defined as any behaviour which occurs
within the context of a conflict.It `s a broad term embracing a wide
range of activities from verbal acts to acts of physical damage
According to Kriesberg (1982) parties in conflict may resort to three
basic types of behaviour
a) Persuation
b) Coercion
c) Reward