Interpersonal Conflict Management in Group Psychotherapy: An Integrative Perspective

Abstract

The author presents an integrative approach to understanding and managing interpersonal conflicts that can be applied both to intragroup conflicts in psychotherapy groups and to the marital and organizational environment within either a psychoanalytical or an action-orientated framework. Four levels of intervention approaches are reviewed, including their underlying theoretical assumptions. At the first `emotional' level of conflict-management, group leaders focus on the expression of pent-up hostility. At the second `intrapsychic' level, they focus on the correction of perceptual distortions in one or both of the antagonists. At the third `interpersonal' level, leaders focus on disturbances of interaction and communication between two antagonists and at the fourth `group-as-a-whole' level, they focus on global group dynamic factors that seem to be influencing the conflict. Perspectives that focus solely on one level are seen as limited and incomplete.

Discriminative Facility and Its Role in the Perceived Quality of Interactional Experiences

“…One possible reason is that conflict occurs in nearly all social relations, regardless of how close or how harmonious the relations are (Minuchin, 1974;Stephens, Kinney, Ritchie, & Norris, 1987). The ability to manage conflict, rather than the conflictive events themselves, may be a more reliable indicator of social competence (see Kellermann, 1996;Utley, Richardson, & Pilkington, 1989 for a discussion). Future studies may examine how discriminative facility is related to perceived social conflict and, more importantly, to conflict management.…”

Identity of organizational conflict framework: Evaluating model factors based on demographic characteristics in Iran

“…Conflict is a serious problem in organizations, but conflict isn't reason for corruption in organizations of its nature. Ineffectiveness conflict management is the reason of undesirable outcomes (Kellermann, 1996;VatanKhah, Raeisi & Kalhor, 2008). Therefore, it is necessary to explain and identify the determinants of this issue in organizations in order to properly manage them.…”

“…This problem and many other issues are an inevitable part of human communication in the education structures (Akhoond lotfali, Hosseini, Khankeh, Fallahi Khoshknab & Hosseinzadeh, 2012). The existence of different people with different demographic characteristics, personality, needs, expectations and various perceptions are the cause of conflict in organizations, including educational institutions (Kellermann, 1996;Wall Jr & Callister, 1995). Eder and James (2002) in their study showed that variable recognition of conflicts between demographic factors is very important.…”

Conflict in Group Therapy of Chronic Schizophrenics

“…The literature concerning eruption of aggression in a long-term group of severely disturbed individuals is sparse and rarely provides detailed clinical description. Themes of conflict and aggression are mainly addressed in the context of higherfunctioning groups in which members do not suffer psychotic illness (12)(13)(14)(15). According to some authors who do work with groups of severely disturbed individuals (6,16), issues related to primitive rage and expression of anger should be carefully modulated.…”