Abstract:

Conflicts are a part of life in society and can be solved constructively, which contributes some benefit to those in conflict, or negatively, because they are inadequately managed or are not resolved, and this causes some damage and increases the tension that already exists between the parties in conflict. Human beings must acquire certain skills to initiate and maintain relationships with other members of society, and solving interpersonal conflict is one kind of skill to maintain such relationships.

The study had three goals:
1) to analyze the existence of sex differences in three styles of conflict resolution;
2) to explore the relations of cooperative and aggressive conflict resolution with cognitive-behavioral variables (self-concept; attitudes towards violence, and prosocial values; empathy and social behaviors);
3) to identify predictor variables of cooperative resolution of interpersonal conflicts.

The sample included 313 Spanish adolescents, from 15 to 17 years of age, distributed in 15 groups from 5 schools. There were 143 boys (45.7%) and 170 girls (54.3%). The schools were randomly selected from the list of schools of the País Vasco (Spain). This study used a descriptive and correlational cross-sectional methodology. In order to measure the variables six instruments with adequate guarantees of psychometric reliability and validity were administered. Firstly, the ANOVA results have shown that boys score significantly higher in aggressive conflict resolution style and girls score higher in cooperative conflict resolution style. Secondly, the results of Pearson’ correlations confirm that adolescents of both sexes who tended to use a cooperative conflict resolution style also had a good self-concept, high sensitivity and empathy towards victims of violence, a positive attitude towards prosocial values and behaviors (forgiveness, dialogue, and remorse), a high capacity of empathy, many social behaviors of social conformity, social sensitivity, helping- collaboration, and few aggressive behaviors. Thirdly, the results suggest that adolescents of both sexes who use an aggressive conflict resolution style have a high level of acceptance-justification of violence, many aggressive behaviors, low empathy towards victims of violence, little consideration for prosocial values and behaviors, low capacity for perspective-taking and empathetic concern, few social behaviors of social conformity, social sensitivity, and helping-collaboration.

Lastly, the regression analysis results have allowed us to identify the following predictor variables of cooperative conflict resolution: many behaviors of social sensitivity, a good self-concept, and a high level of empathetic concern. And the following variables were identified as predictors of aggressive resolution style: little consideration for prosocial values and behaviors, few behaviors of social conformity and many aggressive behaviors. The results confirmed the importance of empathy in positive conflict resolution; therefore, intervention programs should stimulate progressive egocentric decentering by presenting the perspectives of others' feelings, using of reasoning as an educational technique, explaining the consequences for others of one's behavior, exposure to empathetic models, promoting the expression of positive messages to others, observing models that solve conflicts in diverse ways…

Keywords:

Conflict resolution, Self-concept, Violence, Empathy, Social behavior, Cooperation.