conflict

Select a film from the list below and prepare an assessment of how conflict is managed by the major characters in the film as well as suggestions that would help individuals portrayed in the film better understand and improve their response to conflict.

view your selected film at least twice. First, watch it to get a general sense of the movie and the plot. Second, watch with the assignment details in mind and make notes as you view. Be prepared to pause and rewind paying attention to verbal and nonverbal communication. Transcribe dialogue between characters that support a point that you want to make. (See the gottman_transcript.html from Gottman’s Four Horsemen assignment for a good example how to transcribe the dialogue). Also, use the completed Grading Form from the Rainbow Development assignment to get an idea how I will be grading this assignment. Remember that is is important to reference the material from the textbook as you are defining  concepts and as you are explaining different approaches.

focus upon all the major relationships, a single relationship, or a combination of relationships, depending on what you deem most relevant. You should select the combination of the theories and/or perspectives that you find most useful for analysis of this conflict. I recommend that you focus upon three or four perspectives at most so you have time to discuss and apply the concepts in detail.

Take the role of a communication researcher who is using this film as a case study to explain how interpersonal conflict can be described and analyzed using concepts detailed in course readings.

This project should be in essay form and between eight–ten pages in length (double-spaced, 12 font) and use a clear citation style when quoting from the textbooks.

The Wilmot-Hocker Conflict Assessment Guide (pp. 204—207) offers an outline of key concepts to consider in preparing your exam.

Some of the perspectives you might consider as you analyze the conflicts in the film include:

1. Power and power currencies.

2. Conflict styles and tactics.

3. Relational goals and facesaving.

4. Definitions of conflict and orientations to conflict.

5. Assumptions and triggering events.

6. Patterns, triangles, microevents.

7. Storytelling and related mediator techniques.

8. Principled Negotiation and Collaboration.

9. Forgiveness and Reconcillation (see chapter ten, Wilmot & Hocker).

Select from the following list of films

•American Beauty (2000)
•Edge of America (2006)
•Ordinary People (1980)
•A River Runs Through It (1992)
•Smoke Signals (1999)
•The Straight Story (1999)
•Terms of Endearment (1983)
•Who’s Afraid of Virgina Woolf ? (1966)
•Malcolm X (1992)
•The Insider (1999)
•Erin Brokovich (2000)
•The Hours (2003)
•Mystic River (2003)
•Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
•The Incredibles (2004)
•Gran Torino (2008)