Dealing with conflict has always been one of my biggest weaknesses. I've never been good at confronting people about problems and other miscellaneous things. 1. A conflict I was recently involved in was a fight between two friends of mine who I'll call Josie and Sam. Josie and Sam have been best friends since the first semester of freshman year. 2. One day at lunch, Josie and Sam got into an argument about going out with other people. 3. So when Josie started hanging out more with these other two girls, Sam felt left out and like she was being replaced. Josie's new friends also didn't like Sam and didn't treat her well. Josie started to stop coming to lunch and started spending time with her new friends. Therefore, every time I saw one of them, they would talk about each other and complain about each other. This put everyone in our group of friends in a very uncomfortable position. Basically, it was like they were making us choose sides.4. My way of dealing with this conflict was to use the withdrawal/avoidance style. Ultimately, I avoided the situation and if it came up, I would try to change the subject. Josie and Sam used the competing conflict style. They put their own needs before those of others and intensified the conflict between the two. 5. The root cause of this conflict would likely be lack of communication. I think if they had talked to each other it might have helped them resolve this issue. I should have said something or at least given him some advice to go talk to the other guy. 6. This was an external situation because it was a conflict between two people and the rest of the group. I guess their relationship wasn't really stable and was an isolated conflict. I think both would be... middle of paper ......s, this affects me because I avoid expressing how I really feel about a subject and don't address my feelings. This could lead to a weakened relationship and limited interaction. Individually, this can affect me because the problems I encounter may not be resolved. Things will not be resolved and they will pile up. I think an important thing that could help improve the outcome of my conflict would be to use humor or teasing. This way I could ease the problem and resolve it better. It may not be a direct confrontation, but doing it this way would at least resolve conflicts from a cooperative perspective. I could also use negotiation to manage conflicts. This way I could compromise with another leading to mutual understanding. I think as long as I don't have to be so serious when approaching a confrontation, I will be able to handle it and not feel the need to avoid the situation completely..