How we change what others think, feel, believe and do

Levels of conflict

Disciplines > Conflict Management > Understanding conflict > Levels of conflict

Intra-personal | Interpersonal | Inter-group | Intercultural | International | See also

Conflict can occur at many levels, from within the person's mind to differences and wars between nations.

Intra-personal conflict

Intrapersonal conflict is conflict within the individual. We can have many 'parts' to our personality that can conflict ranging from the ego and superego to complete internal personalities which can argue and even, like the fictional Jekyll and Hyde, have independent existence.

We can also have conflicts between beliefs, values, mental models and more. If I think myself honest then when I lie, I am conflicted and will tell myself justification stories to soothe my inner tensions.

Intrapersonal conflict can be the most exhausting experience as we cannot get away from our other parts. It is a common source of personal issues and can be behind other forms of conflict.

Individual therapy often has a strong component dealing with internal conflicts.

Interpersonal conflict

A very common visible form of conflict is in the arguments between two people. This, as all forms of conflict, can range from temporary disagreement to all-out hate and physical attack.

The people involved often know one another and may be partners, friends, colleagues and so on. Like intra-personal conflict there is something that ties them together and keeps them disagreeing.

There are many ways that this problem is treated, from police intervention to couples therapy and mediation.

Inter-group conflict

Conflict happens between all sizes of groups, from gangs to teams to companies. The pernicious problem here is how groups polarize against one another. We define our group as being not like other groups and so exaggerate the differences. We also want to be like and liked by other team members, so we also exaggerate internal similarities.

The result is that even within companies, teams that should be working together can easily become rivals. In this way, the software team looks down on the marketing department, who consider themselves to be at the real cutting edge of the business, and so on.

In sports, inter-group conflict is a managed activity, in which rivalry is encouraged and physical contact is refereed (which can give useful clues on managing other group conflict).

Treating group conflict is a larger affair as group culture tends to be self-sustaining and such actions as engaging social leaders is needed.

Intercultural conflict

Conflict has for a long time had a cultural dimensions, where different ideals and values are at the heart of differences. Cultural conflict can happen within or across countries, particularly where religion is involved. The shade of your skin has also led to long-term seething bias and conflict around the world.

Such widespread conflict can be an undercurrent of difference and can explode into riots and acts of terrorism.

Cultural mediation can be a particularly difficult thing to do, as differences are often based on conflict of beliefs or histories of betrayal and abuse.

International conflict

We have not yet got to interplanetary conflict, though war between nations can be pretty damaging and rivalries and feuds can ripple across centuries.

International politics and diplomacy has replace much of the historic battling and modern wars tend to be shorter and technology-dominated (although global media has had an interesting impact too.

National conflict can be based on large group boundaries as much as expansionist jingoism, in particular where religious ideals are involved.

International mediation often involves delicate negotiation, large tables and years of to-ing and fro-ing, but at least whilst countries are talking they usually are not fighting.

See also