What is confrontation? Is this peace or war? Confrontation is an effective technique in psychological counseling.

Purely theoretically, any intelligent person should be rich vocabulary and know enough “abstruse” words. In fact, there is practically no benefit from this. But you can also find yourself in awkward situations. A neighbor says that he is having a confrontation with someone, the meaning of the word is unclear to you and how to approach the situation is also unclear. But is it worth studying dictionaries for such rare cases?

Your own point of view

You must always defend your position:

  • Those around you will try to impose their opinion, it is beneficial for them;
  • Only having your own point of view will help you somehow change the world around you;
  • Your view is part individual personality, without it you will become a gray mass;
  • Conflicts are natural, they happen and despite your desire, you should not be afraid of them.

Theoretically, each person can have his own opinion, which he will try to impose on everyone around him. This is only his vision of the world around him and no matter how actively they pressure you, you should not change your own position on certain things just because someone thinks differently.

You can listen to arguments, you can enter into an argument. But you shouldn’t take everything that is said on faith; not everyone uses only honest methods and does not manipulate the facts.

Giving up “without a fight” is even more stupid - there are always some objections, the interlocutor could not voice a point of view that 100% coincides with the real state of affairs or your perception.

What is confrontation in conflict?

Confrontation is the unfolding of a conflict, the opposition of two different positions:

  1. Occurs in a dispute or conflict situation;
  2. It can take place both between two people and between entire social groups;
  3. It implies a clash of two opposing opinions, the defenders of which are not going to give up;
  4. Takes place in a cultural form;
  5. It can be both constructive and destructive.

To understand, everything usually happens according to something like this:

  • The boss comes and says that he will have to go to work on Saturday;
  • By this he means that the work will not be paid in any way and everything will be done “for thanks”;
  • The employee states that he is not going to do anything like that, he is still of sound mind;
  • The manager tries to threaten reprimands, fines or even dismissal;
  • The employee reminds Labor Code RF and sends the employer to hell;
  • The dispute ends or moves to another stage.

The employee enters into confrontation at the moment when he objects to the employer’s illegal demand. The dialogue moves into a reasoned plane at the moment when the employee mentions TC.

Theoretically, if a person in this situation immediately agrees to go to work, there will be no confrontation. But why is this necessary?

What is constructive confrontation?

Any conflict situation must be constructive and reasoned. To do this you should:

  1. Keep what is happening under control, “not give free rein” to emotions;
  2. Prepare in advance, if at all possible, by learning the basics of the problem;
  3. Don't get personal;
  4. Use only facts during a dispute;
  5. Argue your position;
  6. Convey to the interlocutor and force him to listen to what was said.

You shouldn’t break down into shouting, insults and banal lies. This will not help in resolving the problem situation and will not help you emerge victorious from the current conflict.

Any problem has its own prerequisites and first you need to understand them:

  • What caused the problem;
  • How could it be avoided?
  • Who provoked the incident;
  • Are there ways out of the current impasse?

But for this you need to think, spend time and “use your brain.” You may even have to admit your mistakes or guilt on certain points.

It’s always easier to shout and insult, so not everyone chooses a calm solution. Not the right temperament.

How to separate work and personal?

Confrontation on one issue does not mean that you and the person have become enemies for life:

  1. It is necessary to be able to separate problems;
  2. Personal and work moments should not go “hand in hand”;
  3. You can calmly communicate with someone who has a different view on one situation;
  4. You should not associate a specific person with a problem and transfer a negative perception of the situation to him.

In Western culture this can be seen better, especially when it comes to work issues. Two employees of the same company can express diametrically opposed opinions and persuade management to different directions development. And on Friday night they will gather at the bar, walk, tell each other stories and laugh. As if nothing had happened.

In our country, if even a minor conflict occurs at work, employees become enemies for many months or even years, and this enmity can be seen in everything. This is especially noticeable in women's groups.

Frequent conflicts can indicate several things at once:

  • There are some real problems in the team;
  • A person tries to impose his own opinion on everyone;
  • Others react too harshly to any manifestation of individuality.

Decide whether the problem is with you or with the rest of the world? And then think about whether you are ready to resist him. After receiving the answer to both questions, life will become easier.

Disputes and conflict situations

Confrontation is a confrontation, a clash of two different worldviews and their confrontation:

  1. The most accessible and understandable synonym - conflict;
  2. Involves defending rights, one’s own or others’;
  3. Requires willpower and a willingness to “stand your ground”;
  4. Ideally, it is kept within certain “civil” limits.

Entering into confrontation is not so difficult; all you have to do is disagree with an opinion or demand that seems wrong to you. Then your interlocutor will do everything for you; you just need to sit and listen to the arguments, watching your opponent’s reddened face.

From time to time it is worth notifying that you still have not changed your position and “throwing in” some of your arguments in order to add “firewood”.

If in front of you is impulsive and emotional person, logical arguments will most likely not work on him. So you need to either “let him cool down” or behave emotionally yourself. If you are not sure that you can out-shout your opponent or simply don’t want to, it’s better not to start.

If you have already had a confrontation with someone, you may not know the meaning of the word, the main thing is to defend your position and not go “out of bounds.” In any case, if the opponent does not do this.

Video about the confrontation

In this video, lecturer Andrei Danilov will tell you what is considered a confrontation with the church:

Conflict in programming

A situation that arises as a result of incompatibility of the results of actions of various programs/algorithms.

For example: a conflict occurs when one routine tries to update a record or table that is already locked by another user or routine. Such conflicts are one of the main causes of computer freezes.

Legal conflict

Legal conflict- a situation in which two or more parties oppose each other, argue about legal rights, responsibilities. A legal conflict may arise over recognition, restoration, violation of legal rights, or failure to fulfill legal obligations.

Legal conflict is a type of social conflict. This means that in the emergence, development and even resolution of legal conflicts one can detect traces of action general patterns birth, ripening and resolution social conflict. Although, due to the fact that a legal conflict arises only between people and is inflated by them, legal conflicts are based on the eternal aspirations of people for equally well-known values ​​- wealth, power, status. At the same time, a legal conflict, being an independent type of social conflict, cannot but have its own characteristics.

Further, a legal conflict is evident if there is a dispute over the scope or nature of legal rights, over claims to certain rights, over the redistribution of legal rights and obligations. Important characteristic legal conflicts is an offensive legally significant consequences(appearance or disappearance of legal rights, legal obligations of the parties, changes in their scope, etc.), as well as special forms and procedures for recording and resolving legal conflicts.

Political conflict

Anti-constructive actions caused by differences in the interests of political groups (interest means the totality of interests of group members).

Political conflict is one of possible options interactions of political subjects. It can be defined as a type (and result) of competitive interaction between two or more parties (groups, states, individuals) challenging each other's power or resources. The concept of political conflict means the struggle of some subjects with others for influence in the system of political relations, access to making generally significant decisions, disposal of resources, monopoly of interests and recognition of them as socially necessary, for everything that constitutes power and political dominance. Conflicts, reflecting the rivalry of certain subjects (institutions) with some forces, as a rule, express their cooperation with others, stimulating the formation of political coalitions, alliances, and agreements. Thus, political conflicts presuppose a clear formulation of the positions of the forces participating in the political game, which has a beneficial effect on the rationalization and structuring of the entire political process.

The leading role in the emergence of conflicts is played, as recognized by conflict studies, social factors. Among this type of determinants, there are three main reasons underlying political confrontations:

  • various forms and aspects public relations, which determine the discrepancy between the statuses of political subjects, their role assignments and functions, interests and needs in power, lack of resources, etc. These, relatively speaking, objective sources of political conflicts most often determine the contradictions between the ruling elite and the counter-elite, various pressure groups leading the struggle for parts of the state budget, as well as between all other political subjects systems of power. The external orientation of such conflicts, as a rule, can be extinguished quite easily. However, it is possible to eradicate the sources of conflict disposition of the parties involved in various ways in the political struggle only through transformations, either changing the very organization of power in society, or reforming the socio-economic foundations political activity competing entities;
  • differences between people (their groups and associations) in basic values ​​and political ideals, in assessments of historical and current events, as well as in other subjectively significant ideas about political phenomena. Such conflicts most often arise in those countries where qualitatively different opinions about ways to reform statehood collide and the foundations of a new political structure society, ways out of the social crisis are being sought. In resolving such conflicts, finding a compromise is often very difficult;
  • processes of identification of citizens, their awareness of their belonging to social, ethnic, religious and other communities and associations, which determines their understanding of their place in the social and political system. Conflicts of this kind are characteristic, first of all, of unstable societies, where people have to recognize themselves as citizens of a new state and get used to non-traditional norms of relationships with the authorities. The same contradictions arise in those countries where tensions in relations with the ruling structures cause people to defend the cultural integrity of their national, religious and similar groups.

Marital conflicts

The causes of all marital conflicts are divided into three broad categories:

  1. conflicts due to unfair distribution of labor (different concepts of rights and responsibilities);
  2. conflicts due to unmet needs;
  3. quarrels due to shortcomings in upbringing.

Regarding the first reason, it should be noted that the main thing in the distribution of family responsibilities is precisely their consistency, as a result of which both the traditional and egalitarian ones turn out to be quite acceptable for family well-being, if they satisfy both spouses.

Synonyms

The meaning of "conflict" is closely related to other words. Thus, internal conflict can be interpreted as “stress”, as well as a “problem” - problematic situation. Interesting meaning of this word English. A problem is also a “task” (school, etc.) that needs to be solved.

Notes

See also

  • Constructive communication
  • Conflict resolution
  • Confrontation

Links

  • Vdovina M.V. Intergenerational relations: causes of conflicts in the family and possible ways to resolve them // Knowledge. Understanding. Skill. - 2009. - No. 3 - Sociology.
  • Zubok Yu. A. Conflicts // Knowledge. Understanding. Skill. - 2005. - No. 2. - P. 179-182.
  • Litvak M. E. Psychological Aikido
  • Lukov Val. A., Kirillina V.N. Gender conflict: system of concepts // Knowledge. Understanding. Skill. - 2005. - No. 1. - P. 86-101.

Literature

  • Sysenko V. A. Marriage stability. Problems, factors, conditions. M.: 1981.
  • Kratochvil S. Psychotherapy of family and sexual disharmonies. M.: Medicine, 1991.

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Synonyms:

See what “Confrontation” is in other dictionaries:

    Confrontation... Spelling dictionary-reference book

    - (French confrontation) confrontation, opposition, clash social systems, class interests, beliefs (e.g. policy of confrontation, military confrontation, confrontation of views) ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

    Collision, confrontation, confrontation, opposition Dictionary of Russian synonyms. confrontation see confrontation Dictionary of synonyms of the Russian language. Practical guide. M.: Russian language... Dictionary of synonyms

Any opposition of positions, interests, views is called confrontation.

IN in a general sense confrontation is the clash of discordant tendencies in social systems. These could be class differences, friction in matters of ideological and political views, etc. However, this term also refers to one of the most complex and, at the same time, effective techniques in Let's consider what techniques are still used in a consulting session, and how confrontation stands out among them.

Consultation with a psychologist is not just a “confession”

A person comes to a specialist with a specific problem, which he himself has tried to solve more than once, turning to relatives, friends, perhaps even psychics. But the problem remains, and the psychologist has a great responsibility. He must unravel the tangle of complex thoughts and prejudices, get to the bottom of the truth and show it to the client. Therefore, an expert in the field human soul must not only listen to the client, but be able to correctly pose questions, give a competent interpretation of what was heard, put forward hypotheses, sometimes even enter into confrontation with the client in order to show him the essence of his problem, so that the client himself sees and understands what the psychologist saw.

Technicians in psychological counseling

Let us briefly outline the main techniques used by the psychologist:

  • Asking questions - they can be clarifying and thought-provoking.
  • Calming and reassurance as manifestations of empathy and acceptance of the client.
  • Techniques for reflecting the feelings and content of the client’s story.
  • Pauses of silence give the client the opportunity to digest the information received and the psychologist to think.
  • Hypothesizing and interpretation.
  • Confrontation is a technique that requires special skills, confidence and a certain activity from the psychologist.

Confrontation in psychology and psychotherapy

When a client tells a psychologist about his problem, he cannot look at it from the outside. Since the client’s story is a situation from only one side, the story inevitably contains contradictions in the person’s judgments, statements, and feelings. The client doesn’t even notice this, then the consultant’s task is to point out these contradictions to him. In general, confrontation is any reaction of a psychologist that contradicts the client’s behavior or judgment. The consultant enters into some kind of confrontation with the person, a struggle in order to point out to him all his tricks, subterfuges, etc. Using these tricks, the client does not realize that he is deceiving himself; this is a kind of protection from information that may indicate that he is also to blame for his problem. It should be noted that confrontation is not a way to humiliate the client, but to help him. Confrontation is used in three cases:

  1. When it is necessary to draw the client’s attention to the contradiction between his judgments, feelings, thoughts and his behavior and intentions.
  2. When the client cannot see the situation objectively due to his own prejudices and needs.
  3. When the client unconsciously avoids discussing specific situations and problems.

Using confrontation in his work, a psychologist must understand his responsibility, possess the skills of subtle work, and in no case use it as punishment or a way to destroy the client’s defense mechanisms.

Some terms sometimes cause surprise and amaze with their relevance in various branches of science. The word “confrontation” belongs to them. It's incredible how many narrow meanings it has. Let's take a look at the most popular ones so as not to get into trouble in the presence of smart people.

Policy

Most often we hear the term in question from the mouths of government officials and the media.

In politics, confrontation is a certain aspect of confrontation. It has many shades of meaning. For example, there is a political confrontation. This refers to the confrontation between representatives of certain sectors of society who have conflicting views. Look at the socialists and capitalists. It is clear that they will never agree on certain issues. The former fight for the interests of workers, the latter put their profits first. Agree, there is confrontation. This means in this case the impossibility of reaching a compromise solution. That is, the term in question denotes not just a struggle of ideas, but a confrontation of opposite trends in the development of society. They cannot come to a common opinion, only to concede some of their positions to each other.

Geopolitics

The term takes on a broader meaning in this area. This is understandable, because geopolitics examines the relationship between the parties on a global scale. Here confrontation means confrontation between civilizations developing in different directions.

Each of them generates its own ideas and meanings, inviting people to join them. And this means ownership of resources. The fight goes on for more high level. The parties are not just putting forward slogans. They form their own ideology, trying, on the one hand, to make it attractive, and on the other, to discredit the enemy. Bright and a clear example such a situation is cold war. The confrontation there was between two political systems. They clearly had advantages and disadvantages. The parties tried to defeat each other in all spheres of human life. Finance and technology, information and ideologists lined up in a “front” and fought for the minds of people. Unfortunately, the policy of confrontation is characteristic of the present time. As they say, capitalism has won, but problems remain.

In military affairs

Here the term has a purely practical significance. Confrontation is a confrontation between different armies, usually belonging to the warring parties. Fortunately, they still talk about it more often in political sense, but keeping in mind the military capabilities of states. You probably noticed that the word contains “front”. This term is of French origin, as are many others associated with the war. Its translation is as follows: “comparison”, or “confrontation”. There is something that hints at a duel, right? Because of this, the term is loved by psychologists. They also found a use for it.

Confrontation in conflict

There is a science that examines human behavior in different situations. It determines the intentions and behavioral motives of people, including in conflict. In this case we talk about confrontation between the parties. This does not necessarily mean only interpersonal relationships. For example, when studying driver behavior, they consider his confrontation with vehicle control elements. This refers to his psychological non-perception of certain systems or innovations. In addition, when studying conflicts, we talk about a situation where individuals strictly oppose each other on certain positions.

Let's give the most everyday example. Two guys are courting one girl. They, of course, are in conflict, that is, they are in confrontation. It is impossible to reconcile them, since their goal is not divided in half. The conflict may also have a larger scale for society. However, confrontation is still present in it. For example, in the field of culture and art, creative people argue, defending their own understanding of the work or the direction of development of the industry. Or an even more widespread dispute on a societal scale that “physicists and lyricists” waged among themselves, remember? He touched upon ideological aspects to which all humanity should strive. By the way, it is never finished.

In medicine

In this area, the term has a very narrow meaning. It is used in venereology. The fact is that such diseases are sexually transmitted. When a disappointing diagnosis is made to one patient, it is necessary to examine all his partners. Such an event is called confrontation. It is worth noting that the described meaning of the term is not widely used, which is good news.

In everyday life

We may rarely use the word “confrontation” in everyday life, but the process it denotes is encountered from time to time. You can read about this in encyclopedic dictionary. It states that this term also means a clash of beliefs and views. We encounter this all the time. For example, when we are reprimanded about clothing or preferences, habits or behavior. Meat-eaters come into confrontation with vegetarians, grandmothers on a bench with the neighbor guys. All these people own worldview. Even if they do not form its essence in the form of words, they certainly apply it in life. Situations often occur when someone tries to impose their views on another (makes a remark). This is confrontation in everyday life. Especially when the other side actively resists. So it turns out that one word has many, albeit similar in nature, but different in application meanings.

Confrontation(in clinical psychology) (lat. con - against + frontis - forehead, front) - a concept reflecting opposition, confrontation, clash of social systems, communities, people among themselves, a person with himself, with his ideas, attitudes, etc. In psychotherapy, one of the main techniques is when a patient or group is presented with usually unconscious ambivalent attitudes, attitudes or behavior patterns in order to understand and work through them. As an independent technique, it was proposed by R. Bastine and D. Kommer (1979) and can be used both in a direct, rigid form, directive (for example, asking the question: “What do you think or feel about what I told you?”), and in a softer form - through the use of parables, psychotherapeutic metaphors, nonverbal communication. When using K., the main attention is paid to the contradiction between the desired (from the patient’s point of view) and the patient’s actual behavior, to its verbal and nonverbal manifestations. The most developed methods of psychoanalysis are those of psychoanalysis. However, they are only indicated if there is good emotional contact between patient and psychotherapist. A number of psychotherapists generally reject communication as a technique and oppose it with an empathic approach (for example, in client-centered psychotherapy by K. Rogers, 1950).

L. A. Karpenko

Definitions, meanings of words in other dictionaries:

Psychotherapeutic Encyclopedia

1) Contrast, clash, confrontation of opinions, people or groups. In this socio-psychological sense, the term can be used to describe the process of group or family psychotherapy. 2) In psychotherapy - one of the main technical techniques:...

Psychological Encyclopedia