You always hurt the one you love: Strategies and tactics in interpersonal conflict

Abstract

The present study delineates the five most frequently utilized strategies of relational conflict resolution. Three propositions were tested. In examining the first proposition, same and opposite sex friends indicated that they utilized significantly different conflict strategies. In testing proposition two, males and females reported that they employ different strategies with their same but not opposite sex friends. In probing the third proposition, frequently used conflict strategies discriminated between levels of relational satisfaction.