CHOICE OF BEHAVIOR STRATEGIES FOR SPOUSES IN RESOLVING FAMILY CONFLICTS

Abstract

Family conflicts contribute to the reassessment of the system of values, the transformation of social relations and interpersonal relations, the development of the family system, are a source of change for each of its participants. The leading role in the construction of the family system and good relations in it belongs to the marital subsystem, which determines the development of relations in other family subsystems. The propensity of each spouse to conflict behavior, as well as the choice of appropriate behavioral strategies determines the success of resolving family conflicts. Objective. The research is related to the analysis of the essence of the "family conflict" concept and the characteristics of behavioral strategies in conflict; experimental definition and analysis of the main behavior strategies of spouses in resolving family conflicts. Methods. To solve the research problem we used such theoretical research methods as: analysis of scientific psychological literature, generalization, systematization of scientific information; the following empirical research methods were used: conversation, observation, psychodiagnostic method "Diagnosis of a person's propensity to conflict behavior" by K. Thomas adapted by N. V. Hryshyna; processing and quantitative and qualitative interpretation of results. The study involved 16 married couples (husband and wife) with different marital experiences in the number of 32 people aged 26 to 48 years (Kyiv). All the couples have children aged 2 to 21 years. The results of the empirical study of the peculiarities of the behavior strategies choice for spouses in resolving family conflicts showed that the predominant strategies are: "Compromise", which was found in 28.12 % of the total number of respondents and 37.5 % of women in particular; "Rivalry", which was found in 25 % of the total number of respondents and 31.25 % of men in particular; respondents are the least likely to choose the "Avoidance" strategy – 9.38 % of the total number of respondents, 6.25 % of women and 12.5 % of men. We see the prospects for further development in the study of family values and role attitudes of a married couple and their relationship with the effective resolution of conflicts in the family.