The diachronic approach and solutions to interpersonal conflicts

The diachronic approach consists of considering a phenomenon as a stage in an evolutive process. The authors postulate that this approach plays a role at the level of everyday thinking in the discovery of solutions to problem s. The present experiment aims at studying the relationships between levels of the diachronic approach in children and their ability to imagine soluti ons to a conflict between children. Sixty children aged 8 co 12 years were presented first with tasks assessing their level of diachronic tendency (pr opensity to evoke past or future stages of a present situation), of dissoci ation of two temporal sequences (absence of covariation of a cause and its delayed effect) and of dynamic synthesis (ability to describe a set of pict ures representing the successive steps of an event by a single noun phrase) . During a second session, the participants were presented with a drawing r epresenting two boys fighting in the playground and they were asked to expl ain the reasons for the fight. Participants then bad to imagine several sol utions to prevent the two boys fighting. Results showed a development in th e ability to imagine solutions to a conflict and a significant correlation between the levels of this development: and the levels of two aspects of th e diachronic approach.