MULTIPLE GOALS IN CONFLICT-RESOLUTION - THEIR ANTECEDENTS AND EFFECTSUPON TACTICAL PREFERENCE

The multiple goals theory of conflict management (Ohbuchi & Tedeschi, in press) postulated that participants in a conflict pursue to achieve resource goals (economic and personal resources) and social goals (re lationship, identity, justice, and power-hostility). The hypotheses ba sed on this theory were examined by the episode method, in which 207 u niversity students were asked to rate their recent experiences of inte rpersonal conflicts in terms of participants' attributes, goals, and t actics. More than 80% of the subjects answered that they were motivate d to achieve multiple goals in their attempts to resolve the conflicts . Social goals were found to be more strongly activated, and economic resource goals were least strongly activated. Regression analyses reve aled that the effects of participants' attributes on tactical preferen ce were mediated by goals.