26-08-2016, 09:30 AM
contend.htm (Size: 2.62 KB / Downloads: 4)
As a conflict emerges, the relationships of contending parties with one another take on a special character. Attention comes to focus ever more on the behavior of the adversary to the exclusion of any non-contenders involved. One justifies one's behavior increasingly by what the other has done rather than by any universal standard of correct behavior. A process Coleman (1957) has called reciprocal causation takes over so that the contenders come to form something like an independent social unit engrossed in tit-for-tat attack and defense behavior. Without some external intervention, such dynamics can lead to extreme force being used at higher and higher cost.