This dissertation describes a study of conflict management preferences and perceived control beliefs among 39 children from three sixth-grade classrooms in a Hickory, North Carolina public school. The literature review develops a rationale for studying the construct of identity from the socialcognitive perspective on self-concept. Self-schemata relevant to conflict management preferences and perceived control beliefs were postulated to be significantly correlated with each other, and to be significantly affected by a vicarious (videotape) or an active (game) conflict management learning experience.
A self-report questionnaire was administered three weeks before, immediately after, and three weeks after the interventions to the two experimental groups. Children in the control group completed the questionnaires at the beginning and the end of the six-week study period.
Hypothesized effects of the interventions and correlations were not supported by the data. Instead, the data demonstrated that these children sustained specific orientations to, and characteristic patterns of, both conflict management preferences and perceived control beliefs over the six-week study period. The findings are discussed in light of cognitively-oriented development models and related empirical studies.
Future research incorporating working self-concept, perception of context, structural elements of contexts, and developmental skills and culture is recommended, and implications for conflict theory and conflict management education are discussed. A-model of conflict behavior as an open system is proposed, accompanied by guiding questions for research and theory development. Research questions, hypotheses, and studies consistent with the model are suggested.