The Influences of Logic, Memory and Emotion on the
Effectiveness of Conflict Solutions based on Nets Theory in
Bridging Proceedings as opposed to Legal Proceedings
Submitted By: Dr. Yael Sneh Cohen Date: 09/2009
Preview
The effects on those involved in seeking solutions for conflicts are the criterion for the success or the failure of the Bridging process. Different peoples, different cultures and different sections in the population choose to employ various processes for a change of the reality they find themselves in.
In every conflict there are visible and concealed processes capable of promoting or delaying the finding of a suitable solution. For decades we were obliged to see the world through its components. We were guided to investigate the atoms and above and beyond in an attempt to understand the universe; to investigate the molecules so we may understand life itself; and to examine separate genes in order to understand the complications of human behavior. In complex systems, the elements are compatible in many and varied ways. It will take humans millions of years to examine all the elements that nature meticulously put together to reach its beautiful harmony.
Today, more and more of us come to understand that nothing in nature occurs accidentally and everything is connected, caused by and working together with an enormous number of other parts in the great universal puzzle. We live in a small world where all things are connected to each other. This complexity has a clear structure, thus, the importance of Nets. As yet, only few of us understand the fascinating phenomena the science of Nets, soon to be open before us, reveals. It is much more than just the use of the word Net.
In this proposal, the researcher, through understanding of the Nets, will try to open a new outlook on the world of conflicts surrounding us which hopefully will lead to the outcome of the central questions that will shape the way we look at our world and help solve conflicts and settle confrontations.
Being familiar with the policy of privatization – Case-Study – the Researcher submitted her Doctorate work on the Public Transportation in Beer-Sheba, Israel; on the Bus' drivers and on the travelling public in the city. In this research we shall examine the influences that logic and emotion have on the success of the Bridging process. While employing known techniques, the Researcher developed a model named: "Rational-Emotional-Unbelievable-Take a balance", or REUT.
This research is continuing, renovating and crystallizing the Researcher Doctorate proposal. The novelty is the addition of Memory to the existing effects on the reasoning of those involved and also reliance of the research on the Net theory. The research will be conducted in two ways – deductive and holistic – and will compare the results of each way. Through the definition of those involved in a conflict and understanding the connection between them, we shall try to separate the elements retarding the conflict thus make it easier to reach a solution.
The Researcher finished her Doctorate Degree in the subject of "The existing effects on the success of Bridging Process"; in it logic and emotional effects were analyzed. The researcher developed her model based on four questions which will be analyzed in this proposal on a certain section of population in way of questionnaires and in way of analysis in accordance with the Net theory. This Researcher holds authorization from the Ministry of Justice to act as a Bridging Negotiator compatible with the ADR system. As such she is employed in business and public spheres and in private conflicts. As an Associate Academic Professor she gives lectures in these institutes. In her years of practice she acted as a Bridging Negotiator in a large multi-participant case which took place in her home city of Beer-Sheba and nowadays, as the Head of the Jewish and Bedouin Forum of women in the Negev region and as Chair-woman of Beer-Sheba's Chamber of Commerce and Industry, she is introducing the Bridging idea to these two forums.
The Research Goal
The goal of this research is to try and identify the elements which influence the finding of a solution to a conflict and neutralize them before a solution is found.
In order to identify the best tool for each solution, the experiment will be conducted in two ways, the deductive one and the holistic one. Hopefully, the results of the research will help those who work in finding solutions to conflicts, to identify the elements that delay or accelerate the process.
The research will deepen the insight as to the relationship structure existing between the conflicting sides and show us how to productively motivate them to overcome their difficulties and to discuss the issue by using various strategies or communications that exists between the people involved in the matter; and by using their involvement and the effect it has on the conflict at hand. This research will also put emphasis, concerning conflicts and solutions, on the potential of reaching a settlement in a peaceful way paying attention to the various aspects of the personal norms and the surroundings we live in. There is no research known that ever measured the effects and influences of the threefold Logic-Emotion-Memory on the finding of the solution itself to the conflict through Bridging or through Legal procedure based on the Net-theory – holistic and deductive. The uniqueness of this research is the way it effects the settling of conflicts, in any way and of every conflict. In is the Researcher's belief that this highly important research will significantly contribute to the understanding of existing influences on all sides, may they be couples, families, politicians, and even countries, and not only on the conflicting ones; it will also help to identify and neutralize the elements retarding the finding of the solution. This research will examine the extent of the differences between the two sides, and those visible and concealed involved how, in their own way can influence the outcome of finding a solution to a conflict.
The Question this Research will Ask
1. Is there a connection between the element of Logic, its influence and effectiveness and the success of concluding a solution to a conflict through Bridging or through legal procedures?
2. Is there a connection between the element of Emotion, its influence and the effectiveness of success on concluding a solution to a conflict through Bridging or through legal procedures?
3. Is there a connection between the element of Memory and its influence and effectiveness of success on concluding a solution to a conflict through Bridging or through legal procedures?
4. Is there a connection between the effect of various involvement strategies and the different attitudes among the active conflicted sides and those passive and active involved in it?
5. Is there a connection between the satisfaction/success of the sides and their willingness to confront the influence of the three effective elements: Logic-Emotion-Memory?
Literature Review
The review will be based on theories related to this research's variables as follows:
1. Effectiveness
Effectiveness is the basis of every success. Effective business can function even when it is inefficient but the most efficient business cannot function durably if it is not effective. In our daily routine we shall examine the extent of our effectiveness at home and in our work place as a first index and our efficiency at the same places as an additional index.
"The terms Effectiveness and Efficiency and the understanding of the relationship between them is one of the most important factors in management. Effectiveness means focusing on the result. It takes us to the sphere of the individual or the organization's achievements and not to the processes… The ideal is obviously to be effective and efficient – there is no contrast between the two terms" A. Sandler (1995).
2. Theories related to Settling Conflicts
Alberstine identifies three models for negotiating and settling of conflicts: 1. The Scientific Model; 2. The Pragmatic Model of Fisher and Sander; 3. The Transformatic Model of Bush and Folger. The Interpretation Model is the next step.
The thought of settling conflicts is a scientific thought, suggesting that conflicted sides suffer from cognitive and strategic diversions of their reality concept. They are locked in their subjective stand which makes Bridging negotiation between the two the only possible way to show them – through Bridging negotiator or other professional whose function is to provide objective aspects through which the two sides are be able to connect.
The scientific model allows the use of tough or easy tactics as none of the two sides will deny that the basic state concerning them is a Contest, for whatever the gain is for one side it is the loss of the other side. It is an outlook which pictures a reality where subjective stands are biased and contradictory. Fisher's pragmatic model is a biased one in the sense that not only he pictures a certain reality but he insists on a certain way this reality should be absorbed. Conflict is a problem needed to be solved through interpretation. In the review chapter we shall broaden the presentation of other models. *Michal Alberstine (2002): Pragmatisms and Law from philosophy to dispute resolution.
3. Nets Theory
The number of junctions carrying K linkages must be exponentially lessened quicker than the law of the power it predicts. Centralizers do not exist. Verney's theory of existing Nets (Barbashi, pg. 101) – the stupendous discovery of the WEB is that centralizer has an important role as it defines the Net's topology; its stable makeup; its dynamic behavior and its vigor and solidness in its standing against any mistakes and attacks on other existing Nets. A graph that declines sequentially shows the existence of many small occurrences next to few big occurrences. The law of the power allows only rare occurrences. The practical significance of it is if for example we'll take cases that require Bridging, we will find many small cases and some big ones but the big cases that might have any significance effect on the result of the case are but a few. In the case of this research the outcome is connected to the effectiveness and on identifying and neutralizing of the various influences of the conflicting sides with the potential to shock an individual or a group far beyond their influence or neutralizing affect on the small cases. "Chaos vacates its place to Order and when complex systems give birth to order they strip down their unique qualities and show a universal behavior with similar characteristics in various systems", says Barbashi. The Researcher based her proposal on this assumption.
4. Rationality/Logic
Professor Leibovitch taught us that the term "Rationality" may be implied only within the spectrum of science – this is the Scientific Method. The attempt to apply this term on man's scale of values such as decency, honor, generosity, is basically imperfect and invites mistakes. There is no connection, says Leibovitch, between man's volume of knowledge (the "Is") from which he draws his concept of the existence and his will (the "Ought") which is the source of his decisions of what it is proper to be. Social science is partly based on the assumption that there is some sort of a "Natural Order" that logic and rationality represent it; But if it is accepted by all that Social Order is established by the people, then there could not exist a Natural one.
5. Emotion
The researchers James and Lang offered a new model for understanding the Bridging process: The Intuitive Theory. According to this model the awareness of what we feel is a response to the physiological changes which take place in our body and which eventually is recognized as an emotion. This model concludes that physiological reaction is essential for emotion to be experienced. Only after we recognize the sensation in our body do we feel and act accordingly.
6. Memory
The court of law is an important public arena where private and collective memories are founded. Each individual who seeks the court arena to confront another individual wrestles to have his version of a past event officially recognized as such. The same goes for the State when in private or criminal procedure it asks the legal system to recognize its version of the truth. Osteen Seurat and Tomas Karnes emphasize the importance of the legal system in engaging with this subject and by way of doing so shape the memories of the past for the future's sake. In the modern era the justice system is one of the most important ways for our society to archive its memories. Sometimes a memory might be preserved in connection with a certain courtroom trial. In such case the courtroom acts as an archive of the past and as a communicator medium for the future or as D. Cornell puts it: "Legal interpretation demands that we will remember the future". In this she reminds us that to each legal action there are two audiences: that of the present and that of the future. The Court of Law, by keeping written texts and documents of past decisions, revives the past and serves as an arena where the past converses with the future.
The Chapters of the Methodology
This quantitative research will be based on analyzing and examining verdicts and Bridging agreements in a deductive form and in holistic form. This will be the basis of this research. Deeper and more accurate details shall be presented later on.
In this research I shall analyze the Bridging and the Legal process in accordance with the model this researcher had developed in her Doctorate and based on the complicated Systems/Net theory, visualization of process and relying on variables extracted from theology and from social nets, which are just as effective.
According to Barashi's System theory, chaos vacates its place to give room for Order and when complex systems give birth to Order they strip down their unique qualities and show a universal behavior that has similar characters in a wide variation of systems. The researcher based this proposal on the assumption that if indeed this is so, then the common basis of the Bridging or the court of law system is the existing conflict between the confronting sides and their influence of all the factors relevant to the process and all its results. This means that one must assemble the chaotic factors and the factors effecting the conflict, and put them in an order of sorts. In a Bridging process or a trial one the confronting sides are those who neutralize the various effects which cause the chaos, and with the help of a Bridging negotiator or Judge/Lawyer, put the disputed matter in order, thus bringing the two sides to an agreement and the process to a solution.
In this research we shall examine the effectiveness of the Bridging or the Legal process only after we conduct Reductionism – a philosophical theory that asserts that the nature of complex things is reduced to the nature of sums of simpler or more fundamental things, meaning that in order to understand nature one must first decipher and understand its components. In order to understand the complexity of a conflict we must separate the elements of the existing influences and check the number of Ns each of the two sides posses and what are the Ks influences on each of the elements and the importance of finding a solution for all of them.
In complex systems the factors are matched with each other in many and various ways. Nothing happens by itself, for whatever events take place something or someone caused them to have happened. They act reciprocatively with huge number of other elements in a complex universal puzzle. We shall examine this through:
1. A questionnaire extracted from the model developed by the researcher in her Doctorate. We shall examine the various theories of Logic-Emotion-Memory against the questions the model inquired.
2. The Net Theory: Each N in the research can be used as a net for this research. Nets are everywhere to be found. All we need do is look at them. We need to dispose and eliminate some of their large centralizations in order to dismantle them. The intersections receive additional linkages when the net becomes wider.
3. Examine the theories related to settling of conflicts and match them with the various effects on the ones involved:
Systems: A system in the world of Bridging is a group which includes all the Ns and the linkage between them.
K – The intersections which connect or link between the various Ns.
N – The number of those involved in the conflict.
P – The directions for reaching a solution (styles of resolving the conflict on each of the following eight possibilities).
The Logic
We shall first define the eights possibilities = X
1. Without Logic – without Emotion – without Memory (Irrational);
2. With Logic – with Emotion – with Memory (Irrational);
3. Without Logic – with Emotion – with Memory;
4. With Logic – without Emotion – with Memory;
5. With Logic – with Emotion – without Memory;
6. Without Logic – with Emotion – without Memory;
7. With Logic – without Emotion – without Memory;
8. Without Logic – without Emotion – with Memory.
Identifying Directions – Implementation actions taken out of the varied possibilities in order to reaching a solution. The researcher will perform visualization of the proceedings.
There are four results possible = Y
1. Success
2. Failure
3. Cooperation
4. Non-Cooperation
Population and Statistical Sample
Old Bridging Agreements taken from the courts of law, the Bridging Negotiators and the legal references.
System of Data Compilation
Questionnaires characteristic of the model will be spread among Bridging Negotiators and Legalists. A deadline will be set for collecting the Questionnaires. The researcher will make sure that all the Questionnaires are collected on time and for analyzing them in accordance with the two systems referred to.
Procedure of Data Collection
The Questionnaire will be spread among the Bridging Negotiators and the Legalists who will choose to participate in the research through Email, Post delivery and with the help of the Bridging Negotiators and the Bar Association or the courts of law. The Questionnaire will be spread among the examinees and will be collected a week later. In places where there are ten Questionnaires and more, a responsible person will be put in charge of collecting the Questionnaires at that place.
Data Processing
The Questionnaires will be analyzed with software of Data Processing and with the Net theory. The characteristics of statistical data processing and others will be determined after completing the construction of the Questionnaire.