Theory
The theoretical foundations of the Conflict Analysis Battery are grounded on a humanistic conception of science. Inspired by Aristotelean logic, psychodynamic methods, psychometric rigor, and critical theory’s sensitivities, Conflict Analysis is a tool to represent the whole person.
The Science of the unconscious process
Philosophers and scientists have long debated about the nature of the human mind. Some tell us that we are just neurons firing, while others tell us we are driven by sex and violence. In juxtaposition to these theoretical models, this program, based on the Formal Theory of Behavior, rests on the idea that the unconscious is an innate conflict resolving homeostatic mechanism driven by the need to conform to norms, hence it is driven by moral rules, and it is a scientific mechanism following the laws of two natural science phenomena.
The two basic principles
The Scale
The first phenomenon is the equilibrial scale. There are three formal operations to restore the balance of the trays given the situation where a weight is placed on one tray of the scale:
1. Reciprocity: This formal operation places a weight on the scale’s other tray, corresponding to the reciprocal behavior, using activity to offset a passivity state.
2. Negation: This formal operation removes the initial weight from the weighted down tray, corresponding to pursuing the opposite behavior, turning antagonism to cooperation.
3. Correlation: This operation shifts the weight on the fulcrum of the scale to establish balance; it corresponds to changing attitude from feeling alienated to experiencing mutual respect, feeling respected but also expanding one's thinking, being respectful and reconciled with adversity, the given broader reality.
The Pendulum
The second phenomenon is the Simple Harmonic Motion based on the principle of conservation of energy and its transformation from dynamic to kinetic and then to higher order energy, negative entropy; we conceive of conflict as a shift away from the state of rest as the normative position. The deviation, a move away from one’s equilibrial or rest position represents an emotional energetic charge that oscillates in one's mind back and forth until the conflict is resolved, until the emotional charge is transformed from conflict to resolution or negative entropy. The unconscious is like the chlorophyll of plants: it captures energy of conflict and transforms it into personal emotional growth.
The process to conflict resolution and personal growth consists of three emotional oscillations. They are identified with six role states as stress and response, anxiety and defense, reversal and compromise. The normative deviation, the Stress state, a passivity state generates an opposite emotional force, acceleration, leading to an activity proportional and opposite to the initial deviation, driving one to overshoot the rest state. This is the Response. The response generates an opposite force called Anxiety that is experienced as passivity and that leads to a new activity, the Defense role, which then leads to one's Reversal, another passivity state countered by making inner concessions, attitude change or growth leading to the rest state resolving the conflict with a Compromise.