Confrontation analysis as a diagnostic tool

✍ Scribed by Peter Bennett

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 394 KB
• Volume: 109
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0377-2217
• DOI: 10.1016/s0377-2217(98)00071-x

✦ Synopsis

This paper outlines confrontation analysis as a means of modelling situations involving interdependent decisions with the potential for both con¯ict and cooperation. Confrontation analysis is both a development of earlier methods based on game theory, such as analysis of options and an integral part of the newly-developing approach of drama theory. It is based, in the ®rst instance, on identifying the positions adopted by each participant and the fallbacks threatened if each side's position is not accepted. It then shows how each position may be subject to one or more dilemmas, and classi®es the possible responses to these (including the strategic uses both of emotion and rational argument). We argue that this makes it an easily-applied ``diagnostic tool'' for understanding con¯icts and for interpreting and predicting the tactics used. An illustrative example is provided.