Conflict Styles

Daren Bradshaw

 

Blog #3 

 

Conflict Styles in Romantic Comedies

 

 

There are so many movies that show all different types of conflict styles and alternate ways to handle certain situations. For my movie I choose Failure to Launch, a romantic comedy about a thirty-something year old slacker that suspects his parents of setting him up with his dream girl so he'll finally vacate their home. The movie is full of different types of conflict not just between him and his parents, but between him and the woman that he “thinks” he loves. For example, when Matthew McConaughey comes home and his dad has turned his bed room into the “naked room”. He is upset while simultaneously being puzzled as to why his dad need a “naked” room.  In the movie you see him handle this in an avoidance style of handling the conflict. This is when you simply avoid the issue.  You aren’t helping the other party reach their goals, and you aren’t assertively pursuing your own. Another instance of a conflict style in this movie is when he finds out that his parents paid Sarah Jessica Parker to be his girlfriend to get him to finally spread his wings. When this happens he initially plays it cool as if nothing were wrong, eventually erupting and giving into his parent wishes. Though it doesn’t appear to be I feel that this is somewhat a compromise. This is a “lose-lose” scenario where neither party really achieves what they want.  This requires a moderate level of assertiveness and cooperation. These are just a few examples of conflict styles in this movie that really stood out to me.