Majer Johann M, Barth Matthias, Zhang Hong, van Treek Marie, Trötschel Roman
Department of Social, Organizational, and Political Psychology, Faculty of Education, Institute of Psychology, Leuphana University Lüneburg, Lüneburg, Germany.
Education for Sustainable Development, Faculty of Sustainability, Institute of Sustainable Development and Learning, Leuphana University Lüneburg, Lüneburg, Germany.
Front Psychol. 2021 Apr 15;12:623757. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.623757. eCollection 2021.
Transformative and mutually beneficial solutions require decision-makers to reconcile present- and future interests (i.e., intrapersonal conflicts over time) and to align them with those of other decision-makers (i.e., interpersonal conflicts between people). Despite the natural co-occurrence of intrapersonal and interpersonal conflicts in the transformation toward sustainability, both types of conflicts have been studied predominantly in isolation. In this conceptual article, we breathe new life into the traditional dialog between individual decision-making and negotiation research and address critical psychological barriers to the transformation toward sustainability. In particular, we argue that research on intrapersonal and interpersonal conflicts should be tightly integrated to provide a richer understanding of the interplay between these conflicts. We propose a novel, unifying framework of interdependent conflicts that systematically structures this interplay, and we analyze how complex interdependencies between the social (i.e., conflict between decision-makers) and temporal (i.e., conflict within a decision-maker) dimensions pose fundamental psychological barriers to mutually beneficial solutions. Since challenges to conflict resolution in the transformation toward sustainability emerge not only between individual decision-makers but also frequently between groups of decision-makers, we scale the framework up to the level of social groups and thereby provide an interdependent-conflicts perspective on the interplay between intra- and intergenerational conflicts. Overall, we propose simple, testable propositions, identify intervention approaches, and apply them to transition management. By analyzing the challenges faced by negotiating parties during interdependent conflicts and highlighting potential intervention approaches, we contribute to the transformation toward sustainability. Finally, we discuss implications of the framework and point to avenues for future research.
变革性和互利的解决方案要求决策者协调当前和未来的利益（即个人在时间上的内部冲突），并使其与其他决策者的利益保持一致（即人与人之间的人际冲突）。尽管在向可持续发展转型的过程中，个人内部冲突和人际冲突自然地同时出现，但这两种冲突主要是被孤立地研究。在这篇概念性文章中，我们为个体决策研究与谈判研究之间的传统对话注入新的活力，并探讨向可持续发展转型的关键心理障碍。具体而言，我们认为对个人内部冲突和人际冲突的研究应紧密结合，以便更深入地理解这些冲突之间的相互作用。我们提出了一个新颖的、统一的相互依存冲突框架，该框架系统地构建了这种相互作用，并分析了社会维度（即决策者之间的冲突）和时间维度（即决策者内部的冲突）之间复杂的相互依存关系如何对互利解决方案构成基本的心理障碍。由于向可持续发展转型过程中的冲突解决挑战不仅出现在个体决策者之间，而且经常出现在决策者群体之间，我们将该框架扩展到社会群体层面，从而提供了一个关于代内冲突和代际冲突相互作用的相互依存冲突视角。总体而言，我们提出了简单、可检验的命题，确定了干预方法，并将其应用于转型管理。通过分析相互依存冲突期间谈判各方面临的挑战并突出潜在的干预方法，我们为向可持续发展的转型做出了贡献。最后，我们讨论了该框架的意义，并指出了未来研究的方向。
