Imagined Interaction Conflict-Linkage Theory: Explaining the Persistence and Resolution of Interpersonal Conflict in Everyday Life

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Abstract
Conflict is a pervasive feature of human existence. There are anger management courses and popular books giving advice on dealing with unruly people. Imagined interaction (II) conflict-linkage theory explains how conflict persists in interpersonal communication through mental imagery and imagined interactions. Imagined interactions are covert dialogues that people have in which they relive prior conversations while anticipating new encounters. Conflict is kept alive in the human mind through recalling prior arguments while anticipating what may be said at future meetings. II conflict-linkage theory provides an explanatory mechanism for why conflict is enduring, maintained, may be constructive or destructive, and can erupt anytime in interpersonal relationships. The theory explains features of face-to-face conflict through understanding how people manage conflict during actual interaction by looking at how they think between such interactions. In order to understand conflict, cognitions about interaction episodes are examined in terms of the messages that people imagine communicating to others as well as those they recall from prior encounters. The theory contains three axioms and nine theorems that explain how interpersonal conflict endures and is managed. This report reviews the support for the theorems.