ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with cognitive and psychological influences on conflict interaction. It discusses psychodynamic processes that drive conflicts, the role of emotion in conflict, and social cognition and conflict. Aspects of social cognition that are discussed include the effects of beliefs about conflict, cognitive framing of conflicts, expectancy violations, attribution processes, and rumination and mulling over conflicts. The chapter ends with a model of the threat-rigidity cycle, which deals with the interactions among psychodynamics, emotion, and social cognition in conflict. A common case, The Parking Lot Scuffle, is used to illustrate these processes throughout the chapter.
