When More Than Two People Are Fighting

9-11 years

Me with Others

25 min / 2x per week

Learning goal :

Developing Emotional Awareness When Interacting with Others

Pedagogical Intention :

Managing My Emotions When Interacting with Others

Target skills :

Multi-party conflict regulation, Emotional contagion resistance, Position-grounding

Materials :

Multi-party conflict scenario cards, alliance map worksheet

Detailed procedure :

1. Introduction: "Two-person conflicts are hard. Multi-person conflicts - with alliances, history, and competing loyalties - are much harder."
2. Map a multi-party conflict: identify the parties, the alliances, the history, each person's emotional state.
3. Key question: what am I feeling, and is it mine - or am I absorbing others' emotions through emotional contagion?
4. Script: "In a group conflict, the first regulation challenge is separating your emotion from the group's emotion. They're not always the same."
5. Practice: ground yourself before taking a position in a group conflict.

Progress Indicators :

Maps all parties' emotional states in a multi-person conflict. Identifies when their emotion is absorbed vs. self-generated. Uses a grounding practice before responding in a group conflict.

Research Foundations :

Hatfield et al. (1993); Gottman (1994); Linehan (1993)