troubles, damn troubles! They drive us insane. They include those we learned in school and those we face daily. Good news: before we had to solve the first ones, teachers showed us how.
But how can we handle them in real life? These don't have formulas that always work, right? Try not to despair! There is no specific method that tells us if we do a given action, a certain result will occur, but we can use the problem-solving process to make the proper option. more suitable.
We all experience conflict. We humans naturally solve problems, although some more “naturally” than others. This implies what? A skill that can be developed. This is why D'Zurilla and Goldfried developed problem-solving therapy in 1971.
This method will help us discover issues, generate solutions, and choose the best one. Thus, we will have another instrument to manage negative emotions when facing challenges.
This requires a five-step process that we shall discuss later. The process is lengthy, but it's worth it for significant issues.
Before solving a problem, we must first get positive about the dispute and our ability to handle it. We must promote self-efficacy, presuming we can resolve the dispute and acknowledge our weaknesses, such as lack of self-confidence.
Changing our perspective on the problem is crucial. Thinking about it negatively will make solution-finding tough, while viewing it as a challenge will help us grow personally and enhance our talents.
In addition, we must be able to stop and consider before acting to finish this initial phase. Impulsive actions lead to blunders when solving problems.
After acknowledging difficulties and finding answers, we can move on. We shall endeavour to define and clarify the conflict. After identifying the concrete challenge, we will have made significant progress.
Starting to gather crucial information in precise, specific, and relevant phrases may be a smart approach. We must base our judgements on objective facts, like a camera would film them. A camera cannot record our thoughts, only what is happening on the boundaries of our judgements.
Identifying why this event caused disagreement is also important. Its meaning for personal and social well-being must also be reconsidered. Finally, we must recognise that not all problems have solutions and that those that do vary in difficulty. Set a reasonable solution goal. Even a complex problem can be broken down into simpler “sub-problems” for easier solution.
We should identify as many remedies as feasible after the previous two processes and knowing what the problem is. We are used to immediately responding to conflict situations, so this will be challenging, but we must work on it, whether as a main task or while doing something else. Actually, distracting oneself helps us think creatively.
As we generate more solutions, we will have more options and be more likely to discover the optimal dispute resolution. We'll also generate better ideas. In this phase, we do not evaluate the solutions' quality because judgement hampers imagination. We will do so later.