How Emotional Reactivity Causes Conflict

How Emotional Reactivity Causes Conflict

Emotional reactivity, a potent catalyst for conflict, often goes unnoticed until it's too late. Unravel the intricate relationship between our emotions and the discord they can incite, and discover strategies to manage emotional responses for healthier interactions.

Emotional reactivity suggests overreacting negatively to normal or even benign stimuli due to stress, depleted physiological resources, or emotional disorder.

Dynamic emotional reactivity: a negative emotion in one party of an interaction that causes an emotional reaction in the other party, such that the interaction makes them behave uncharacteristically.

Breaking the Reactive Dynamic

Ask yourself: What is this person reacting to? Are they perceiving me to be disrespectful, biased, narcissistic?”

Feelings vs. Accurate Perception

Negative emotions evolved to amplify and magnify possible threats or trouble

Familial vs. Social Reactivity: Chicken or Egg?

Most clinicians who work with couples or families have noticed increased discord, correlating with the polarization in the country at large

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