Understanding Immigration-Based Intractable Conflict Behaviors Through the Lenses of Social Identity and Emotions

Author

Caryn Cade MoirFollow

Campus Location

Dallas Campus (Online)

Date of Award

9-2023

Document Type

Dissertation

Department

Organizational Leadership

Degree Name

Doctor of Education

Committee Chair or Primary Advisor

Katherine Yeager

Second Committee Member or Secondary Advisor

Kristin O'Byrne

Third Committee Member or Committee Reader

Jenifer Wolf Williams

Abstract

The purpose of this post-intentional phenomenological study was to understand how participants experience social identity, emotions, and cognitive freezing in the context of immigration-based conflict. Immigration-based conflict in the United States exemplifies intractable conflict; it increases polarization, negative emotions, and intolerance among individuals in the United States. This study included action research; learning more about how participants experienced immigration-based conflict contributed knowledge that mediators can use to better serve parties in conflict, particularly during premediation interviews. The researcher used semistructured interviews to gather data from six participants. The data indicated that immigration-based conflict in the United States is consistent with intractable conflict, including how social identities contribute to values-based conflict perpetuation. The data also demonstrated that participants’ conflict styles influenced how they experienced conflict and associated emotions. While participants did not explicitly describe themselves as cognitively frozen, they exhibited signs of cognitive freezing when discussing their opposition’s beliefs.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Recommended Citation

Moir, Caryn Cade, "Understanding Immigration-Based Intractable Conflict Behaviors Through the Lenses of Social Identity and Emotions" (2023). Digital Commons @ ACU, Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 665.
https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/etd/665