Single Approach-Avoidance Conflict

Single approach-avoidance conflict is the psychological condition of facing a situation involving both positive and negative, or desirable and undesirable, outcomes. Another way to describe this is that the best possible outcome of a given choice also contains a negative consequence. For example accepting a job offer from a tyrannous employer. The decision in this case would ultimately depend on which circumstance weighs more heavily on the individual's mind, making money or working at a job that one hates.

Characteristics

• Psychologists have found that approach-avoidance conflict is one of the most difficult internal conflicts to resolve, since the same situation triggers both desirable and undesirable emotions. Ambivalence is therefore a common characteristic of approach-avoidance conflicts.

Comparisons

• In single avoidance-avoidance conflicts, the two choices are both undesirable, thus producing a negative or unwanted result regardless of the option chosen, such as a husband and wife choosing between staying in an unhappy marriage or suffering through a messy divorce. In single approach-approach conflicts, the two choice are both desirable, thus producing a positive or wanted result regardless of the option chosen, such as a mother choosing between staying at home with her kids or having a career is facing a single approach-approach conflict.

Variations

• Double or multiple conflicts involve two or more desirable and/or undesirable factors. These types of conflicts more accurately reflect the decisions that people most commonly face. They are therefore among the most difficult types of conflicts to resolve.