In the master's thesis, we explored the experience of a conflict situation of individuals in intimate relationships in terms of mindfulness and basic emotional competencies. In the theoretical part, which was devoted to the review of the literature, we focused on three areas. We first talked about conflicts, their characteristics, and resolution strategies. We then focused on basic emotional competencies (emotional calmness and interest in the world, intimate connection with others, and two-way intentional exchange) and what role they play in intimate relationships, especially in connection with conflict situations. Finally, we covered the area of mindfulness (in terms of awareness and acceptance) and also tried to highlight its role in interpersonal relationships in connection with conflict situations.
In the empirical part, we conducted research in which we used a phenomenological qualitative research method. Based on the mentioned approach, we gained an in-depth insight into the experience of an individual participant. We researched the experience in eight participants, aged between 25 and 35, who have different types of pedagogical educations, within which they have already encountered the concept of mindfulness in some way. We first conducted a semi-structured interview with them, covering questions from the three main areas mentioned above (conflict situations, basic emotional competencies, and mindfulness), then we formed general descriptions of experiencing individual psychic structures, and later a joint description of the experience of a conflict situation in terms of mindfulness and core emotional competencies.
We found that mindfulness and well-developed basic emotional competencies significantly influence the experience of conflict situations in intimate relationships of young adults. As we have learned during the research, the practice of mindfulness contributes the most to this, and theoretical knowledge of this concept alone is not enough. This is where the differences in experience and responsiveness in a conflict situation between a participant who practices mindfulness and others who do not in practice became apparent.
At the end of the research, we highlighted the limitations and guidelines for further research that opened up during the research.
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