When There Is The Conflict In The Show Parenthood

The show Parenthood is all about the conflicts and difficulties within the Braverman family. This episode basically showed that as perfect as a family may look on the outside, their life is not as easy as it may seem. It exemplified the different aspects of family life and the different types of conflicts a family can have. The conflict that interested me the most was relationship between Adam and his father, Zeek. Throughout the whole episode, their conflict is ongoing. The conflict obviously stems from when Adam was a child and the way Zeek parented him. Zeek’s outlook is that he was “tough,” but Adam doesn’t want him to be that way with his child, Max. Starting from the first scene in the episode, it’s very evident that there are issues

As stated earlier, the two men are always attacking each other rather than asking why the other is doing whatever they may be doing. For example, Zeek assumes he knows why Adam is allowing Max to play outside during the concert, when Zeek doesn’t have the slightest idea as to what is going on with Max. The conflict process is very unstable. Adam and Zeek never seem to sit down and talk things through. The only time the S-TLC method was used is towards the end when Adam tells Zeek that there is something wrong with Max. Zeek then stopped, and thought about the issue, listened to Adam, and then the communication he did with Adam was letting him know that he was there to listen. Given the nature of this conflict, it was very appropriate. I-statements were seldom used in their conflict. They were always beating around the bush. The one time Adam did use an I-statement was towards the beginning when he told his dad that he’s going to need him to be calm during the baseball game. This personalized what he was saying, and it made it so it didn’t make Zeek feel like Adam was attacking him. When Adam used this I-statement, the outcome was more favorable then when he normally uses you-statements. He reduced the blame, he was honest, and it was a far less defensive behavior which are

One way creative management could have been incorporated would be through the idea of lateral thinking. Lateral thinking is when we think about any and every possible reason behind something. It doesn’t just jump to one conclusion and assume there can only be one reason for that conclusion. In the final scene with Zeek and Adam, Zeek jumped to the conclusion that Adam was slacking with his parenting and letting Max get his way rather than brainstorming and thinking about other possible reasons for what Adam was doing. Zeek and Adam’s entire relationship and conflict is really centered on the different parenting styles, and if they were to use lateral thinking and work at different little issues, they might be able to get to the bottom of their conflict as a whole. This would be a perfect way to be creative with their conflict