35 SPECIAL SECTION: Rory Brady Essay Competition Articles IDENTITY, PREJUDICE AND PERSPECTIVE TAKING: A SOCIO-COGNITIVE EXPLORATION OF CONFLICT AND CONFLICT RESOLUTION Evelyn R. Alkin * Social entrenchment is inescapable. From the moment we are born, we co-exist. The social milieu provides us with scaffolding which helps us to navigate our world. It can offer us a rudimentary confidence in the knowledge we acquire. We find meaning by making inferences about what we perceive beyond mere observation, 1 and attain a sense of validation and reliability in our perceptions when we are aware that others have come to the same conclusion. 2 Moreover, as inherently social beings, we require personal relationships in order to satisfy the psychological need for intimacy, comfort and general emotional well-being. 3 The significance of this need is underscored by the emotional and mental penury brought about by the infliction of one of the worst forms of torture: solitary confinement. 4 Through these epistemic and relational motives, we are utterly compelled to form bonds with others. 5 However, conflict often prevails in contradistinction to these relationships. * Evelyn R. Alkin is a Graduate Student of Psychology at Trinity College Dublin and holds a BA in Philosophy from University College Dublin. She has special interest in Cognition, and spent time at Prof. E. Tory Higgins’ lab at Columbia University, New York and Prof. Ruth Byrne’s lab at Trinity. Evelyn is currently researching Clinical Neuroscience at Yale University’s School of Medicine in New Haven. 1 Bartlett, F. C. (1932), Remembering: An Experimental and Social Study, Cambridge: Cambridge University. 2 Echterhoff, G. (2010), Shared Reality: Antecedents, Processes, and Consequences, Social Cognition, 28 (3), 273-277. Also see Hardin, C., & Higgins, E. T. (1996), Shared Reality: How Social Verification Makes the Subjective Objective, In E. T. Higgins, & R. M. Sorrentino, Handbook of Motivation and Cognition: The Interpersonal Context (Vol. 3). NY: Guilford. 3 Baumeister, R., & Leary, M. (1995), The Need to Belong: Desire for Interpersonal Attachments as a Fundamental Human Motivation, Psychological Bulletin, 117 (3), 497-502. 4 Reyes, H. (2007), The Worst Scars Are in the Mind: Psychological Torture, International Review of the Red Cross, 89 (867), 591-617. 5 Echterhoff, G., Higgins, E. T., & Levine, J. (2009), Shared Reality: Experiencing Commonality with Others’ Inner States about the World, Perspectives on Psychological Science, 4, 496-521. This article is from Dispute Resolution Journal © 2017, Juris Net, LLC. www.arbitrationlaw.com