MEDIATED NEGOTIATIONS IN DIVORCE AND LABOR DISPUTES: A COMPARISON

• Author: Carol Watson,Bruce Tuchman,Nancy Jaffe,Kenneth Kressel,Morton Deutsch
• Date: 01 September 1977
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.174-1617.1977.tb00930.x
• Published date: 01 September 1977

MEDIATED NEGOTIATIONS

IN

DIVORCE AND

LABOR

DISPUTES:

A

COMPARISON

Kenneth Kressel, Morton Deutsch, Nancy Jaffe,

Bruce Tuchman, and Carol Watson*

In 1975 there were more than one million

divorces in the United States, double the number

which occurred

a

scant

10

years earlier.

It

has

been estimated that if the divorce rate continues

to rise new marriages may

be

more likely to end

in divorce than not

(Weiss,

1975).

It

is

also well-

known that working out the terms of

a

divorce

settlement-especially when children and the

division of marital

assets

are

involved-can be

a

complicated and highly conflictual

task.

The traditional method for arriving

at

such

settlements

is

the

use

of

lawyers

by each party

in an adversarial process. Among the advantages

of the adversarial model

is

the psychological

belief of each party that their interests

are

being

protected. The recent research of Thibaut and

Walker (1975) suggests that by promoting

a

thorough exploration of alternative solutions,

the adversarial model also increases the likeli-

hood that the most objective decisions will be

reached. From both within and without the

legal

profession, however, there has been mounting

dissatisfaction with the adversarial model for

arriving

at

divorce settlements. The focus on

fault finding, and the availability of

legal

threats

and counter-threats may seriously

escalate

the

conflict, and the needs of the unrepresented

children may be neglected.

Mediation by

a

neutral third party

is

an

alternative to the adversarial model. Although

the formal use of mediators to

assist

in the

resolution or disputes has

a

long and venerable

history in such institutionalized settings

as

*Kenneth Kressel

is

Assistant Professor of Psychology,

Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey. Norton

Deutsch

is

Professor of Psychology and Education,

Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, New

York. Nancy Jaffe, Bruce Tuchman, and Carol Watson

are in the graduate program in Social Psychology

at

Teachers College, Columbia University.

This project

is

being supported by

a

grant from the

Marshall Fund.

labor-management, international, and commun-

ity conflicts, formalized mediation on an inter-

personal

level

such

as

divorce

is

a

less

common

occurrence. Mediation has also been

a

relatively

neglected topic in social-psychological research

on conflict resolution (Rubin

&

Brown, 1975).

The present paper

is

a

preliminary report of

an in-depth, exploratory investigation of an

innovative approach to the mediation of divorce

settlements. At this stage

of

the analysis results

are incomplete but certain general conclusions

are clear

enough to warrant reporting.

We

will

focus here on parameters

of

the bargaining situa-

tion which complicate the divorce mediator's

task and on possible alternative strategies for

handling these difficulties. An

earlier

study of

labor mediators will

serve

as

a

comparative back-

ground against which to view strategic issues in

mediation (Kressel, 1972).

METHOD

The investigation took the formmof an in-

depth analysis of nine mediated divorces, each

of which used the innovative procedure devel-

oped by

0.

J.

Coogler,

a

lawyer and psycho-

therapist, and founder of the Family Mediation

Center in Atlanta, Georgia. The Center

is

a

non-

profit organization which has been providing

Atlanta

area

couples with an impartial, third-

party method for negotiating separation and

divorce agreements for the

last

2% years. Ap-

proximately 100 couples have used

its

services.

Couples are referred to the Center by

lawyers, clergy, and psychotherapists. Nearly

all

of the couples who have used the mediation

procedure

are

white, middle to upper middle

class,

and have minor children.

Detailed written guidelines covering the

groundrules for mediation and stipulating the

obligations of the couple, the mediator, and the

Mediation Center are provided in an initial

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