Çatışma Yönetimi, Çatışma Çözümü ve Karar Verme Süreci Ekseninde Arabuluculuğa Psikolojik Yaklaşımlar
Seda ÖzmumcuÇatışma, insanların etkileşim ve iletişim içinde bulunduğu toplumsal yaşamın kaçınılmaz bir parçasıdır. Zira insan var olduğundan bu yana farklı bireyler ile iletişim içinde olan sosyal bir varlıktır. Bu sebeple bireyler arasında bu etkileşim ve iletişim olduğu sürece, insanlar farklı nedenlerden dolayı çatışma içine girmiştir. Çalışma konumuz itibariyle, bireylerin çeşitli sebeplerden dolayı hukuki meselelerden kaynaklanan uyuşmazlıklarının çatışma yönetimi ve çatışma çözümü yöntemleri ile barışçıl bir şekilde çözüme kavuşturulmasının yollarından biri de “arabuluculuk” olmuştur.
Türk hukukunda 6325 sayılı Hukuk Uyuşmazlıklarında Arabuluculuk Kanunu ile hukuk sistemimize dahil olan arabuluculuk kurumu ile anlaşmazlığın tarafları arasında, özel hukuktan kaynaklanan uyuşmazlıkların (ihtiyari veya mecburi) yargı yoluna gidilmeden önce arabuluculuk yoluyla çözümü amaçlanmaktadır.
Arabuluculuk kurumunun ilk planda hukuk temelli görünümüne rağmen, incelemeye konu edildikçe diğer başka disiplinler ile de yakından ilişkili olduğu görülmektedir. Arabuluculuk, dava prosedüründe karşımıza çıkan taraf dilekçeleri üzerinden cereyan eden bir muhakeme değildir. Arabuluculuğun özü, çatışan ve uyuşmazlık içine düşen tarafların çatışmalarını analiz etmek için onları dinlemek, anlamak bir başka ifade ile çatışma içinde olan insanı tanımak olgusuna dayanmaktadır.
Buna bağlı olarak, arabuluculuk müzakereleri sırasında, çeşitli nedenlerden ötürü öfke, gerginlik, kaygı, hayal kırıklığı ve benzeri duygu durumlarını yaşayan uyuşmazlık taraflarının, böyle bir anda beyin yapılarının nasıl işlediğini, hangi duyguların onları tetiklediğini, hangi nörolojik ve psikolojik etkiler altında kaldıklarını, çatışmayı yönetebilmek için arabulucunun görebilmesi ve bu durumu kontrol edebilmesi gerekmektedir.
Bu bağlamda makalemizin ana teması, arabuluculuğun iletişim, nöroloji ve psikoloji gibi diğer disiplinler ile olan yakın ilişkisini ortaya koyup, bunlar arasında bir köprü kurabilmeyi ve buna dayalı olarak da alana katkı sağlayabilmeyi hedef etmektedir.
Psychological Approaches to Mediation Along the Axis of Conflict Management, Conflict Resolution, and Decision-Making Process
Seda ÖzmumcuConflict is an inevitable part of communal living, where people interact and communicate. Yet based on human existence, people are social creatures who communicate with various other individuals. Thus, for as long as these interactions and communications have occurred, people have started conflicts for various reasons. The study’s subject is mediation, a conflict management and resolution method that has been used as a peaceful means for resolving individual disputes that arise out of legal matters for various reasons. Mediation became a part of the Turkish legal system through Law No. 6325 on Mediation in Civil Disputes and is used with the aim of resolving interparty disputes (voluntary or compulsory) that arise out of private law before being referred to judicial remediation. Even though mediation appears to have a legal foundation, further examination shows it to also be closely related to other disciplines. Mediation is not a trial that flows with party submissions, as seen in lawsuit procedures. The essence of mediation involves analyzing conflicts of parties in dispute by listening to and understanding the parties, namely by getting to know the people who are in conflict. In this context, the main theme of the article is to establish a close connection between mediation and other disciplines such as communications, neurology, and psychology and to build bridges among these with the aim of contributing to the field on this basis.
Conflict is an inseparable part of daily life as a result of individuals’ interactions in communal life. As a necessity of communal and social life, people are need to communicate with each other and live together. Conflicts arise in this communal and social living process when individuals with different purposes and benefits cannot overcome their differences. The important issue here is the effective management and resolution of conflicts among individuals. In this regard, the element that determines the direction of a conflict is thea handling style of the person managing the conflict.
Mediation initially became a part of the Turkish legal system through Law No. 6325 on Mediation in Civil Disputes (Turkish Official Gazette, 2012, June 22, Issue No.28331) and is used in disputes that arise out of private law with the aim of resolving an interparty dispute through a neutral third person called a mediator, who is independent of the parties to the dispute and their representatives. Within the scope of Law No. 6325 on Mediation in Civil Disputes, during basic mediation training, candidates who will become mediators learn about conflict theory together with the basic principles of mediation, ethical rules, and legislation. Among the subjects within the scope of basic mediation training, conflict theory is one subject with special importance in terms of how mediators manage and resolve a conflict during mediation discussions and because it is a separate discipline compared to legal matters and legislation.
Unless managed by an appropriate conflict management method, conflicts arising out of the various legal problems between parties may create a dynamic interaction that could lead to more detrimental outcomes. In this case, the possibility of litigation alongside other unpredictable uncertainties will be inevitable for disputes not resolved through appropriate conflict management and resolution.
Mediation is a process that starts with negotiations and continues by making progress one step at a time. In this process, the mediator’s (or mediators’) experience in terms of conflict management and resolution plays a key role in resolving a dispute between parties. However, only knowing conflict management is not a sufficient component in terms of being a mediator. During mediation discussions and while managing these discussions one stage at a time, a mediator needs to also be able to see and realize the psychological components related to the decision-making process and behaviors of the parties. This different point of view in terms of mediation directs one to look into this matter from a different angle.
With regard to this concept, people are creatures that think, analyze, make decisions, and put these decisions into action. All these mental functions (e.g., thinking, analyzing, decision making) are only possible with a healthily functioning human brain. However, an environment that involves concern, anxiety, anger, stress, and other similar feelings requires a mediator to see what the human brain is comprised of, how the threefold brain structure (i.e., primitive, emotional, and thinking brain) functions, and which neurological and psychological aspects affect the parties’ decision-making processes in order for the mediator to accordingly steer and manage the discussions at hand and handle the conflict properly.
Article 1 of Law No. 6325 on Mediation in Civil Disputes states, “This law only applies to the resolution of private law related to disputes arising out of activities and transactions over which parties have full discretion, including those involving a foreign element.” Per this, mediation is law based. Even though mediation is accepted for private law-related disputes that arise out of activities and transactions, the study believes that analyzing mediation in terms of managing and resolving conflicts solely from a law-based point of view would be misleading. As a result, all the efforts of a mediator in terms of managing and resolving a conflict will be useless unless the mediator understands the psychology of the parties, builds trust between the parties, and applies effective communication techniques.
In this scope, the presence of such feelings as anger, anxiety, devastation, disappointment, and other similar negative feelings will prevent the parties to a dispute who’ve attended the mediation meetings from thinking about the subject of the dispute in a logical sensible way, from analyzing the events in a healthy way, and from deciding accordingly. As a result, the healthy resolution of the parties’ legal problems will also not be possible.
The parties to a legal dispute will not be able to reach the best decision regarding their legal dispute without using their mental capabilities. When looked at from this angle, the study believes that the feelings, psychology, and mental structure and functioning of the parties to a conflict that involve anger and anxiety during the mediation proceedings will lead to a flow of feelings during the mediation; while this is the subject of different disciplines, it is also closely related to mediation. For this reason, this article argues within its scope that the idea of building bridges among mediation, neurology, and psychology will contribute to the field in terms of the resolution of legal disputes.