Back to:

Themes of concurrent session

1. Awareness of role of emotions in negotiation
2. Emotions are not bad; worth ignoring
3. How to manage
4. Here's how to teach emotions in negotiation

1. Challenges
   1. "Resistance" by students
      Flaky
      Non-substantive
      Overwhelming
      
   2. "Resistance "by teachers
      Do I have the skills to do this (do I need to be a therapist?)
      Where's the "hard science?"

2. Opportunities
   1. "Fluoride for mental health"
   1. Emotional crisis among lawyers and law students: People don't seek out help

   2. Law school negotiation class may help out with emotions
      1. People may take negotiation classes who won't seek other help just as fluoride reaches people who won't see the dentist
         1. Some may fear stigma of seeking help or deny negative emotions
         2. Others may not realize efficient emotions may benefit even quite healthy people - like fluoride

      2. Fit between negotiation training and emotional efficiency

   1. Education about importance: existing studies show link between emotion and negotiation

   2. Negotiation training and improving emotion
      1. Predictors of depression _ absence of well-being, dichotomous thinking predicts depression; negotiation tries to encourage non-zero-sum thinking; we see different options

   3. Group approaches to changing emotion
      1. Some success in reducing negative emotions and promoting positive emotions

3. Challenges Redux
   1. Existing negotiation training may lack other aspects of emotional education
   1. Some train in awareness of mind-states and attitudes (e.g., mindfulness at Harvard; Beyond Winning)
   2. Others view negotiation as more a product of personality
      2. Relatively little study of what emotional training works with lawyers
   1. Modifications of mindfulness by Riskin

4. Choices and Options
   1. Call in experts?
   1. Working with psychologists and other helping professionals?
      2. Exposure to single method in-depth versus multiple methods
   1. Research support for both

5. Audience brainstorming and sharing of options

6. Choices in training
   1. Substantive choices
   1. Attempts to change emotion or change responses to emotion?
   2. Attempts to correct