Discerning inner conflicts is a war within oneself. It could be anything from deciding between two job offers, to deciding many things in your personal life. There is inner conflict between good and evil; strength and weakness; love and hate, etc. Discerning inner conflicts is more difficult as compared to resolving the inner conflicts.
Man doesn’t accept the fact that he is in a dilemma. He thinks he can make every decision without giving it long thoughts and ends up making the wrong decision. Inner conflict occurs when there is a discrepancy among an individual’s cognitive aspect. It implies that a new cognitive element is in conflict with a prior clarification or anticipation.
Discerning inner conflicts involves knowing the types of inner conflicts:
Approach-Approach Conflicts,
Approach-Avoidance Conflicts and
Avoidance-Avoidance Conflicts.
Approach-Approach Conflicts may occur in a situation when a person has to decide between two attractive alternatives i.e. Boss has to advocate one name for promotion that is capable enough for the position. Approach Avoidance Conflicts arise when a person has to deal with a state of affairs that acquire both positive as well as negative features. Avoidance-Avoidance Conflicts might occur each of the competing alternatives possesses a negative consequences i.e., they are equally repulsive or there is a considerable divergence between demand and expectation.
Discerning inner conflicts also involves knowing its causes. This involves difficulty in making a decision because of uncertainty. For example individuals are pushed or pulled in opposite direction i.e. attractive or unattractive alternative or a person is motivated to engage in two or more equally exclusive situations. It can also arise when a person is required to perform a task that does not match her/his skills, interests, goals or values. This shows that discerning inner conflicts is not a cake-walk and requires expertise in the field of psychology under the subject of conflict management.