Mediation Paper Research Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Mediation - Research Paper Example Man is also a social being. Because he belongs to the civilized society, man is expected to interact with his fellow human beings and form a variety of relationships like friendship. When man is required to make decisions, he may or may not solicit his friends’ opinions. â€Å"†¦in making decisions, people often consider all relevant information...† (Goodell, 2009) For man, a rational and social being, friends are important and so are their opinions which usually form part of man’s consideration. Since it is not a perfect world, man may have altercations with others. These can be trivial ones and/or serious fights. Whatever the dispute is, some form of mediation comes into play. In mediation, a neutral third party works with the people involved to resolve their dispute. (Kline, n.d.) â€Å"Unlike a judge or arbitrator, a mediator has no decision-making authority†¦[he] acts to facilitate the parties reaching their own solutions.† (Mediation v. Litigation, page 1) In mediation, the decision-making authority rests with the parties. (The Mediation Process, page 1) Thus, it is very important for the parties to take note of every variable before reaching an agreement. As mentioned earlier, being a social being as well as a rational one, it is common nature for man to hold his peers’ opinions as one of those variables. These people, who are not actually sitting around the table, can have a deep effect on mediation. (Rosenthal, 2009) One wonders just how strong a man is influenced by his peers’ opinions. Already, the strength of peer influence has been recognized and researched as evidenced by the studies done on peer mediation. In one article, researchers shared the results of their project â€Å"designed to investigate the effectiveness of a school-wide conflict resolution curriculum and peer mediation program.† (Daunic, et. al., 2000) The research was done in three middle schools.