A Journey from the Laboratory to the Field: Insights on Resolving Disputes through Negotiation

Abstract

This Occasional Paper is Druckman's answer, at least in part, to a fundamental question that graduate students at the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution and elsewhere often ask—where do ideas for research come from?

The response put forward in this paper is that they come in large part from theoretically derived models and from methodologies designed to explore the implications of such models. Druckman argues that frameworks are valuable as organizational tools and as guides for the design and analysis of data-collection.

He believes that the immediate situation is generally the primary influence on the behavior of actors in a negotiation and that such behavior is best understood in terms of an ongoing process.