Conflict undoubtedly occurs in our lives and is inevitable. From arguing with your siblings over whose turn it is to use the computer to problems over financial matters, conflict comes in many different forms. Scholars believe that conflicts cannot always be resolved and refer to conflict management, which is how we deal with disagreements with our relationship partners. There are three main strategies I would like to focus on for managing conflict: avoidance strategies, challenge strategies and cooperative strategies. An avoidance strategy avoids direct conflict for reasons such as personal safety and practicality. Challenging strategies use more skills like assertiveness to get what they want and essentially have a winner and a loser handle the conflict. Using a cooperative strategy focuses on the problems instead of using verbal aggression and considers options and other alternatives. These three conflict management concepts are important to me because they relate to my relationship with my girlfriend Nancy and give me the ability to see the positives and negatives of strategies to determine which strategy would work for me. An example scenario where you can apply these strategies involves having a gaming console. I recently purchased a Playstation 4 and Nancy is not happy with how I use all my gaming time. Hypothetically, let's look at how these strategies could be used to manage this conflict. An avoidance strategist would prevent or avoid direct conflict and in my situation, I would ignore Nancy and her constant complaining to avoid any direct conflict. I would like to come to the conclusion that all kids play video games and that it's no big deal. This strategy is effective because… a card-based strategy allows you to get what you want, and in my scenario, I can play my own games. Even if I win, my partner loses and this can cause long term damage to the relationship and this strategy should be used wisely. The cooperative strategy does not have just one winner, but winners for all sides of the relationship. At the end of this strategy, I managed to discuss with my partner to find an agreement and, if necessary, I would have to give something to gain something and cause reciprocity. What I have learned in this application document is that the cooperative strategy is the best strategy for my particular conflict scenario, but I must be careful not to ignore the other two strategies. With this knowledge, I finally know how to manage my conflicts more efficiently and I know which strategy should be best used for any future conflicts I encounter.