What is approach approach conflict, avoidant-approach conflict, etc. and what is it from/where can I read about it?
I saw this came up in answer choices for a couple of questions on next step/AAMC but I have never encountered it before. When I search for conflict types and related things on khan academy it doesn't come up.
Khan academy does not have all content related to the MCAT on it, so do not depend on it exclusively. Most of their videos were recorded long before they partnered with the AAMC.
Find a good set of MCAT content books, and when in doubt, use the internet.
For psych I like to recommend
THIS SITE as a good primer for my students.
APPROACH-APPROACH CONFLICT
Approach-approach conflicts are unstable
Lewin (1935) identified three patterns of conflict: approach-approach, avoidance-avoidance, and approach-avoidance. In the first of these, approach-approach, the individual is faced with the necessity of making a choice between two (or more) desirable goals. Since both goals are desirable, this is the least stressful situation. "Shall I fly or take a boat to Europe?" might be easily resolved if both means of travel are seen as pleasurable. Such situations produce a state of unstable equilibrium. As soon as one goal is approached, its desirability increases and completely dominates, thereby making the choice easy. The choice becomes easier the closer one moves toward either goal. The approach-approach conflict situation: an unstable equilibrium A step toward either goal is sufficient to resolve the conflict by making that goal seem more attractive than the other.
AVOIDANCE-AVOIDANCE CONFLICT
The other two types of conflict produce stable equilibrium. In the avoidance-avoidance conflict, the individual is faced with two goals, both of which are negative, or repellent. He is "between the rock and the hard place." In that very position, for example, is the child who is faced with "Either you do your homework or you go to bed without supper." Since the equilibrium is a stable one, the child is likely to remain balanced between the two negatives as long as possible. The nearer the individual comes to a goal he wishes to avoid (a repelling one), the stronger is his tendency to avoid it.
The avoidance-avoidance conflict situation is a stable equilibrium in which a movement away from one goal is countered by an increase in the repellence of the other goal so that the individual returns to the point where he was at the beginning of the conflict .
APPROACH-AVOIDANCE CONFLICT
Approach-avoidance conflicts involve only one goal
The third conflict pattern is approach-avoidance. In this situation, the individual is both attracted and repelled by the same goal. The same goal has qualities that make the individual want to approach it and other qualities that make him want to avoid it. The timid man who wishes to propose to his girl friend fears rejection (the quality he wishes to avoid) and hopes for acceptance (the quality he wishes to approach). Hence he is in conflict about a single goal. If you are tempted to eat a certain food but know from experience that it gives you indigestion, you experience an approach- avoidance conflict. Approach-avoidance, like the avoidance-avoidance conflict situation, produces stable equilibrium.
The approach-avoidance conflict situation is a stable equilibrium. As the individual nears the goal , the strength of avoidance increases more rapidly than that of approach, pushing him from the goal ; at this point the strength of approach is higher than the avoidance tendency. In this manner the person is brought back to the original point of equilibrium .
hope this helps, good luck.
