Archive for date: October 21st, 2014

There is a lot of conflict in the show Survivor. Conflict is defined as the disagreement and disharmony that occurs in groups when members express differences. For example at the beginning of the episode, Drew wanted to negotiate with Jeff and trade the lost flint for the fishing gear. However, none of the tribe members agreed with this decision. They experienced substantive conflict because the tribe members disagreed about his decisions, ideas and actions. Jeff turned down Drew so the members were right for disagreeing.

Affective Conflict can happen when there are interpersonal disagreements and members conflicting core values and beliefs. For example, Jeremy is upset because Keith is telling the others that he has an idol. In Jeremy’s commentaries, he states that Keith could have just asked him directly instead of spreading the rumor and telling the others. That shows a conflict due to a different in core vales and beliefs. Jeremy thought Keith had his back but felt his values were different.

Affective conflict can also occur members do not feel appreciated. For example, Missy is feeling annoyed by Alec and she has to bite her tongue several times. When they were going to cook the rice, they made her go back down and rinse off the dish because Alec felt she was “half ass-ing it”. She is feeling unappreciated by the others.

Procedural Conflict is disagreement among group members about the method or process the group uses in attempt to accomplish a goal. For example, Drew decides to throw the challenge so his team is not safe for being voted off and so he can get ride of the ‘snakes’. The rest of his group members would probably disagree if they knew of the hidden method/strategy.

We also see a lot of competition conflict style. This type of style occurs when group members are more concerned with their own goals than with those of the group. For example, Drew throwing the challenge in order to achieve his own goal of ultimately becoming the survivor winner. He says, “I am a bad ass, manipulator of the game.” However, at the the end he gets voted off.

Survivor is full of conflict and only getting better!

On episode 4 of Survivor it starts off with Jacqueline loosing against her boyfriend in the first obstacle and she is sent to exile island along with Drew from the opposite team. While on the Island Drew confides in Jacqueline that he is thinking about throwing the next competition on purpose to start weeding out some of his own team mates, specifically targeting the girls.  Once Drew and Jacqueline returned and participate in the next challenge, it is obvious Drew throws the win. Since Drew believes he is an essential leader of his tribe he tries to get his team members on his side to agree to vote off Kelly a seemingly nonthreatening contestant, but has been obviously irritated with Drew’s ego. During the elimination- lots of conflicts were brought up and discussed, including Drew’s idea that the girls were going to be aligning against the men and although they were smaller in number had to be dealt with.  Ultimately all the girls vote Drew off and get him eliminated.

What makes this show so entertaining is the meshing between all of the different people. Not only are there different sexes, but ages, cultures, careers, and relationships. Many of these things play a part in how the members interact with one another, form alliances, and create a strategy.  There is a number of firefighters on the show, in good physical condition and dominate personalities. Some people are trusting and feel betrayed. For instance Jeremy thinks to be in an alliance with Keith, both firemen, and feels betrayed by Keith when he learns Keith started a rumor that Jeremy posses an immunity. What Jeremy believed to be a break in their trust, Keith did not.  Another part of the show that sticks out in my mind is when Alec, Drew’s twin brother is talking about the differences in their growing up he claims that their father would go to Alec when he needed things done, and points out that Drew is the lazier of the two and always has been.

All of these different races, genders and beliefs are just a few reasons that contribute to the diversity in the team members. All have their own perspective of how they view different situations and conflicts should be handled. Some personalities are bigger and more aggressive than others and those seem to be the ones being voted off more frequently. Not everyone is perfect and it is easier to see the flaws in those who constantly speak their minds and everyone begins to decide for themselves who should stay and who needs to go.

Tension really grew this week when the two teams met up and Jeremy realized that Val had been voted off and sent home even though he had created an alliance with John who was supposed to be protecting his wife and vice versa. Jeremy said that the next person who would go home on his team would be John’s girlfriend, but as the episode later revealed, something similar happened. There was conflict that came up between the orange tribe and due to John Rocker revealing some of his true colors it can be identified as affective conflict. Jeremy told his blue team about why everyone vaguely recognized John and his team ended up yelling at the orange team to just vote him off, which they eventually ended up doing! It was silly of John to reveal his alliance with Jeremy and to lie to his face and apologize for letting Val be voted off, when he himself voted for her to leave the island! He also made a comment about another team member being a girl in a negative tone, which didn’t sit well with me as a viewer, and didn’t fly with his team either. John’s ego was so large that he didn’t even use the immunity idol that he had taken with him to tribal council because he was sure that Dale was the person that everyone was referring to as being the next player to leave the island. He’s just an idiot and I’m glad he’s gone. But, for the people left playing the game it could have been a rookie move, sending someone so stupid home so early, they could of kept him around for a while and used him for this physical strength until he became worthless, and then sent him home. Thankfully he’s gone though so we don’t have to watch him look like an asshole.

I swear, just last week I thought John Rocker displayed the heights of stupidity.  Boy was I wrong.  Could the people on this show be any dumber? The genius that is Drew was on full display this week.  I can understand fixing a challenge when there is an overarching plan behind the curtain.  Had Drew hatched a plan to vote someone off and was in agreeance with other tribe members then hey brillant move.  Good job establishing power over the tribe.  Of course, as seems to be how this show works, none of this was true.  As soon as he started with the cocky monolouges you knew his time was up.  Maybe these people are all high off of wild berries and mushrooms but man, could the people on this show possibly make any worse decisions?? Guess we will find out next episode.

The biggest example of a concept from this episode was shown by dearly departed friend Drew.  He displayed many of the qualities of destructive conflict.  He consistently spoke with a disrespectful tone towards his tribe mates.  The conversation he attempted to have with Jeremy about voting off Jill (sorry if I got the name wrong)  was all about Drew being destructive.  He was very inflexible and only seeking out a resolution to the issues in which he won.  Drew became so destructive as a tribe member that it threw the entire tribe into a state of chaos. This ultimately led to his dismissal.

With the hunnapu tribe Everyone worked together to redesign their roof while (wow cant remember his name haha) watched them weave while he slept. The tribe thinks he is self centered as well as not pulling his weight in the tribe He is now seemed as useless.

One person from each tribe had to participate in the challenge in which they played for comfort or nice fishing gear which was a massive award. Wes and Keith battled against each other (father vs. son) in which Keith actually had the upper hand until he dropped a tile and had to go back for another one. It was neck to neck even as the father caught right back up but Wes won for Coyopa. When Wes won, Keith showed great emotion for his son, and said how proud he was of him, which caused his son to cry because his father does not show his emotions for his son or at all which was nice to see. Just because they are fighting for the same thing, they can still remain bonded while still rooting for their team. For this loss, Josh and keith went to exile island which wes thought they would complement each other.
Coyopa picked the fishing gear that the other tribe left behind while the host questioned Jeremy what he thought about his wife getting eliminated and basically is now after John Rocker. Hunahpu now thinks Julie is a trader because they think she is going to stick up for her boyfriend when he is wrong.
Julie feels alone and is an obvious open target but her bf is the one who put her in a hard /difficult position.

While in exile island Keith and josh ate snails and actually had a great time together but with no spooning going on lol.
With the new fishing gear props were given to john rocker for catching catfish but the guys in the tribe have been throwing the girls under the bus such as baylor since she is considered the weakest link but they still think she can be used.

With the Immunity challenge, each pair really fought hard and played fast.
Hunahpu won for the third straight time in which Nataly called out john rocker for talking smack and tries to convince coyopa to go against him and vote him out. He said if Nataly was a man he would knock her teeth out. Which i thought went way to far and he should have apologized. Josh thinks its scary and unhelpful for the tribe that john looses his patience that quickly.

Baylor did not think his comments toward Natalie were not right at all and its beginning to change her perspective of him.
Girls and john want to blindside dale but really john wants to take out Baylor. Josh then makes a decision to take out john.
Jacqueline is now seeing shifting within the tribe and are starting different alliances and a lot of things are going on. “Going with the flow is hard with this tribe”-Baylor
Baylor got 2 votes
While john got 4 votes
John was eliminated which i am so glad. He was such a **** and did not work well with others, i also believe he was a homophobe and as well as a racist(i researched)
Especially when he got aggressive with Natalie.