Survivor Blog Post #3

In the third episode of Survivor conflict between members began to arise, specifically within the Coyopa tribe. After the Hunahpuh tribe won the second challenge, Natalie began to make remarks at the Coyopa tribe, suggesting they “switch up” their game plan and vote John out of their tribe at tribal council. She then revealed in front of everyone that both teams were aware of the racist and homophobic comments he had made in the past. In response to this, John became defensive and dealt with the problem by exhibiting a competitive conflict style. He was aggressive and hostile with his reaction, and began to ridicule Natalie by making statements such as, “if you were a man, I would knock your teeth out.” Although John was defending himself against the statements that Natalie had initially brought up, it was unnecessary to personally attack her and make violent comments towards her. Through exhibiting such harsh and unrestrained behavior, John was unknowingly pitting more people on the Hunahpuh tribe against him, and not to mention, members within his own tribe.

In addition, a mixture of both substantive as well as affective conflict was emerging among the Coyopa tribe. As they were once again forced to make a decision at tribal council, the group members congregated with one another several times in order to come to a unanimous decision. John met with the girls initially in order to share his plan of voting Dale off the team, however he does this with the intention only to blindside Baylor from his true motives, which are to vote her off at tribal council. He then went to the males within the group and revealed his actual plan to vote for Baylor. Although it appeared that at first the men were in agreement with his idea, most of them in actuality, were in accordance with what Josh had planned – to vote off John. This conflict within the group appeared to be substantive in that the members were unable to reach a collective decision or goal when meeting with one another. As different ideas were being tossed amongst tribe members, it became unclear what the group’s main decision was to be, and therefore certain group members such as Dale, voted in a different manner than others.

However, the root of the conflict itself appeared to be mainly affective. In an individual interview, both Baylor and Josh revealed their concerns about John’s personality and trustworthiness within the group. Josh revealed that John’s deceitfulness at the previous tribal council influenced him to believe that he had ulterior motives. He also explained that he did not want to continue to be in an alliance with someone who did not share the same values and beliefs for the team as he did. This interpersonal disagreement between John and his fellow tribe members caused the entire team to clash with him and ultimately led to him being sent home when they all decided to oppose him.