Survivor III

On this episode of Survivor, we finally have a momentum swing. The Coyora tribe got their first, hard earned victory against the Hunahpu tribe sending us to uncharted territory. We get to see how the Hunahpu tribe handles adversity from their first loss as conflict in the group begins to emerge.

Conflict is described in the book as “the disagreement and disharmony that occur in groups when members express differences regarding group goals; member ideas, behavior, and roles; or group procedures and norms.” As you can imagine, the game survivor is bound to encounter conflict since it makes a living off of the drama that stems thus providing entertainment. Nonetheless, there are three types of conflict that illustrates many of the tribe members roles that can be seen throughout the episode.

Substantive Conflict is when the group has a difficult time determining ideas, decisions, or goals. It was clear the Hunahpu tribe couldn’t hone in on a clear strategy of how to go about making their team stronger, as it took them up until voting night to make up their minds on who was getting eliminated. Since they hadn’t been in that position before, I could tell they were inexperienced in their approach to each other. Jeremy and Keith had a difficult time maintaining the goals the two had agreed upon in which they were supposed to be in alliance mainly because of their fireman bond.

Affirmative Conflict is more interpersonal and it deals with the inability of particular personalities to coexist. This conflict really takes place as Drew’s personality was congruent with how the rest of the team operated. He came across too strong and rubbed people the wrong way finding himself voted off the show as a result.

Procedural Conflict is the final conflict that is exemplified in the show, which mainly is a conflict with the execution of a particular strategy. Drew once again demonstrated this but his critique of the team in the swimming ring competition. We all know he only did this to disguise the fact that he threw the game, but otherwise his criticism would be a procedural conflict for the way they conducted their strategy.