Intro to Conflict Management: Lilo and Stitch

Corrina Benavides

In one of the more famous Disney movies, Lilo and Stitch, Nani, Lilo's older sister, is forced to constantly manage conflicts revolving around Lilo while being forced to adapt to her new environment. While the movie centers around Lilo and her alien companion, her older sister, Nani, faces the larger, life-altering struggles that reside in the background. Because the two sisters lost their parents so early in life, Nani is forced to adapt the parental role. This causes a rift between her and Lilo as Nani tries to step into new responsibilities. In her effort to run the household and raise Lilo, she runs into issues with Child Protective Services. Her deconstructive approaches towards controlling Lilo, the constant screaming and arguing, cause her more trouble than it's worth between not only her and Lilo, but her and Mr. Bubbles, the agent from CPS. Later on, in an instance after a serious argument, Nani sits on a hammock and tries to talk the situation out with Lilo. She tries to reason with Lilo as they both face the struggles of losing their parents and trying to adapt to life in the aftermath. 

In an article by David Dignath, two types of conflict management are described. Conflict avoidance and conflict adjustment are two common methods used by individuals. Conflict adjustment, which is described as individuals "investing more effort in the current task to overcome the conflict," is utilized by Nani. Rather than her character simply giving up on raising Lilo and being intimidated by CPS, she works even harder to keep what is left of her family intact. 



Source:

Dignath, David, Andrea Kiesel, and Andreas B. Eder. "Flexible Conflict Management: Conflict Avoidance And Conflict Adjustment In Reactive Cognitive Control." Journal Of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, And Cognition 41.4 (2015): 975-988.ERIC. Web. 28 Feb. 2016.