La mediación de conflictos: Un reto para el psicólogo en Puerto Rico

Resumen

In this paper, conflict mediation is presented as one of the roles of the social-community psychologist. A description of the historical background of the creation of dispute resolution field. The emergence of the Conflicts Mediation Center (CMC), formerly known as Dispute Resolution Center (CSD), established in 1983 as the first and only service of its kind created in Puerto rico as parte of the judicial system and staffed by social-community psychologists, is described. The characteristics of conciliation and mediation as conflict intervention techniques are discussed on the basis of the experience gained as mediators at the CMC and on conflict on resolution empirical research carried out in the Social Sciences field. In addition, emphasis is made on the values inherent to mediation and the mediator's responsabilities, the conclusions resulting from empirical research conducted on mediation, and the roles of the psychologist. finally, a summary of the research carried out on the CMC in Puerto Rico is presented together with some of the cristicism and projections pertaining to mediation.