The Negotiation Journal founded in 1985 included Jeremy Rubin and Roger Fisher among others. Lewin saw conflict as a situation of “tension” which was caused by a number of factors including the degree to which the needs of a person were in a “state of hunger or satisfaction”. This was in contrast to the normative theory of psychology prior to the 1930s, which still heavily favoured biological determinism. Kurt Lewin’s contribution to conflict resolution and psychology was his emphasis on the role of social context in an individual’s development of perception, values and beliefs.
Kurt Lewin’s influence on modern conflict resolution follows his influence in the development of social psychology in the United States. However, despite this optimism, what is often not discussed in standard treatments of Simmel is his perception that this unity may be obtained “even if it be through the annihilation of one of the conflicting parties”. He saw conflict as “way of achieving some kind of unity,” as such Simmel took an optimistic view of conflict.
Simmel, perceived conflict (kampf) as “designed to resolve divergent dualisms”, that is conflict was designed to resolve two different set of principles.