Case Study on "Psychosocial Dynamics of Twelve Angry"

Case Study 10 pages (3826 words) Sources: 12

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Certainly the jurors are bound to an either-or situation that is bounded by their ability to cooperate or their insistence on competition. As with other conflict resolution situations, the strongest solutions can be achieved through a balance of these dynamics. Nevertheless, the position of the jurors in act one is fundamentally competitive (there has been no real negotiation at that point) and their position at the end of the film is fundamentally cooperative -- but it is grounded in their opposition and competition. The not guilty verdict was reached on the basis of the jurors agreeing to disagree -- the disagreement itself a hallmark of their inability to conclude that the defendant was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

Judgment bias. As the jury proceeds to take votes throughout their sequestered time, they resort to private votes -- where jurors secretly write their votes on paper -- and public votes, which enable the jurors to see where they must direct pressure on the holdout jurors. The power of persuasive argument begins to take a toll. The jurors move further away from their certainty of the defendant's guilt. The shift to a count of nine guilty and 3 not guilty votes by the end of the first act brings a wave of resentment, frustration, outright criticism, and challenges to the reasoning of fellow jurors. Two of the small business owners, juror #3 (the messenger service) and juror #10 (the garage), become especially vocal in their hostility and accusations.

Founded and Unfounded Attribution

Attribution theory is a dominant pillar of conflict resolution (Deutsch & Coleman, 2000). Peace researchers have long understood the influence that education can have on attribution. Juror #8 assumes this position, as well, attempting to provide and thoroughly examine information in order to dispel or foster doubts about the guilt of the defendant. Through a resistant logjam of prejudice and ignorance Juror #9 has the perspective of a long life to see the value of this approach and changes his vote in order to support the efforts of juror #8 to shine daylight on the biases and presumptions of a majority of the members of the jury.

Anger and other emotions. Anger typically occurs against a backdrop of attribution, or what Allred (2000) refers to as accuser / accused biases that bring about escalation of conflict. Interactions among the jurors often erupt in vented displays of anger, a situation that Allred (2000) asserts is counterproductive to conflict resolution since it does not effectively dissipate anger. Rather, Allred suggests that a display of vented anger typically brings about more (increased) anger and "is an exercise in rehearsing the very attributions that arouse anger in the first place" (Allred, 2000, p. 249). Part of the problem, as Allred (2000) views it, is that the parties relying on attribution are often lacking in real information about the other party. Providing this information in the form of education or reasoning encourages empathy, de-escalates anger, and assists with more accurate reconceptualization of responsibility and culpability (Allred, 2000). This view is especially relevant to issues of racial or ethnic bias.

Racial and ethnic biases. Pruitt and Rubin (1986) theorize that certain condition contribute to low-conflict groups or societies. The authors suggest that conflict is lower where trust is high, power is balanced, resources are ample, norms are shared for compatible aspirations, and there are integrative options. One especially relevant observation by Pruitt and Rubin is that low-conflict communities tend to devise social or structural arrangements that "inhibit invidious comparisons, often by creating myths that define certain groups as more or less deserving, or by forms of physical or psychological segregation between unequal groups" (1986). This type of divide and conquer approach was active in the 1950s in the United States -- a time when racial segregation had only just begun to respond to the social justice and civil rights initiatives that characterized the next several decades. What this meant for the white male jurors in film was a dearth or absence of contact with people from other ethnic backgrounds or races. Although the film never specifically identifies the defendant as a person of color, it certainly alludes that this is so. When juror #5 changes his vote to not guilty, the audience is led to believe that his experience growing up in a slum neighborhood and working as a nurse in a hospital in Harlem have influenced his changed decision. One or two at a time, the jurors find that they cannot hold to the highest legal standard in the land -- the can no longer assert that they believe the defendant is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. The order in which the jurors come to align themselves with a not guilty verdict is as follows: Juror #8 (the architect, played by Henry Fonda), juror #9 ( played by Joseph Sweeney), juror #5 ( the nurse played by Jack Klugman), juror #11 ( the watchmaker played by George Voskovec), juror #2 (the bank teller played by John Fiedler), juror #6 (a painter played by Edward Binns), juror #7 (a salesman played by Jack Warden), juror #12 (the advertising executive played by Robert Webber), juror #1 (a high school football coach and the foreman of the jury, played by Martin Balsam), juror #10 (a garage owner played by Ed Begley), juror #4 (a stock broker played by E.G. Marshal) and juror #3 (the owner of a messenger service played by Lee J. Cobb).

The escalation dynamic. Deutsch (2000) argued that a perceived injustice might function as a source of conflict, and if the injustice is due to an unfair process, the commitment of participants to the institutions and policies that regulate the process will be undermined. Moreover, reasonable disagreements over basic principles regarding justice and injustice may deteriorate such that individual portrayal their positions as more just and themselves as morally superior (Deutsch, 2000). Under these circumstances, the conflict resolution is unlikely to be stable, individual positions are hardened, defensiveness is provoked, and the overall conflict escalates into a win-lose schema (Deutsch, 2000).

The role of trust. Conceptually, interpersonal trust, or identification-based trust, is seen as vulnerable to the influence of time and familiarity, but trust may also simply be a function of attribution, inasmuch as levels of trust are related to a commonly understood social roles or official positions. As Lewicki and Wiethoff (2000) assert, identification-based trust is difficult to manage as it has a strong emotion underlayment and is sensitive to the influence of non-logical variables.

The jurors in the film have very little time to develop interpersonal trust, but they have ample time to test the influence of their preconceived notions as it relates to trusting the other jurors. The jurors represent a wide swath of socio-economic strata. A summarization of the livelihoods represented in the room evokes a number of potentially contentious pairings. Juror #3 (the owner of the messenger service) expresses his distrust, and perhaps his resentment, of juror #12 (the advertising executive) by referring to him as "the boy in the gray flannel suit."

Theoretical Elements of Conflict

In their theoretical treatment of constructive controversy, Johnson, et al. (2000) suggest that people tend to confront problems by first forming an initial conclusion to which they attach rationale to support their view. This situation roughly describes act one in which most of the jurors are interested in accomplishing the deliberation as quickly and easily as possible. However, as the jurors face opinions that differ from their own -- particularly when the associated rationales are robust -- they begin to lose resolve (Johnson, et al., 2000). This change in the group dynamics, which is clearly demonstrated in act two, tends to motivate the jurors to seek more information and to validate the reasoning to which they are being exposed (Johnson, et al., 2000). When controversies are constructive, the perspectives in flux make room for positions presented by others and, eventually, creative solutions result (Johnson, et al., 2000). Juror # 8 (the architect) appears to be the most confident that calm and methodical reasoning will enable the jurors to come to a fair and rational decision. Juror #8 would seem to support Johnson, et al. In their assertion that "American democracy was founded on the premise that 'truth' results from free and open-minded discussion in which opposing points-of-view are advocated and vigorously argued" (2000, p. 83).

Conclusion

Achieving a goal: reasoned and appropriate determination. Approximately two centuries ago, Alexis de Tocqueville (1835) argued that jury deliberation was more than just a way to determine the outcomes of criminal trials. Jury deliberation, he contented, "is highly beneficial to those who decide the litigation" and "one of the most efficacious means for the education of the people which society can employ" (1835, p. 337). The U.S. Supreme Court, in Powers v. Ohio (1991), invoked Tocqueville's Democracy in America in their position that the American… READ MORE

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