The Research on Repair: teacher key

Arguing and Making Up, grade 12 edition, written for 12th grade and up. Researchers have studied how friends argue, listen, apologize and forgive. The evidence ranges from surveys and experiments to a school mediation program.

Read the book. Print this page for the key.

Questions and answers

1. What do researchers say about friends and negotiation?
   • Friends avoid disagreements with each other
   • Friends share equal status, unlike parents (answer)
   • Friends rely on adults to settle all fights
2. What did Julia Minson and colleagues find about conversational receptiveness?
   • It takes months of practice to learn
   • It works only on close friends
   • It takes only a few minutes to learn (answer)
3. Why might a hedged or incomplete apology backfire?
   • It takes too much time to say
   • It can make hurt worse (answer)
   • It names too many people
4. What did Lazare list among the needs of the person who was hurt?
   • A promise that the friendship will end
   • A full list of reasons for the act
   • Assurance of safety from a repeat (answer)
5. In the Peers Making Peace evaluation, how many students were trained as mediators?
   • 143
   • 162 (answer)
   • 1,305

Words

• empathy: feeling with others
• remorse: deep regret
• reparation: making amends
• receptiveness: openness
• forgiveness: letting go
• mediators: go-betweens