Categories and theories that describe and explain conflicts and their properties, which derive from sociology, psychology and political science, use different levels of social-political reality: from meta-theories (for example functional and coercive) to theories concerning psychological processes. The aim of social sciences is to study political conflict in the following perspectives: social systems featured by unequal access to valued symbolic and material goods; cognitive, emotional and motivational processes of people participating in conflicts; patterns and actual behaviors in conflict situations; mechanisms of conflict dynamics — cause-and-effect relationships that determine phases of conflict development; functions of conflicts, their creative and destructive effects on individuals, groups, societies and global society; integrative methods of conflict-solving as an element of positive sum game strategy; and at last, shaping the institutions of social systems capable of „civilizing” conflicts through limitation of their destructive sources, methods and effects.
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