Making an effort to think about the dispute objectively allows disputants:

1. to identify areas of agreement,
   
   
2. to create a list of issues to be resolved at the mediation,
   
   
3. to uncover misunderstandings and missing information and to develop hunches about why the dispute remains unresolved. 
   
   

Doing so tends to reduce anxiety about the dispute.  Often the steps to take to resolve the dispute are clearer following the analysis.

This chapter provides a framework that can be utilized to analyze the dispute.  It lists some psychological traps that humans are susceptible to when they are problem solving.  There is a Dispute Analysis checklist as well as tips for analyzing a dispute at the end of the chapter.