The majör purpose of this paper is to identify divergent conceptualizations between management practitioners and behavioral scientists that result in difficulties to separate ıııyth from reality in the fieîd of conflict management. One easily identified myth in conflict siluations is that someone mııst win and someone must lose. However, the win/lose labeling of conflict situations which occurs outside the immediate awareness of individuals tends to be over-generalized resulting in inappropriate appiications to situations that are not in reality zero-sum. This paper focuses explicitly on how denial and projections enter into conflict situations as two out- of-awareness defense mechanisms with reference to eııcounter and personal growth groups. Parental or family styles of coping with conflict that have a bearing on an individual's current w ay of dealing witlı conflict are also researched as an out-of-awareness factor in this paper. The study in conclusion proposes several ex~ ploratory awareness training programs to understaııd the relatioııship of personal growth to learning more constructive ways of coping with conflict