Face Negotiation Theory and Conflict

I have a friend that I used to be really close with but lately she and I haven't been as close and I would even say that we have been drifting apart.  It's been really hard to deal with because of my personality style; I am a people-pleaser, so I care a lot about what people think of me and the actions that I take that effect other people.  In terms of this theory, I care a lot about my own "facework."  I also think that I do a lot of "face-giving" as well, which is caring about another's person's need for inclusion (Griffin, Ledbetter & Sparks, 2015).  

The conflict with my friend has been constant since the beginning of the semester.  She had felt that I was becoming closer with our other friend and felt left out.  She confronted me about the difference in our friendship a few times during the Fall semester.  Now, I feel like everything I do I try to include her, but there are problems with that as well.  I personally think we have just changed a lot this year, and there's nothing really we can do about it.  But I still feel anxiety about the conflict so I usually try to avoid discussion about it.  This is one of the predictable styles of conflict management;  I also mostly oblige to my friend, because I don't like confrontation.  In terms of this theory, I think that these conflict management styles describe my situation pretty well.  I think the best route to take would be integrating (or problem-solving), but I think sometimes it's hard to achieve that.  Usually there is more going on that is pretty complicated, which makes it hard to actually talk everything out.  I think Ting-Toomey's management styles are pretty spot on to how a common conflict is usually dealt with.  

 References

Griffin, E. A., Ledbetter, A., & Sparks, G. (2015). A first look at communication theory(9th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.