Analyzing Peter's Cognitive Dissonance Theory

Decisions are the basis of human history, advancement, and modern society. Important decisions often cause a conflict within a person as he or she attempts to make a choice based on what he or she believes is right, as well as what he or she believes is wise. Throughout life and society, people find themselves at a crossroads of beliefs or thoughts with the justification of murder. This is due to the dissonance illustrated when they have mixed feelings with the idea that killing another human is wrong, although it seemingly appears unavoidable in certain situations. This inevitability is what justifies murder in the first place. These mixed feelings create a cognitive dissonance that impacts society in a detrimental

After reading chapter five I noticed cognitive dissonance throughout a large portion of the book. Cognitive dissonance was described in class as being a situation involving conflicting attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors. A good example of this was found on page 182 where the author writes about how we all tell our self that African Americans “deserve” all of this even though we know, but do not want to acknowledge that white Americans are less likely to be convicted of the same crime done by blacks. Cognitive dissonance applies here because we know that this mass incarceration is not fair or morally right to do, however, our behavior does not try to stop it from happening. Instead of doing what our beliefs say is right we try to convince ourselves that it is the African Americans fault that they are

If one is trying to pull a thought or feeling in closer, or push it away, they may be attempting to manipulate their cognitive dissonance. If one knows that they are not happy with their actions, they can dilute that feeling of cognitive dissonance by decreasing the negative or enhancing the positive attitudes about it (Smith & Mackie, n.d.). One might be a smoker for instance, and know that smoking is bad for them, but continue smoking anyway. A perception of a clash of unsuitable elements is a way to describe the way one feels when their actions and beliefs are at odds (McLeod, 2014). So, if one is unhappy about the things they do because they do not match what they think they should do, they will be said to be experiencing cognitive dissonance.

Cognitive dissonance is a physiological conflict resulting from out of place beliefs and attitudes held at the same time (Webster, n.d.). In layman’s terms this means having thoughts and attitudes that are not always the same as the general public’s thoughts. In this essay you will be given one example of cognitive dissonance from the media.

People can display themselves outwardly in a certain manner although on the inside be completely different. A person’s attitude and behavior can influence each other; a person’s surrounds will also have an impact on how the person is. An example of this can be seen in a person committing a crime such as shoplifting, the person knows this is illegal and not moral but in the right situation the person may forget his or her moral upbringing and commit the crime any way. Influences on the individual can be overpowering, causing the person to behave or act in an attitude different from the person’s normal action and behavior. People tend to suffer from

Topic Background/Introduction: To get a positive response from an individual, one must offer a reward. To stop a particular response from an individual, one must present a punishment. The greater the reward and more severe the punishment, the more likely the individual is to respond to or stop the behavior. To achieve continued compliance, one has to continue to give a reward or punishment. Cognitive dissonance occurs when someone has two or more contradicting attitudes and behaviors. The only way to fix this is to change an attitude to match the behavior or change the behavior

There can be many explanations for why an employee would call in sick to work when he or she is not really sick. One reason could be explained through the attribution theory. The attribution theory explains the behavior like this can be explained by attributing it to either the employee’s internal disposition or to an external situation. The employee’s internal disposition could be that the employee always seems to have a bad attitude to his or her job duties and that his or her personality is pessimistic or lazy. The employee’s external situation could be that he or she has a manager who is constantly micro-managing them, which makes them unhappy at work, or the employee has a coworker who is their counterpart who is slacking at work. The employee may have to work harder at the job than the other employee to get their collective tasks completed. This may lead to the employee calling out sick because of his or her internal disposition – they are just lazy and do

What is cognitive dissonance? Give some examples of situations that might create dissonance in an individual. What does cognitive dissonance have to do with blocked need satisfaction? (3 points)

The show, ChoreoProject, was presented by sjDanceco and presented various types of dance performances from classical to contemporary works. The piece that I enjoyed from this show was Cognitive Dissonance. In this dance piece, Erwin Columbus both choreographed and was the dancer. Erwin Columbus used music from Kerry Muzzey for his piece. In Cognitive Dissonance, he told a story of himself having negative, inconsistent thoughts and his journey of fighting off those thoughts from his mind. With fast and dramatic movements along with intense music, Columbus was able to grasp my attention and teach me how it feels to have negative, inconsistent thoughts that can negatively control one's body.

How do you make it go away? You don’t like the way you are feeling, something in your gut is nagging at you with an overwhelming cloud of uneasiness. Suddenly, it dawns on you that this uncomfortable sensation is the direct result of a decision you’ve recently made. Unaligned with your beliefs and morals, that decision has left you internally conflicted. Your mind races for avenues to ease your suffering. What will you do next? This is the same scenario that Margaret Langston is battling in season two from the television series Resurrection. As a well-respected woman in the community, Margaret has agreed to assist the neighborhood mob in the prevention of a child being born in their town. As events unfold and the plot thickens Margaret attempts various methods to evade the distress of cognitive dissonance. “Cognitive dissonance refers to a situation involving conflicting attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors. This produces a feeling of discomfort leading to an alteration in one of the attitudes, beliefs or behaviors to

Suddenly, an insect is caught in a spider's web, unaware of the spider the insect has a special defiance weapon. The spider making a fatal mistake, miss judged the insect's character, and in return had nothing to show for its hard work. This is similar to what one does when they miss interoperating another's feelings and personality causing pain and no gain for the observer. New stereotypes, 'boxes', assumptions, etc. all have encroached on a person's worldview. One comes to see others in a whole new way by theories like the Attribution theory and its Fundamental Attribution error, along with Cognitive Dissonance theory all of which involve one's actions and attitudes.

Cognitive dissonance impacts attitudes and behavior negatively in the workplace in a variety of ways depending on the position you are employed. Being in management as an administrator you are faced with many challenges and situations that cause cognitive dissonance. For example, if my director asks me to perform a task and the way in which he wants me to perform the task, goes against my beliefs, I am forced to decide whether to follow his directives or risk termination for insubordination. The stress factor is making the correct decision. I can remember an instructor sending a student to me for conduct issues and wanted the student terminated from her program. The documentation that she provided to me was not sufficient to suspend the student,

While they say college is supposed to be the time where you find yourself, and become who you really are, I find that I have still not reached that point. That’s not to say that I haven’t done all of the other important things that you’re supposed to do while you’re in college; I’ve picked a major, a minor, figured out all the best routes to class are, found a flexible job to help pay my rent, and found friends that I can for the most part rely on. The department I have lacked in the most would be finding love. But like all things, there is trial and error. For me it has been mostly error, but in hindsight I can see why.

The cognitive dissonance theory by Leon Festinger is one of the most popular social psychology theories (p.247). Have you ever made a decision that went against your moral code by justified your actions by some excuse? “Well, my friends did it,”, “It looked like fun,”, or my favorite, “I did not think I would get caught!” You’re not the only person to experience this. These are classic reasons that people tell themselves or others whenever they made an action that did not coincide with their moral compass. One does this in order to achieve balance or consistency between one’s logic and behavior.

This essay will evaluate the presentation of Leon Festinger’s theory of cognitive dissonance in the world of social psychology. Throughout I will discuss the establishment of his theory, it’s supporting evidence and any limitations of this. I will also deliberate what it can explain and the alternative explanations presented by other psychologists; how they differ from Festinger’s, how they add to Festinger’s original theory and finally how they extend the knowledge in understanding the interaction between thoughts and actions to question the position of rivalry over cohesion between them all.