Cognitive Dissonance In Social Psychology

The author, V. O. Key, states the results of a survey that shows that voters tend to vote for people who vote for candidates that will help them financially. He also states that people tend to vote for a certain party’s candidate because of their ties to the party. Key then declares that one can predict a person’s vote based on their personality and attributes. Key also shows that although these behaviors show strangeness, the voters have great importance to politics. Key says that the voters’ behavior has importance as it helps candidates discover the nature of the voters’ interests to try gain an advantage. Finally, Key states that voters behave as well as possible, considering the possibilities of other

In reading "Mistakes were Made but Not by me," multiple accounts are given of traits exhibited by humans that are displayed subconsciously. The authors, Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson, begin by defining these traits and give readers the actual terminology to these characteristics. With various examples being provided to the reading audience they are then able to make a clear correlation between the behaviors displayed and how they may impact not only themselves but others around them. "Mistakes were Made but Not by me" has a theme which is centralized around the two key facets which are cognitive dissonance and self- justification.

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

Today, the majority of self-identified Democrats or Republicans adhere to an ideological stance that their party proclaims -- they are the straight-ticket voters. At the same time, growing numbers of voters proclaim themselves “independent,” which implies that you vote based on educated judgments about the candidates. This new group of voters has created the “negative partisanship” phenomenon and caused “voters [to] form strong loyalties based more on loathing for the opposing party than on the old kind of tribal loyalty” (Chait).

This research investigates how the process of party identification is influenced when a candidate chooses to identify with his or her party and how. It will also discuss the theories of party identification and how they explain it among political candidates. Currently, party identification is still the most compelling explanation that informs voters’ choice. It is agreed that the electorate vote is based on their party identification. While this remains a controversial topic, it

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

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

Nice post Garrick, It’s interesting to see how our thought motive our emotions and behaviors to react as a response in a good or bad way. When reading and learning about Cognitive therapy I discovered that there’s various disorder that comes along with cognitive distortion which may ignite or cause fuel by a person beliefs of the world causing an individual’s to respond in q erratic state. If there are signs of weakness, distortion, and biasedness the individual has a greater chance to have a disorder. In addition, a person with maladaptive responses may change by modifying their cognitive process. Although, an individual underlying may be cognitive schema or the common ground, and their beliefs pertains to themselves those beliefs may cause

1. fundamental attribution error - a person that in a given situation evaluates another's person decision or action by some internal characteristics, not taking into consideration exceptional situations that might lead that person in such a decision or action. example: Alice, a driver, is about to pass through an intersection. Her light turns green and she begins to accelerate, but another car drives through the red light and crosses in front of her.

Party Identification is one of the most important factors in today’s political system. The definition of party identification is the loyalty one has with a specific political party, this research will dive into the reasons why those loyalties are formed. Here in the United States there are two major political parties, Republican and Democrat, each having their own similarities and differences. Age of the voter will be looked at heavily in order to see the divide between parties. Then education will be observed to see any tendencies that may have been formed with higher and lower educated groups. Finally, income

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,

One may experience cognitive dissonance when he or she has performed an undesirable action that is inconsistent with his or her belief of his or herself (Plous, 1993). The self-perception theory explains this dissonance by how people think of themselves (Plous, 1993). People naturally tend to believe they are good people, so actions inconsistent with their thoughts create an unsettling feeling. To reduce this feeling, an individual tries to justify his or her actions. In order to justify the decision, an individual can revoke the decision, increase or decrease the attractiveness of the decision, or minimize the importance of the decision.

she is a jerk, but we cannot be sure whether there is an emergency as taking his pregnant wife to the hospital or is in hurry to catch a flight. Cognitive dissonance is the procedure we use to justify our experiences so that they are meaningful to us. A classical example of cognitive dissonance is one of the most famous Aesopian myths the story of the fox and the sour grapes. The fox, however diligent, was unable to reach the grapes.

. First, the case can be reversed by changing one or more attitudes, opinions, or beliefs. However, this method frequently presents problems to individuals, since it is quite difficult for people to change their views, for instance, drinking. The second way in which a dissonance can be reduced is through acquiring new information which outweighs the dissonant belief. For example, thinking that drinking causes liver cirrhosis will cause it if a person drinks. Nevertheless, new information such as "research has not proved definitely that drinking causes liver cirrhosis" may reduce the dissonance. In attribution theory, the leaders have an understanding of the reaction of their staff in given situations by identifying social features that lead to achievement. It provides a feeling of self-efficacy in making a difference in the social systems that individuals exist (Carver & Scheier, 2012). Also, it gives an opportunity to set strategic learning goals contributing to the social work practice through the achievement of these standards and affecting the lives of others.