Cognitive Dissonance Theory Essay

2. A. The research was conducted by first paying his participants $4.50 ($30 today) to come in and take part in the experiment. The group of participants he selected was composed of 40 males between 20 and 50 who were told that the experiment was to test the effect of “punishment on learning“. There was 15 skilled-unskilled workers, 16 white-collar employees, and 9 professionals. Apart from them, there were 2 key participants, a confederate, who was actually a 47 year-old accountant and an actor who dressed as the experimenter. He decided to test the power of obedience in a laboratory which was clever on Milgram’s part. He designed a realistic looking fake scenario, complete with a shock chair and men dressed in lab coats. The most realistic component was the fake shock generator that actually quite scary-looking. It had levels of shock that went up from 30 to 450 volts and the levels were labeled to describe the intensity of the shock. The participants

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.

The children that resisted the temptation of eating the marshmallow were more likely to be successful in life (Source 1). However, in Source 2, written by Sarah Kliff, a similar experiment was conducted; two adults promised a child that they could have two marshmallows later if they waited. One adult was lying about giving the child a second marshmallow while the other wasn't. Researchers, in Source 2, say that if a person lives in an environment where promises always get broken and outcomes are unreliable, then the most rational response for the child would be to eat the marshmallow right away (Source

Because internal validity is maintained, some believe Milgram’s experiment is valid. The ability of the test to be replicated accomplishes some internal validity. The setting and the factors tested could easily be tested again by another researcher (Samson, page 8). The questionnaire used by Milgram can also be used to support the experiment’s validity. Considering

What happens when a person is faced with the conflict of studying for versus cheating on a college exam when eighty-percent of their grade is dependent upon the outcome of said exam? For the college student there may be a number of self-justifiable factors. The conflicted student may find themselves in a position of emotional and moralistic conflict over choice; situation, morality, personality trait, personal beliefs, and attitude are a fraction of the elements in a slew of factors that potentially play a role in the final outcome. When preparing for or taking a college exam, ethics, behavior and attitude may very well change dependent upon the level of importance of the college exam, overall grade,

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

Cognitive Dissonance Overview the topic and define relevant terms in your own words.   When someone makes a decision or takes an action that goes against their personal beliefs, they experience a sense of discomfort; this discomfort felt is due to cognitive dissonance. People may values and beliefs that they live by. A person who believes that smoking cigarettes are bad is unlikely to smoke a cigarette; if they do smoke a cigarette than they will experience some discomfort. The action of smoking is conflicting with their idea that smoking is bad; this creates cognitive dissonance.

During this experiment, there was a total of six trials that were conducted. The results of trial one, with candy was one person who wrote down one compassionate act. Four people, however, came to trial one, no candy and each wrote down one benevolent act. According to this data for the first trials, the hypothesis is inaccurate because more people came when they were rewarded with nothing.

Asch’s experiment was designed to study the cause and extent to which an individual will conform within a given group setting. Using the inductive experimental method Asch observed the group in a controlled setting where he was able to manipulate the independent variable (the amount of group pressure) to observe the effects of the dependent variable (the conformity of the participant). The purpose of his experiment was to understand which aspect of the influence of a majority is more influential—the size of the majority or its unanimity (how much they agree vs. the individual)? This brings upon the subject two opposed forces: the evidence of their senses and the unanimous opinion of a majority group. To do this the subjects had to declare

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

The denomination effect is a form of cognitive bias relating to currency, suggesting people may be less likely to spend

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.

In one example study: Two subjects; one of them is an accomplice, were supposed to rate some paintings. There were two different conditions here. For fifty percent of the subjects, the accomplice lives and comes back with two bottles of coke, one of which he offers to the subject. For the other half, the accomplice does not go out to get any coke. After this, the accomplice tries to sell raffle tickets to the subjects. Unsurprisingly, the subjects who received the coke bought twice as many tickets as the subjects who did not. The subjects were also asked how much they like the accomplice. Those who had accepted the coke, bought as many tickets whether or not they liked the accomplice.

Leon Festinger created the cognitive dissonance theory as an attempt to explain why people desire to have consistency between their behaviors and actions. Cognitive dissonance is the distressing mental state people feel when they find themselves doing things that don’t fit with what they know, or having opinions that do not fit with other opinions they hold (Festinger, 1957; as cited in Griffin, 2009). Thus, people are motivated to change either their behavior or their belief when feelings of dissonance arise.