Examples of Psychological Contradictory Cognitions Essay

Do curfews keep teenagers out of trouble? This topic has always been on the cover page of today's newspaper headlines and a hot topic that has been discussed by every family. What are curfews like? A curfew is a time frame given by an authority like a parent or the government to teenagers below 18 to be home before a certain period of time. So, ask yourself, do you think that by implementing curfews into a teenager’s life, he or she would keep out of trouble. Our group has discussed and came to an agreement that curfews really do help teenagers keep out of trouble. Firstly, curfews help teenagers to stay

According to Gilman, the theory of false concepts, especially in regard to self-support would be that individuals are self-supporting persons. Gilman depicted that only the men who were “hunters” and “savages” proved to be self-supporting. Any and all other individuals are part of a man’s happiness and social life and the development that they get is part of social life. This attributes to the idea that the traditional family structure (mother, father, children) is a form of oppression by design, to support the progress of the man.

“Distortions of mind perception in psychopathology”, by Kurt Gray, Adrianna C Jenkins, Andra S. Heberlein, and Daniel M. Wegner, is an article that aims to determine how the understanding of distorted mind perception can further the understanding of those with mental illnesses, specifically three disorders that have been connected to abnormal social function. A study revealed that mind perception can occur along dimensions of experience and agency. The purpose of Gray et al.’s research was to explore three subclinical syndromes that are linked to abnormal social function: autism-spectrum disorder, schizotypy and psychopathy in an attempt to find a unique pattern of distorted mind perception for each syndrome.

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

-A person’s behavior can be influenced by observing others within the context of social interactions, experiences, and outside media influence.

In present day civilizations, societal conflicts seem to be on the rise, more than ever before. It seems as if everyone has an individualized philosophy. There are people that merely wish to maintain cultural peace; pursuing the tolerance of conflicting perspectives. This variance makes me wonder, is there undoubtedly one dogma of truth that all humanity should be able to conform to? Should everyone have the right to substantiate their personalized interpretation of cultural truth? Will the liberality of this diversification generate cordial acceptance, or will it solely effectuate cultural chaos? There are three recognizable conflicting views of truth represented by our society; absolutism, societal relativism,

a. The characters were influenced by their ancestors and peers, and did not follow their

The main factor that contributed to Sarah’s attitude towards her curfew was social cognition. Partying with friends was yet a new thing to her and she had been hearing of it from her friends but had never been to it due to the restrictions put by her parents. It was her curiosity to better know and understand her society and to see the things that she had heard of which actually made her break the curfew and go to the party. Moreover, there is also an underlying optimistic bias that influenced her decision to do so where she believes that things will turn out to be well overall. So, it is her social cognition that she still does not know very well of her society and that there is more to see and know for which she takes the decision.

Many young teenagers enjoy living life on the edge; they often think or see themselves as fully grown adults, capable of making their own decisions, and having the freedom that comes with it. But more often than not, teenagers are not fully able to grasp the sense of maturity and consequence in every day life, much less out in the real world. In order to keep them safe and away from harm, a curfew is a perfect wall for teens to stay behind. Everyone remembers that, at least once as a child, they have dreamt of having the freedom, will, and maturity that their parent or guardian possesses. Even today, children often pretend to be a business man or president; someone that they hope to be when they get older. True, teenagers are closer to

There will always be different kinds of intellects at classrooms. What are considered the worst students do not like to think through a problem or find out how a mechanism works, while some of the better students may understand the same concepts but do not think further about them once they are done learning what they had to learn. This is when the presence of a teacher asking them questions comes into play. A technique used to make students think further is called the cognitive disequilibrium.

Cognitive conflict is the discomfort one feels when his beliefs, values or behaviours contradict one another. When an individual believes very strongly in something that proves to be false, he/she will experience conflict. A person feels cognitive conflict when the results of a behaviour don’t measure up to a standard to which they are measured. This can be seen through Erin where she remained quiet and complied with the husband’s treatment and behaviour towards her, thus, abandoning her own emotion and the consequences that could happen to her children due to her husband’s violent behaviour. She was supposed to seek out for help earlier as she had been treated badly for many years but didn’t take any action to do so.

Cognitive Dissonance Theory, or CDT for short, is an objective communication theory that was developed by Leon Festinger. Cognitive Dissonance is defined as “The distressing mental state caused by inconsistency between a person’s two beliefs or a belief and an action.” (Griffin, Ledbetter, et al). An example of cognitive dissonance would be a health conscious smoker, this person knows that smoking is bad for them, but they still smoke because they enjoy it. Their desire to be healthy conflicts with their smoking, this conflict places them in a distressing mental state, a state of cognitive dissonance. Festinger provides three hypotheses for CDT: 1.) Selective exposure prevents dissonance. 2.) Post decision dissonance creates need for reassurance. and 3.) Minimal justification for action induces attitude change.

Sarah, an eighteen year old female, moves from a small town in the North of England to a big city in order to attend University. The city is renowned for its nightlife. She goes from living with her parents, who she has a very strong relationship with, to moving into University halls with five females who were all the same age. Her parents practice teetotalism and have since she was born. Sarah is anxious about joining student life as she has never been interested in the social convention of drinking alcohol and the party lifestyle that is associated with being a student. She instead enjoys other things such as reading, watching films and shopping.

It is believed by some that we cannot move forward in life past the point of our last experience. Thirdly, “the cognitive treatment teaches a person to identify, correct, and test cognitive distortions. In cognitive therapy the person first learns how to obtain relief from the symptoms; later they learn how to identify and change the dysfunctional beliefs that led to the distortion of their experiences in the first place" (Emery, 22-23). In comparison, India also has a high rate of suicides and up until the late 1990s, it was a punishable offense, but now more attention is given to sanitation, infectious diseases and housing. However, “threats from the euthanasia groups and problems relating to dowry deaths in India have helped to restore the

A psychologist would apply the psychological school of thought of cognitive dissonance theory to the theme of violence. Cognitive dissonance theory is when there is inconsistency within the person, they tend to do things to eliminate dissonance and gain consistency with themselves. People who are in cognitive dissonance use violent acts to get back into consistency. This is shown in the movie Crash when Farhad tries to kill Daniels daughter Laura because Farhad thinks that Daniel robbed is store. Farhad being in cognitive dissonance goes to Daniels house and tries to shoot him. But, Laura walks in front of him trying to save him. Farhad feels the only way to come back to consistency is to take revenge on Daniel. Another example can be seen in the movie American History X when the reporter interviews Derek about his father’s death. After his father’s death Derek was in dissonance, he thinks to only way to get back into consistency is to hate black people. He commits violent acts not only physically but verbally to black people. Violence is also shown in the movie Pleasantville when the non-colored people destroy Bill’s diner and all his paintings that he drew. In Made in Dagenham violence is displayed when Eddie hits the pillow to take out his anger because he is mad at Rita. Lastly, in the movie In & Out violence is shown when Emily is in dissonance because Howard came out on the wedding day so she resorts to violence and punches Howard in the face.