The Ideals Behind Cognitive Dissonance Allowed

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

Mormonism, the largest church to originate on American soil is not without its own burdens to bear. As one of the younger religions, one that strayed from the foundations of the other already established religions in the United States, it is often viewed with negativity and mockery. Modern day social media, television, news articles and movies often exploit Mormon beliefs. They twist and exaggerated certain facets of the Mormon way of life. This framing of their belief system by the media leads the public opinion toward viewing this representation as a true depiction of the Mormons. Some of the more extreme behaviors exhibited by members that have separated from the main group are used against the entire faith by the media, so in turn this extremist view has become a Mormon stereotype.

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.

In the two-part series, The Mormons, this four hour documentary by Frontline and the American Experience examines the development and growth of the Mormon faith. The documentary explores both the history and the present reality of the Mormon faith, allowing the viewer inside the compelling and often misunderstood religion. The first part of this documentary explores the birth of Mormonism and the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints under the charismatic leadership of Joseph Smith, while the second segment studies the contemporary Mormon Church (including the discussion of Mormon missionaries, homosexuality, and the role of women). Although I was aware of some of the history of Mormonism (my mom was raised in the LDS

One might be fooled by the title of Joana Brooks book The Book of Mormon Girl. While the book may seem like it is aimed at a specific audience, its chapters reveal stories and thoughts that have a broad appeal. The book shares valuable insight about the Mormon culture, but its core is about how you fit into the religion, culture, or tradition that you were raised in or chose to be a part of later in life. The Book of Mormon Girl is divided into two parts; the first part being a recount of her childhood and life in general as a member of an incredibly dedicated Mormon family. Brooks details her “unorthodox Mormon story” in a way that is both affectionate and critical as the daughter of an LDS bishop. As a young child, her imagination was full

As described in the book, Pattyn feels strong opposition to the Mormon religion because it oppresses women. Pattyn’s father is an example of how someone who is very religious can turn out to be an awful person, while Aunt Jeannette, an atheist, can be a great person. In some cases, religion can guide and reflect a person’s morals. However, in others, there can be a great deal of hypocrisy, “How despite the church’s prohibition of all things alcoholic, he only drank more and more” (35). At times, I felt that Burned misrepresents the values of the Mormon community because the book is in first person point of view.

Everyone knows that being a mother is not and easy job, especially those who have the right to be called “mother”. Women who are gifted with the miracle of giving birth are gifted too with an enormous job of guiding a person’s life. Moms are always known for being there always, breaking the obstacles with their sons and making them learn from their own mistakes. Being a mom is a hard work and sometimes they suffer from abuse from their sons or family members for just wanting the best for them.

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,

Cognitive dissonance is defined by Gilovich et all’s textbook as “ A theory that maintains the inconsistencies among a person’s thoughts, sentiments, and actions create an aversive emotional state (dissonance) that leads to efforts to restore consistency”. While this definition is true it also quite confusing. To understand this first the words that make up the term need to be understood. Cognition is a mental action, it involves gaining knowledge and understanding through use of thoughts, senses, and experiences. This cognition can produce a perception, sensation, notion, or intuition. Dissonance is simply a discrepancy among two things. In the case of cognitive dissonance this discrepancy is between any two of the following; an idea,

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.

In the podcast titled Cognitive Dissonance (2011), Dr. Carol Tavris, the author of Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts, discusses the relationship between psychology and neuroscience, in addition to discussing cognitive dissonance. As Dr. Tavris explains, cognitive dissonance theory is the mental discomfort we feel whenever two ideas are conflicted with one another, causing discomfort that we attempt to reduce cognitively (Campbell & Tavris, 2011). Moreover, dissonance can increase dependent upon, how important the decision is, how strongly the dissonant thoughts conflict, and our ability to rationalize and justify the conflict (Cognitive dissonance, 2016). As a future psychologist,

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

As psychologists, looking at the individual is their main source for providing answers. By using the learning theory they are able to predict the patterns that can lead to discrimination. This is due to the theory that human behavior is learned, especially in childhood and youth. For example, in American History X, Derek and Danny become very prejudicial because their father would always exemplify his negative thoughts and opinions towards the black community. After a black individual killed their father, the children’s prejudicial thoughts were solidified and thought to become accurate. This is also observed in Cry Freedom, where the white South African children growing up in such a discriminatory society will follow their parents’ character

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.