Cognitive Dissonance Essay

Psych Cognitive Dissonance Cognitive dissonance theory has been around since the late fifties. It has inspired many psychologists to figure out the murky depths of people’s minds. The theory relates strongly to decision making, social phenomenons and mental angst. Many paradigms exist within cognitive dissonance. Two important paradigms are the Belief Disconfirmation paradigm and the Free Choice paradigm. There are several experiments that have been studied that relate to cognitive dissonance, including

Leon Festinger and James M. Carlsmith (1959) were interested in the cognitive dissonance experienced when a person is forced to say or do something that is conflicting to one’s private opinion of the matter. Cognitive dissonance is most persuasive when it comes to feelings and thoughts about oneself and can motivate or influence us to choose one action or thought over another. The researchers were also interested in forced compliance theory, which is the idea that authority or some other perceived

Cognitive Dissonance Cognitive Dissonance or mental stress which is primarily caused by contradictory beliefs, can be a common part of some peoples life’s however we are psychologically motivated to avoid situations which cause mental stress. This paper will discuss a situation and the behavior using attribution theory, the reciprocal relationship between behavior and attitudes as well as how cognitive dissonance theory could be used to rationalize the behavior. Situation and Subsequent Behavior

were interested in the cognitive dissonance, which can influence a person decision to choose one action or thought over another. The researchers were also interested in forced compliance, where authority can force individuals to say or act in a way that is conflicting to one’s own private opinion, whereas, the individual's attitude is altered through persuasion and authority. “Force” was operationally defined as the amount of reward offered for lying and cognitive dissonance experienced from the participant’s

This chapter focuses on the scientists Leon Festinger and his theory of cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance is when an individual adjusts their beliefs to fit with another person’s actions. Festinger performed multiple experiments to demonstrate cognitive dissonance. One of his experiments involved a group of people who believed that the world was going to end due to a huge flood on December 21st. 1954. Festinger infiltrated this group and pretended to be a believer of the theory. This cult

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.

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

years of the 1950s did not only bring about racial segregation and international liberation. For the world of the communication researchers, it also brought about the birth of one of the most notable behavioral theories known to date — the Cognitive Dissonance Theory. As mentioned by Bryant & Smith in their Historical Overview of Research in Communication Science (2010, p. 13), majority of the theories and research that supported the communication discipline was heavily borrowed and translated from

Immediately we think that he/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. So she raised an excuse to

side from being testable through experiments such as the mentioned above, cognitive dissonance theory can predict future events, which is a criteria of a good theory according to Griffin (p. 25), by helping to explain human behavior. “Social psychologists have been trying for many years to predict the conditions under which attitudes and opinions are changed...first major breakthrough in this area came [from] Leon Festinger” (Chapanis, 1964). Objective theorist aim for reality, and when they measure