The Theory Of Cognitive Dissonance In Social Psychology

This eventually leads her to challenge her self concepts to extreme levels, causing her to either liberate herself from the façade she created or sink into the role. Easy A describes many genuine psychological phenomena and I am going to focus on three of them; Cognitive dissonance theory, how societal and cultural norms dictate our attitudes and thoughts, and different ways of persuasion. The cognitive dissonance theory is the feeling of unease that is felt when we act in opposition to our attitudes, which causes a shift of attitude in order to be consistent with our behavior. Easy A depicts strongly the theory of cognitive dissonance on numerous occasions.

People’s memories are greatly affected by preconceptions and the emotions that come with them. When one’s memories are challenged the response is that they must be right, and everyone else must be wrong. Dr. Neil Degrasse Tyson shows this example when during his show “Cosmos” where he inaccurately uses a quote from two different speeches of President George Bush’s to express a science of how stars were named. The quote was implying prejudice tendencies in Mr. Bush right after 9/11, and when Dr. Tyson was confronted of his misinterpretation his overconfidence of his memories he instantly configured that the confronters were incorrect. After evidence proved of his misconception, he admitted to his mistake and publicly apologized.

The author explains that "backfire", "cognitive dissonance", and "motivated reasoning", are natural protections for the brain in order to shield itself from ideas that contradict its own. He believes that information glut only worsens backfire, not that it changes the makeup of the human brain. The difference between Carr and Keohane is, Carr believes that information overload is transforming the human mind. Keohane believes that the psychological conditions of the brain are

In chapter ten of The Outsiders, Ponyboy is as expected takes the death of Johnny and Dally extremely poorly. He cannot understand how he lost his friends so quickly and he does not know how to process all of it. Since Ponyboy is unable to accept their death he tells himself that they are not dead in order to cope with what has happened (Hinton, 2006, p. 150). Overall, too much has happened so quickly that he emotionally and mentally cannot think about the death of his friends, therefore, he perceives them as still being alive. Cognitive Dissonance Theory was formed by Leon Festinger and he concludes that “the experience of dissonance-incompatible beliefs and actions or two incompatible beliefs-is unpleasant, and people are highly motivated

Have you ever been isolated because you were different? Because of people’s prejudices? A theme in John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men is that prejudice causes loneliness. The theme of prejudice causing loneliness is developed through the characters in the novel. The characters that develop this theme are Crooks, Candy, Curley’s wife, and George.

Social categorization theory developed by Turner (1978) describes the categorization of people based on salient attributes like gender, ethnicity or age, resulting in stereotyping on the basis of these differences. Social categorization theory posits that similarities and dissimilarities of demographics can lead formation of different group with resulting effects on member of in-group favorably themselves to the detriment of members of out-groups social (Turner, Brown & Tajfel, 1979). Self-categorization theory explains when individuals categorize themselves by assigning to themselves the manners, actions and other characteristics they link with association within a specific group (Schmitt, Branscombe, Silvia, Garcia, & Spears. 2016). By means of self-categorization and membership of a group, people cultivate a social identity that functions as a social-cognitive scheme (customs, standards and attitudes) for their group associated action. The tendency is for the perceiver to consider these attributes as vital to his or her own personality and thus use these attributes to label others (Hoffman Harburg, & Maier, 2014).

As described by Society: The Basics, the four theories of prejudice include: the scapegoat theory, authoritarian personality theory, culture theory, and the conflict theory. The scapegoat theory claims prejudice is rooted in the frustration from those who are disadvantaged. People use prejudice to express their anger and frustration. With the authoritarian personality theory, it is theorized that being prejudice is a part of individual personality traits. This is theorized due to research that demonstrates if a person is prejudice towards one minority, they are prejudice to all minorities.

Derek also provides an example of Hypothesis 2: Post decision dissonance creates a need for reassurance. Festinger defines post decision dissonance as “ strong doubts experienced after making an important decision” (Griffin, et al). Derek experiences strong post decision dissonance after leaving the Aryan Brotherhood. When he leaves one of the members tells him that he will be punished. This causes dissonance within Derek, he wonders if he made the right decision, and he feels regret almost.

There is a study in which analyzes the behavior and communication of a person when they come into contact or are acknowledge about some other person or group of people. Hence, this study is known as social psychology. Many aspects fall into this topic and those aspects are presented in the film Crash. Crash a film released in 2004, depicts many aspects that fall into the social psychology realm.

Study 1 Dialectical/Non-Dialectical Thinking Priming Paradigm In order to induce dialectical (or non-dialectical) mindsets, self-reported cognitive tasks such as thinking about and describing experiences that had both positive and negative consequences for the self (or had either positive or negative consequences for the self) are adopted by previous researchers (Spencer-Rodgers et al., 2004). Because proverbs are useful reflections of cultural norms (Briley et al., 2000; Peng & Nisbett, 1999), researchers have adopted proverbs to identify various thinking styles (Dundes, 1993; Peng & Nisbett, 1999). Examples of dialectical proverbs containing contradiction (i.e., dialectical duality) include the proverb Too much humble is pride, which explicitly contradicts the very meaning of the word humble. Some proverbs may express ideas and/or logic that go against the prevailing cultural norms.

Cognitive dissonance is the sense of mental disorganization or imbalance that may prompt a person to change when new information conflicts with previously organized thought patterns. The text states, “The incompatibly between your behavior and your new knowledge will make you feel uncomfortable” (381). I have experienced cognitive dissonance when preparing for an exam. For instance, I will not study or not study as well as I should for a test. Then when I receive my test back or my score is posted, I realize that I really should have studied a lot harder.

Aggression is a spoken or physical behavior that causes intentional harm to a person. There are many different theories that argue what the cause of aggression is but this can be divided into two major types: people who think that aggression is inborn and those that view it as a learning behavior. The Social cognitive theory states that we learn behaviors through observation and modeling and this could be implied that we learn aggressive behaviors through observing and imitating others. The Social Cognitive theory claims that people learn behaviors from observation, modeling, and motivation such as positive reinforcement. Psychologists mention that people learn behaviors by imitating models through observational learning; as well as through

‘’Disequilibrium refers to the inability to fit new information into our schemas. When you come across information or experiences that do not fit into your current knowledge

The concept of receptiveness discussed helped one not give a

Cognitive dissonance refers to a “feeling of discomfort resulting from inconsistent attitudes, thoughts, and behaviors” (West