Conformity And Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance The term cognitive dissonance explains 2 conflicting cognitions where behavior and belief are inconsistent between each other. When one’s behavior and belief contradict each other, we possess an uncomfortable feeling by which we call dissonance. Because we are not able to change our behavior, we unconsciously change our attitudes for our behaviors to be consistent with each other; making the uncomfortable feeling go away. This adjustment is termed insufficient justification.
After learning about this topic, I have noticed that this concept has applied to many situations in my life and in others as well. To friends believing that global warming should be stopped, but continue to use plastic water bottles, or believing that …show more content…
Different types of conformity explain why we conform or behave the way we do, whether it is the desire to liked (normative influence), by which we conform with others so they would accept us, or the desire to be right (informational influence), by which we believe others evaluation of the situation is more accurate. The influence of others can either be real or imagined and can also progress from conformity, to compliance (taking direct requests from others), or obedience (obeying an authority …show more content…
An example would be when I enrolled in a business and honours arts program by which I had to take ECON 101 as an elective. I had a hard time in this course because firstly, I was never into business, the power point slides were confusing, and the professor did not make the explanations easier. Although I did try in the beginning, the course was too hard for me to handle due to these reasons. As a result, I would either be in class online shopping or playing Tetris. Occasionally, I would skip class as well and when the first midterm came up, I didn’t do so well. When I received my marks, I started attributing my bad grades (external factors) to how poor the professor taught, how he couldn’t explain the slides properly, and how the test was so hard instead of attributing my bad scores to how I was skipping class and playing Tetris (internal factors). When the second midterm came along, I studied a bit harder and sought help from my friends to tutor me. I eventually did well on my second midterm and started attributing my good scores to internal factors of how I did so well because I’m really smart and I’m pretty good at
After learning about this topic, I have noticed that this concept has applied to many situations in my life and in others as well. To friends believing that global warming should be stopped, but continue to use plastic water bottles, or believing that …show more content…
Different types of conformity explain why we conform or behave the way we do, whether it is the desire to liked (normative influence), by which we conform with others so they would accept us, or the desire to be right (informational influence), by which we believe others evaluation of the situation is more accurate. The influence of others can either be real or imagined and can also progress from conformity, to compliance (taking direct requests from others), or obedience (obeying an authority …show more content…
An example would be when I enrolled in a business and honours arts program by which I had to take ECON 101 as an elective. I had a hard time in this course because firstly, I was never into business, the power point slides were confusing, and the professor did not make the explanations easier. Although I did try in the beginning, the course was too hard for me to handle due to these reasons. As a result, I would either be in class online shopping or playing Tetris. Occasionally, I would skip class as well and when the first midterm came up, I didn’t do so well. When I received my marks, I started attributing my bad grades (external factors) to how poor the professor taught, how he couldn’t explain the slides properly, and how the test was so hard instead of attributing my bad scores to how I was skipping class and playing Tetris (internal factors). When the second midterm came along, I studied a bit harder and sought help from my friends to tutor me. I eventually did well on my second midterm and started attributing my good scores to internal factors of how I did so well because I’m really smart and I’m pretty good at