Preview

Examples Of Cognitive Dissonance

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1373 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Examples Of Cognitive Dissonance
I think cognitive dissonance is extremely common in our lives, whether we realize it or not. Almost every day I can say that I am faced with cognitive dissonance. For example I’m on a diet and I know I should not be eating sweets, but when I come by one, even though I’m telling myself in the moment I shouldn't be doing this, I eat the sweets anyway. Shortly before or after eating it I will try to justify in my mind why I just did that or why it was ok. Something like “oh it was just one; as long as I don't keep doing it I’ll be ok.” Just telling myself this in my head is enough sometimes to continue with my actions even though I know I’m contradicting myself.
I think cognitive dissonance happens often with respect to conformity, altruism, and obedience to authority. I can recall many
…show more content…
This theory says that your personality is based on your actions in any given situation and not based off what you think. This theory appeals to me because I like to speak with actions and not just my words. You can learn a lot about someone's personality by just observing them in everyday situations. Words can be deceiving and people can easily lie. You can see this now in presidential candidates and previous presidents. During the election stage the candidates may project themselves in one way but when they actually become president their actions do not reflect their words. So it doesn't really matter what you say because if you're not going to act true to those words then you are not a trustworthy person, and this says a lot about your personality. Basically everything about yourself can be conveyed through your actions but it needs to be in a natural setting. If you know you are being observed you might change your actions to appeal to someone, this will change their judgment of your personality and in this case your behaviors and actions will not reflect your

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    PSY 301 Week 3 DQ2

    • 567 Words
    • 3 Pages

    For this discussion, please review Solomon Asch’s (1958) study of conformity. The results of this study, demonstrate how many of the individual participants conformed to the group despite the fact that the group was clearly wrong, and the individuals were clearly right. In addition, watch the video on the ABC New Primetime: Milgram Experiment Update video. Through this experiment we observe how perceptions of authority directly influence obedience. For example, even when the action ordered by the authority figure caused physical harm, the participants were still obedient. What are some explanations for this type of behavior? Can you think of an example of when you disregarded your own desires or values for the sake of obedience or conformity?…

    • 567 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Analysis: Cognitive dissonance is having inconsistent thoughts with beliefs and attitudes. The person knows right from wrong but, they choose to do wrong instead of right most of the time. In the example, the belief is that the person believes in God. The action, however contradicts the person's belief.…

    • 325 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    For example, the theory tells about why a person gets frustrated over a certain task that he or she is unable to complete, but it lacks in fully explaining why a father chooses to walk out on his children the same way his father did or why a woman who has been sexually abused tries to seek comfort in sexual acts. It focuses so much on a person’s desire for success and a person’s need for acceptance, rather than on the history of a person’s family or friends influencing his or her behavior or circumstances outside of their control having a negative influence on future decisions. More than one area of a person’s life is responsible for shaping his or her personality, as more than one desire fuels humanity. While success is certainly a top priority in human nature, it is not the only priority. Each of the personality theories contribute a bit about humanity as a whole, but all of them together form a greater picture of the things that shape and drive us as humans because we are not a “cookie cutter” society where everyone wants the same thing, some want success, some prefer love and a stable home, others stardom, it just depends on a person’s unique history and influences to shape his or her desires. Even siblings born of the same family, raised in the…

    • 1178 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Cognitive dissonance theory can be used in today's communication research as a persuasion tool to induce behavioural change, for example: water conservation, side effects of smoking, AIDS prevention and health issues. According to the theory of cognitive dissonance when someone experiences inconsistency between their attitudes and beliefs, their discomfort grows and they get rid of their discomfort feeling by changing their actions or thoughts.…

    • 157 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Best Essays

    The cognitive dissonance theory has many possible scenarios and examples chosen throughout life. The theory will be either enhanced or decreased depending on a number of factors such as the person’s moral values, social upbringing, and social status at work, religious views, culture, and more. When a person makes a decision, such as calling into work sick when he or she are not sick may have a number of consequences. The first may be the person’s conscience and the possibility of getting caught in the act of a lie, and a number of possible negative consequences. Why a person may decide to call in sick when he or she are not sick may be something another person cannot fathom. However, cognitive dissonance is a powerful psychological study and reality in the life of a person.…

    • 1359 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Cognitive dissonance is a mental conflict occurring when new thoughts are presented posing current beliefs as incorrect. Your personal opinion or "self talk" significantly affects your learning ability. If your subconscious believes you can or cannot do something then your conscious mind acts in accord. So it is imperative to keep an open mind with all we are about to learn not allowing current beliefs to interfere with new information.…

    • 441 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Organsational Behaviour

    • 2312 Words
    • 10 Pages

    Cognitive dissonance is the term used in modern psychology to describe the state of people when holding two or more conflicting cognitions (e.g., ideas, beliefs, values, emotional reactions) simultaneously. In a state of dissonance, people may sometimes feel surprise, dread, guilt, anger, or embarrassment.[1] The theory of cognitive dissonance in social psychology proposes that people have a motivational drive to reduce dissonance by altering existing cognitions, adding new ones to create a consistent belief system, or alternatively by reducing the importance of any one of the dissonant elements.[1] It is the distressing mental state that 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." [2] A key assumption is that people want their expectations to meet reality, creating a sense of equilibrium. [3]…

    • 2312 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Cognitive Dissonance Paper

    • 1656 Words
    • 7 Pages

    The words Cognitive Dissonance were fascinatingly interesting; therefore more research went into the origin of these two words. Both words are Middle English, which was the English in use from 12th to 15th centuries and both used in the 15th century [ (Merriam-Webster, 2011) ]. Cognitive is an adjective meaning, there is physical activity involving the mind; be it: thinking, reasoning or remembering. Dissonance is a noun meaning, when there is a tug-of- war between one’s actions and one’s mind [ (Merriam-Webster, 2011) ].This paper will explore that tug-of-war of the mind (conscious) and actions (subconscious) and how one can and will justify behavior that a direct dissension from his or her values, beliefs, attitudes and morals. Even knowing the action is wrong, the justification somehow makes it right enough to proceed with the deception.…

    • 1656 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In keeping track of all situations where I have experienced cognitive dissonance I have come to the realization that I use it quite often. Whenever there was a decision to make whether it was on the spot or there was time to think, I found myself utilizing rationalizations, in order to reduce the stress I was experiencing or to make myself believe the decision I made was the right one. If I made a decision without conviction I made myself believe it was the right choice by creating reasons to validate my selection.…

    • 308 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    For example, a student researching a topic for a thesis may experience cognitive dissonance when it comes to cheating or plagiarizing material for their paper. The student will feel shame and said shame is a result of cognitive dissonance. The student will experience dissonance because they know that cheating is wrong, but have done it anyway. This idea…

    • 617 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Solving a cognitive dissonance is a good way to look at all your cards on the table, so to speak. The definition of cognitive dissonance is "A feeling of discomfort caused by a discrepancy between an attitude and a behavior or between two attitudes." (S.Carpenter, K. Huffman 2010). This is means that cognitive dissonance is a problem that involves how you feel and what you are doing to cause the problem. For an example: a man has stolen a car. He feels upset that he has stolen the car but he is in desperate need of money. The man 's attitude is that stealing is wrong and his behavior is that he has stolen a car. To solve this cognitive dissonance, the man will have to either change his attitude (change his belief that stealing is wrong) or his behavior (Give back the car and never steal again). To solve cognitive dissonance you will have to, like I put it, put your cards on the table and resolve your problem(s). Like the stealing man I referenced, he noticed his problem was either his attitude for the whole thing or his behavior. To avoid cognitive dissonance, you can completely ignore the problem. Someone can be a doctor that chain smokes even though…

    • 532 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    But just because this makes me sad, counterfactual thinking isn’t a bad thing. We can use it to know our mistakes. If you are counterfactual thinking about one event that has happened to you, then you know that the event you are thinking about was most likely a mistake you made and now you know what you need to do in those situations. This is the best way in my opinion you can use counterfactual thinking. But we all need to remember what a wise monkey once said, “Oh yes, the past can hurt. But from the way I see it, you can either run from it, or... learn from…

    • 607 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Cognitive Dissonance

    • 2073 Words
    • 9 Pages

    occur. Because if no tension was felt between the two parties, or there were no…

    • 2073 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Cognitive dissonance impacts the attitudes and behavior of employees in the workplace in the way of emotional dissonance. “Cognitive dissonance is the psychological discomfort of an individual a person experiences when his or her values do not coincide with his or her behavior” (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2013). Emotional dissonance, according to Pugh (2011), it is the inconsistency of the way a person feels with the way a person displays their feelings outwardly. Now that we know the definitions, we can begin to understand how the two impacts each other.…

    • 475 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    Berne’s (1961) Theory of Personality is the foundation of T.A. which proposes individuals experience and reveal their personality predominantly through three ego states, labelled Parent (P), Adult (A) and Child (C) to represent their characteristics.…

    • 4271 Words
    • 18 Pages
    Best Essays