Sarah's Choice
Sarah’s Choice This is the story of Sarah. Sarah is a girl who doesn’t get out much. Her parents are strict by giving her a curfew and she has an attitude about them being that way. She thinks that as a sophomore, she should have the right to spend more time out with friends. She has never really thought that she had freedom and this gives her an attitude about how her parents are and this contributes to her wanting to be free. According to Simona Rich, negative attitudes are wrong beliefs about life or certain aspects of it (Rich, 2010). Sarah believed that this was not the way that her parents should be which gave her a negative attitude toward the situation. Sarah decides that she wants to go to a party with her friends, but she has conflicting beliefs on whether this is right or wrong. She is showing cognitive dissonance in this situation because she is torn between whether she should go or not. According to Saul McLeod’s article on cognitive dissonance, this refers to conflicting attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors (McLeod, 2008). Sarah knew she had a curfew and knew that if she didn’t get back in time, she would be in trouble with her parents. She really wanted to go anyway to fit in with her friends. Sarah goes to the party and conforms to exactly what they want to do. She has given in to the peer pressure that comes with attending high school. She wants to be popular just like she is finding out they are. She would feel bad by not going, so she decides to go even though she knows that she should obey her parent’s curfew. She feels like she is now part of the popular crown and doesn’t want anything to get in the way of that. Along comes this guy Jack. He’s a junior and Sarah and he hit it off like you wouldn’t believe. They had so much in common, and they could just spend hours talking. Jack is attracted to Sarah because they have all these things in common and because he is a bad boy and likes the fact that Sarah is out at this
References: Rich, S. (2010). Negative Attitude: Causes, Consequences And Cures. Retrieved from http://simonarich.com/negative-attitude McLeod, S. A. (2008). Cognitive Dissonance Theory - Simply Psychology. Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/cognitive-dissonance.html