Student’s name
Institution
Course
Instructor
Date
Cognitive Dissonance
A general finding which has been consistently found in rigorous scientific studies is a phenomenon. In reality, the answer to a study question is well known. Psychological phenomena are mind deceit that may contradict explanations, but most people encounter them. Throughout human history, they have experienced psychological phenomena. Cognitive dissonance is a psychological phenomenon that involves conflicting behaviors, attitudes, and beliefs (Dhanda & Bimla, pp.50). The phenomenon produces mental distress, which leads to an alteration to one of the behaviors, attitudes, and beliefs to restore balance and reduce discomfort.
Cognitive dissonance is experienced by humans who neglect advice. They will find themselves in the same situation which they were warned against. People prefer to achieve coherence with their behaviors and perceptions, so there are feelings of annoyance and irritation in this confrontation. This contradiction in what conservatives claim and how they practice motivates people to take acts that reduce painful feelings. People tend to alleviate this stress by denying, describing, or ignoring new knowledge in many ways. This makes cognitive dissonance a psychological problem.
Before doing something or agreeing felt awkward, offering to explain or streamline a decision you took or a move you took, being humiliated or shy of what you did and want to conceal from other individuals your acts, feeling remorse or sorry for what you did in the past and doing something due to social obligation or fear of disappointment, even though you did not intend to do it are some of the signs which one can use to know that they are experiencing psychological dissonance.
Various circumstances contribute to the cognitive dissonance that can cause disagreements (Harmon-Jones & Eddie Ed, pp. 8). These are:
- Coaxed compliance – Often because of external expectations, often for work, school, or a social situation, you may find yourself engaging in activities that are contrary to your own beliefs. Due to social pressure or doing something at work to avoid being fired, this may mean going along with something.
- Choices or decisions – Periodically, both large and small individuals make decisions. People sometimes remain dissonant when facing two opposing options, considering a similar appeal from both options. However, people need to find a way to reduce these anxiety emotions after a decision has been made. People clarify that they have the right alternative such that they feel they have made the right choice. Deciding one choice ensures that all the gains of the unchosen solution will be forgotten and ensure you the drawbacks of your desired decision, often referred to as the cost of decision opportunity. This is why dissonance is induced. The more appealing or identical are the two solutions, the more dissonant you are. Also, in cases where they made obviously worse choices, people defended their choices to minimize this dissonance.
- New or current information. – New information may also contribute to psychological or cognitive impairment. For instance, if one can contribute to feelings of dysfunction when they indulge in behavior, they later learn. Often people either work to defend their actions or find ways of discrediting or dismissing new facts. Often, people work on this.
- Effort – People prefer to value successes based on the initiative they have taken to accomplish them. A person who would have to sacrifice 10 years to purchase a Ferrari would love it more than the young man within the four months, made millions from cryptocurrency, and purchased a similar Ferrari for himself. Stuff that requires tremendous effort is rated higher, and if we expended a lot of effort to accomplish a small success, we would feel dissonance. The universe doesn’t necessarily work this way, alas. We bring in a lot of work sometimes to get a dismal answer—this lead, expectedly, to dissonance. We either reassure ourselves that the result was okay, that we did not actually waste a lot of time, or that the effort was fun to minimize this dissonance. This is called an excuse for effort.
It is good to understand this psychological phenomenon because of the impact it has on people’s life. Cognitive dissonance may make individuals feel anxious and uneasy, particularly if there’s something fundamental to their own sense of self that is the difference between their perceptions and behaviors. Behaving, for example, can lead to extreme feelings of distress in ways that don’t reflect someone’s own personal values. Individual’s actions undermine not just their trust in the universe but also their belief in themselves. Nervousness, disgrace, distress, unhappiness, and humiliation are how this psychological phenomenon manifests itself.
Additionally, this phenomenon will also impair people’s emotions, and opinions lead to adverse personality and self-worth. Cognitive dissonance may have multiple consequences when people try to escape this pain. In the way people behave, think, and take decisions, dissonance will play a part. They can be engaging or attitudinal in their attempts to alleviate conflict-related pain (Michel & Cedric, pp. 23).
Cognitive dissonance is based on different assumptions. These assumptions are as follows:
- People want coherence of values, actions, and attitudes.
- Dissonance is an avoidant condition that leads people to observable behavior.
- Mental contradictions build dissonance.
- Dissonance promotes attempts to maintain consistency and to minimize discordance.
In one way or another, cognitive dissonance is a psychological concept or phenomenon. Psychological concepts are mental ideas or mental entities. On the other hand, cognitive dissonance happens when an individual has conflicting convictions, ideas, or principles and usually feels psychological discomfort when they are engaged in action against one or more of them. since the central concept of cognitive dissonance and the psychological concept is mental ideas then we can conclude that they are related.
Cognitive dissonance is under the psychological field, and its context can either be political or ethical concepts. This is because, in politics, people have divergent views. Politics is applied under political psychology. Ethics plays a key role in psychology. However, some scholars or studies advocate the misleading of participants, which may contradict the psychological, legal norms. Additionally, the environment influences the cognitive dissonance. As a potential reason for the fallout, cognitive dissonance is provided. Centered on this principle, it is argued that there is a higher risk of spillovers if the action in question is considered identical and implicitly considered responsible for the environment.
With all the proofs, cognitive dissonance is a psychological problem since it involves the alteration of mental ideas. Also, I will argue by giving a relevant example. For example, when a smoker has been advised on the dangers of smoking; causes lung cancer, then he or she goes on smoking. This happens because of mind alterations.
In conclusion, cognitive dissonance should be dealt with because of its effects (McGrath, pp123). Giving more weight positive beliefs than disagreements and reducing the value of inconsistent beliefs are ways of dealing with cognitive dissonance.
Work Cited
Dhanda, Bimla. “Cognitive Dissonance, Attitude Change and Ways to Reduce Cognitive Dissonance: A Review Study.” Journal of Education, Society and Behavioural Science (2020): 48-54.
Harmon-Jones, Eddie Ed. Cognitive dissonance: Reexamining a pivotal theory in psychology. American Psychological Association, 2019: p20
McGrath, April. “Dealing with dissonance: A review of cognitive dissonance reduction.” Social and Personality Psychology Compass 11.12 (2017): p123.
Michel, Cedric. “Cognitive dissonance resolution strategies after exposure to corporate violence scenarios.” Critical criminology 26.1 (2018): 1-28.