Chapter 6 Social pyschology

We are driven to reduce

dissonance.

What are the three basic ways to reduce dissonance?

1-By changing our behavior to bring it in line with the dissonant cognition 2-by attempting to justify our behavior through changing one of the dissonant cognitions 3-by attempting to justify our behavior by adding new cognitions.

After doing the favor of helping someone you don't like, this will allow you to like the person more, this is known as

Ben Frnaklin Effect

doing a favor for someone you don't like is an example of what and why

Coutnerattitudinal behavior because you are acting in a way and then it is contrary to your beliefs because you are helping someone you don't like

A famous social psychologist once called this theory "psychology's most profound and fundamental contribution toward understanding human behavior."

Cognitive dissonance theory

occurs when we act in a way that conflicts with our private beliefs or attitudes, such as claiming to have an opinion or attitude that differs from our true beliefs. When we do this with little external justification, what we believe begins to conform to the lie we told.

Counterattitudinal behavior

a reason or an explanation for dissonant personal behavior that resides outside the individual (for example, telling a harmless lie to spare someone's feelings).

External justification

True or false, all discrepant thoughts produce cognitive dissonance

FALSE, not all of them do.

argued that we feel psychologically uncomfortable when we hold two accessible thoughts that are inconsistent (dissonant) with each other.

Festinger

· the arousal of dissonance by having individuals make statements that run counter to their behaviors and then reminding them of the inconsistency between what they advocated and their behavior. The purpose is to lead individuals to more responsible behavior.

Hypocrisy induction

· the tendency for individuals to increase their liking for something that they have worked hard to attain (even if that something has proved to be a disappointment).

Justification of effort

excessive self-love and a lack of empathy toward others

Narcissism

Insufficient justification (insufficient punishment) is a phenomenon under the realm of social psychology. It synthesizes theories of cognitive dissonance and internal vs. external justification. Essentially, insufficient justification is when an individual utilizes internal motivation to justify a behavior. It is most commonly seen in insufficient punishment, which is the dissonance experienced when individuals lack sufficient external justification for having resisted a desired activity or object, usually resulting in individuals' devaluing the forbidden activity or object.[1] That is, when an individual can't come up with an external reason as to why they resisted doing something they wanted to, he or she decides to derogate the activity. Mild punishment will cause a more lasting behavioral change than severe punishment because internal justification is stronger than external justification.

Read---gotten from wikipedia

the concept that people are motivated to maintain views of themselves as well adapted, moral, competent, stable, and able to control important outcomes. When some aspect of this self-view is challenged, people experience psychological discomfort. They may attempt to reduce this discomfort by directly resolving the inconsistency between the new information and the self, by affirming some other aspect of the self, or both.

Self-affirmation theory

self-esteem serves as a buffer, protecting people from terrifying thoughts of death

Terror management theory

Cognitive dissonance alters how we

act and think

an aversive psychological state that occurs when an individual simultaneously holds two conflicting thoughts. It is unpleasant. We feel guilt and anxious

cognitive dissonance

arguably social psychology's most important and most provocative theory. It is defined as the discomfort that is caused when two cognitions conflict, or when our behavior conflicts with our attitudes.

cognitive dissonance

if we have a clear external justifications for dissonant actions, we are able to reduce what

cognitive dissonance

"I want to lose weight" and "I ate an apple" OR I'm an honest person" and "I didn't cheat" are also in agreement THEESE ARE EXAMPLES OF

cognizant beliefs, they are beliefs that fit together well.

acting contrary to moral beliefs like cheating on a test and trying to justify it is an example of

counterattitiduinal behavior

changing beliefs to stay consistent with verbalized opinion. People dont do this consciously, in fact they are unaware that their attitudes have changed.

counterattitudinal advocacy

stating an opinion or attitude that runs counter to one's private belief or attitude

counterattitudinal advocacy

the more the discrepancy makes us feel foolish or inadequate, the more dissonance is likely to be

evoked.

a reason or explanation for dissonant personal behavior that resides outside of the individual.

external justification

According to self-affirmation theory, people can also reduce dissonance by

focusing on and affirming their competence in an area unrelated to the threat to their self-esteem.

The greater teh discrepancy between two cognitions, the _____

greater the cognitive dissoance.

Give an example that will not result in cognitive dissonance

i want to lose weight and i like the color blue. (they are irrelevant to each other)

the reduction of dissonance by changing something about oneself

internal justification

you will try to reduce dissonance by changing something about yourself, such as your attitude or behavior

internal justification

"i liek the color blue" and " i want to lose weight" are

irrelelvant to each other and will not result in cognitive dissoanance

As a result of our actions and beliefs conflicting with each other, we often try to _____ our action

justify

· customers are drawn in with a low price and prepare to buy, but then the price is "discovered" to have been too low and is raised.

lowballing

Yet if we were to spend all our time and energy defending our egos, we would never learn from

our mistakes

The more permanent and irrevocable the decision, the stronger is the need to

reduce dissonance.

In order for dissonanace to occur, what must the thoughts be like?

relevant to each other.

Dissonance-reducing behavior can be useful because it allows us to maintain

self-esteem

· we experience dissonance when someone close to us outperforms us in an area central to out self-esteem. This dissonance can be reduced by becoming less close to the person, changing our behavior so that we now outperform them, or deciding that the area is not that important to us.

self-evaluation maintenance theory

for dissonance to arise, what must the thoughts do

they must threaten our current (usually positive) self view.

For thoughts to make someone feel this dissonance state, what must the discrepancy do?

threaten a person's self image.

when are we most motivated to reduce dissoanance?

when it challenges our self esteem. ACTIONS ADN BELIEFS TAHT CHALLENGE OUR SENSE OF SELF WORTH.

After the decision, your cognition that you are a smart person is dissonant with all the negative things about the choice; that cognition is also dissonant with all the positive aspects of the rejected option.

· postdecision dissonance.