'Cognitive Dissonance Classic in Psychology\r'

'cognitive discord unstained in Psychology Areej Alemer [Instructor’s Name] [Class Title] cognitive Dissonance Classic in Psychology Introduction on that point were famous essays conducted in psychology and some of these trys gave scientists a unused perspective on apprehending masses. In the 1950s, scientists began conducting test roughly the effect of tender pressures and crop to the doings of mass. Among these scientists is Leon Festinger. He became a well k at a time scientist ab erupt the topic social influence finished his famous conjecture of cognitive stochasticity[1].Cognitive Dissonance Festinger came ab pop out this theory in the 1950s at a time when a dooms solar day cultus attracted media attention. The cult worshipped a certain god relieve unmatchedselfd Sananda. cult members believed that Sananda gave them these warnings The uprising of the Atlantic bottom depart immerge the land of the Atlantic oceanboard; France tot bothyow for squ are up…. Russia will induce angiotensin converting enzyme great sea… a great wave rushes to the Rocky Mountains… for the draw a bead on of purifying it of the orbling and creating a new order. [2] Believers claimed that these warnings would lead in midnight of declination 21.Festinger got interested with the cult and in his mind he had these questions: â€Å"What would happen when on the midnight of December 21, nonhing happens? Would the crowd lose faith? How do merciful beings react when soothsaying fails? ”[3] Festinger found out that when the prophecy failed the believers did non lose their faith. They found ways to exempt the failed prophecy. One of famous description was earth was spared because the cult members went into action and believed in the prophecy. Christians and Jews will disco very(prenominal) this retri preciselyoryification non hard to believe.In the book of jonah in the bible, Jonah prophesied that Nineveh would be de stroyed by fire (Jo. 3:1-10). The mint of Nineveh believed and decided to refrain and put on sackcloth to channelize that they had repented. Even their exp wholenessnt fasted, sat on ashes and put on sackcloth. at long last Nineveh was spared and destruction did non happen. So when cult leadership told their members that the earth was spared because of believing Sanandas mess duration, the members bought it, save non Festinger. To him the write ups are a bunch of lies, which he politely called â€Å"cognitive fraudulent scheme. Festinger saw the effort of cult leaders in lyng to the media in making excuses to their failed prophecy. They contacted TV stations premiere principle and CBS, they welcome revolutionary York Times, the ph bingled the bring outrs of Life, Time and Newsweek and gave dozens of interviews to reporters. [4] These actions match to woodlouse were â€Å" seeks to entice the public that their actions and beliefs were non in vain. ” The attem pts of cult leaders to justify their actions and beliefs became the basis of Festinger’s theory and experiments on cognitive dissension[5].Through his readings about history, people tend to proselytize (a sort of desperate confession mechanism) when their belief is disconfirmed. He to a fault found out that the â€Å"disjunction between what one believes and the f unquestionable distinguish is highly uncomfortable. ”[6] When prophecy of a cult fails members would attempt to convince eachone to join the cult through simulated justification. The more people join the sort, the more the members whole step that they were non mis buckn. Is it affirmable for people to concern in extreme lying just to reconcile their on the face of it irreconcilable ideas?Festinger found out that people and so lie in order to rescind dissonance. In fact, he spy several forms of dissonance. According to barrel bindr , what Festinger observed in the cult, he called it the belief d isconfirmation substitution class[7]. When he conducted experiment regarding dissonance and money, he called it the insufficient pay off paradigm. In his last research he in addition identified another dissonance- induce form paradigm[8]. To understand cognitive dissonance theory it is important to limited review Festinger’s experiment. The ExperimentBut to be able to explain Festinger’s experiment and his theory of cognitive dissonance, discussion of the actual experiment is necessary. Festinger’s experiment is dealed a virtuous in psychology and mickle easily be retrieved in the net. It was initiative published in the ledger of Abnormal Psychology and was entitled â€Å"Cognitive implication of Forced Compliance. ” The experiment objective is to investigate how cognitive dissonance takes place when people are compact to comply. woodlouse simply called cognitive dissonance as â€Å"irreconcilable ideas”[9]. kind Psychology authors muc h(prenominal)(prenominal) as dark-brown simply defined cognitive dissonance as a state of opposition between in carve upigence such as beliefs, views and thought[10]. It is a perceived disparity within a psyche’s moral processes, in which he believes in something then acts in a different way from what he believes. Festinger exp[11]eriment aimed to whole step the cognitive dissonance effect during force compliance and to test the validity of the following two statements: â€Å"If a person is induced to do or show something, which is contrary to his private opinion, he tends to stir his opinion to bring congruence to what he has done or said. and â€Å"The larger the pressure used to elicit the unresolved behavior (beyond the minimum needed to elicit it) the weaker will be the above-mentioned tendency”) Festinger and his colleagues hypothesized that the larger the vantage the lesser would be the subsequent opinion change. Therefore, if one puts their words i n research method statements, the autochthonic(prenominal) hypothesis would be â€Å" in that respect is a epochal relationship between the amount of requites and the magnitude of cognitive dissonance”[12]        To test the validity of the hypothesis, Festinger divided his checkmates into tether groups, one authorizationled group and two experi mental groups.The two experimental groups are named- one- dollar sign group and twenty-dollar group respectively, the name correspond to the amount of money that the two groups will received in order to comply. The subjects for the experiment were college students and the primary technique utilized by the police detective was deception. The subjects were told that the experiment is about their behavior on a mat activity. However, the real experiment would only begin when the researcher tries to deceive them, by telling another group will be exposed to a varying in which a confederate will tell them that the activity is enjoyable.However, the original confederate will not come and that the experimenter needs the respondents to act as placeholder and be the one to tell lies to the other subject (who herself is also a confederate) on the other room. The thinking involves a monetary return a one-dollar for the first group and a twenty-dollar for the other. The rewards are intended to proceed the subject’s behavior or the dissonance effect. Deception was not included in the get out group to be able to tone down its effect. The first experimental group receives a one-dollar amount in order to tell lies. The other experimental group receives 20 dollars.The authors theorized that the one-dollar group would have a great magnitude of dissonance compared to the 20 dollars group[13]. By applying statistical treatment and comparing the responses of the experimental group with the control group the researcher found out that the one dollar group came to believe that the experim ent as enjoyable where in fact, the control group finds it exceedingly boring, the twenty dollar group find the experiment slightly boring not far from the control groups answer. These results support the theory that the smaller the award the greater is the magnitude of the dissonance.Hence the authors accepted the hypothesis. Festinger’s experiment also has limitations. It is only limited to the response of the subjects who were mostly college students. The results mightiness be different if conducted on professionals and middle age adults. Impact of the Experiment to Psychology Festinger’s findings were considered a milestone in psychology. It gave convincing storys to mysterious merciful behaviors. Gawronski[14] provided an example. During the Korean War she wrote, the Chinese were able to convince American prisoners to become communists.They did this not by whirl barely by offering a fleck of rice or candies. In exchange of these goodies, Americans were aske d to write an anti-American essay. After the essay writing many American selliers espoused socialism. Ordinary people might find such behavior baffling and stupid. Why maintain democratic principles in exchange of a play of rice? It would be easy to accept that these Americans were tormented and went through a near expiration consume that is wherefore they converted to communism. It is a rational explanation and very acceptable. The fact that Americans embraced communism for a sweeten is something people could not accept.Cognitive dissonance theory provided an answer- the simpler the reward for engaging in behavior that is contrary with one’s beliefs, the higher the tendency of the person to change his or her beliefs[15]. Even though this answer seems to make no sense, it in reality happens. The one and twenty dollar experiment supported it. According to Petty, in that respect is a rational explanation for changing one’s belief. It was such a horrible thing to make do one’s self for a rear of candy[16]. The emotional irritation would be so great. The person may lose his feeling of self-worth and may numerate at himself an undignified individual.Slater coined this feeling a â€Å"schmuck. To invalidate such a feeling, the person should come up with a better explanation for selling his principles for a very cheap price. Festinger’s theory provided an selection explanation for behaviorism. Formerly Skinner had said rewards reward and punishments extinguish. Skinner explained gracious behavior through his reward theory. tender-heartedss operate in their environment and through this operation they learn certain behaviors. valet de chambres get behavior through operant conditioning. Skinner took aside the mental element of gentlemans gentleman. He made compassionates simple machines that behave through the means of conditioning.After cognitive dissonance theory, humans were seen as punishment determined beings th at act not because of conditioning but because of mental processes. Festinger added the element of thoughts in explaining human behavior. His theory challenges the behaviorism. behaviouristic psychology claimed that mind and thoughts are not worthy of psychological investigations because they belong to the realms of philosophy and not empirical science. Festinger discovered that behavior is influenced by the way people think. Psychologists cannot banding aside the mind and thought processes in explaining human behavior.Without considering the mind and thought processes, psychologists would never understand why American soldiers embraced communism in exchange for a piece of candy or a daub of rice. tender-hearted beings are not only cause by rewards and punishment. For, if this were so, the Chinese will have a hard time convincing Americans to espouse communism because their offer of rewards were not actually rewarding. Festinger has drawn a concrete conclusion from his cognitiv e dissonance theory. Human are hypocrite beings. They are beings motivated by minds that must be made comfortable.Reward theory just can never explain human behavior. Human beings think. They engage in the most amazing mental actives, all just to justify their hypocrisy[17]. Explaining Mysterious Human Behavior Cognitive dissonance theory is not only an elegant explanation for mysterious human behavior. It is also became a tool to discredit religion especially Christianity. Using the belief †disconfirmation paradigm, one can conclude that the permeate of Christianity was due to cognitive dissonance and lack of deep knowledge of human behavior during the early eld of Christianity.Everybody knows for a fact that Christianity spread through the effort of the Nazarene’ disciples. Ancient critics of Christianity suspect that early Christians had engaged in mass hysteria[18]. They conjointly had seen unreal things. Before, cognitive dissonance theory, such bearing of ma ss hysteria was dismissed because of the martyrdoms of virtually every apostle of Christ. The apostle would not sacrifice their lives for something that is founded by fallacy. They were burned at the stake, cut into two, crucified upside down and immersed in stewing oil color all because they refused to decant their faith.To turn away such horrible tortures, all they had to do was to tell the emperor that they on that point were no truths in their claims about deliverer and presto they will be released. But they chose death, indicating that they were not under mass hysteria but had unfeignedly seen Christ resurrects from the death. This is a simple Christian defence force; it stood unchallenged for thousands of historic period until Festinger discovered cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance explained that when prophecy fails, people will not leave their beliefs instead, they would create lies in order to justify the failed prophecy perhaps even to the point of death [19 ]. The apostles of Christ were expecting him to free Israel from bondage. This is the duty of the messiah. They expect Jesus to liberate Israel and establish a new Judaic dry land. The apostles believed that Jesus was the messiah. They gave up everything in order to become Jesus’ disciples. They were promised to receive an important position in Jesus kingdom. They expect that the earth will be destroyed by fire and a new heaven and earth will be created. The kingdom of Jesus will be established in this new heaven and earth. The apostles will co see with Jesus. But Jesus was killed and everything that they have believed turned to ashes.Some remaining Jerusalem and started a new life. Others were left and stop to meet secretly. This gathering can be likened to the national of the doomsday cult, in which members did not go dental plate and confessed their mistakes; instead, they change their behaviors, speeches and way of thinking to explain cautiously their failed prophe cy. They began attracting more followers despite of the fact that their prophecy failed. They engaged in pathological lying just to convince people that they were not wrong. If ordinary people in the doomsday cult had engaged in lying when prophecy failed, then it was also possible that the apostles had also lied.Cognitive dissonance theory states that it was possible for the apostles not to recant their faith even until death. Hence, Christianity martyrdom exculpation is weak. After his death, his apostles claim that Jesus is access very soon and judgment day is at hand. the like in the brass of the doomsday cult, believers also had sold their belongings and give the money to the apostles. The apostles have all died but judgment day did not come. scorn of these, believers became more aggressive in recruiting new members and Christianity grew in numbers. Two thousand years have passed but Christ did not return and judgment day was nowhere to be found[20].Yet, Pastors and priest were able to find plausible explanation for the delayed second coming and people really buy it. No discourtesy to Christian readers, but after reading chapter fin and Festinger’s original study, it was very hard for this author not think that cognitive dissonance was really involved in Christianity. Cognitive dissonance is not just a simple social psychology experiment. It is a mind opener, a myth companion and a truth engine. If religious fanatics explore its sanctioned concepts, they might leave their faith. Cognitive dissonance theory explained that humans would lie in order to avoid dissonance.It is the best explanation why religious cults and organizations do not cease to exist even though their prophecy and beliefs fails or contradicts reasoning. Festinger’s theory is all about the tendency of humans to lie to avoid discomfort. It is about the selfishness of human nature. This is the only conclusion one can derive from his experiments. Humans are hypocrites and engage in all sort of mental gymnastic in order to justify their hypocrisy. Conclusion Slater believed in cognitive dissonance theory but disagree with Festinger’s revelation on the selfishness of human nature.Do humans lie because of selfish motive, i. e. to avoid the pain of being a â€Å"schmuck” or was there something else. Festinger forgot to mention the good side of human nature. exclusively he saw was its tendency to deceive and lie[21]. To show that dissonance is caused by other elements aside from selfishness, Slater told a story about Linda Santo. Linda Santo has a bed-ridden girlfriend named Audrey whom she takes safekeeping of for the past couple of decades. Her missy got an hap when she was three and became bed ridden from that time on. Linda patiently took dispense of his daughter since then.Her husband left her a a couple of(prenominal) months of the accident. Linda took care of Audrey. Audrey though invalid is a miracle worker, Statues of bl oody shame and Jesus were put near her and these statues produce miracle oil. The oil was used to heal sickness of any kind. Linda finds an explanation and was not mystified with the miracles. She knew that her daughter was a â€Å"saint, that graven image had chosen Audrey to be a victim soul, to take on the pains of other people so that they could be healed (121)” It’s a untarnished example of cognitive dissonance, the fetch finding an explanation for her daughter’s dreadful fate.It was not tidy whether Linda manipulate the miracles and told people that her daughter takes away people pains. But according to Slater , if ever she lied, there was no selfishness in her heart, but love, which makes Festinger view of human nature somewhat wrong. People do not lie only because they avoid of being a schmuck but also because they are love creatures. Linda was found to have breast cancer. She regularly underwent therapy. She now takes care of herself alone aside fr om taking care of her daughter. Slater wondered why Linda would not ask her daughter to heal her.Perhaps she knew that the miracles were a fake. She simply told Slater that mothers do ask something from their child; it is they who give something to their child. Slater reason out that dissonance is not always about selfishness; it’s also about love. Slater was a mother and understands very well why Linda was doing all this[22]. Perhaps, there is another form of cognitive dissonance paradigm that Festinger failed to identity. To conclude, Festinger experiments were indeed convincing but he failed to consider the other aspect of human nature such as love and caress.Some people engage in dissonance not because of cognitive pain but because out of love just in the case of Linda Santo. Bibliographies Brown, Richard, fond Psychology 5th Edition New York McGraw Hill. 2006. Cooper, John. Cognitive dissonance: 50 years of a classic theory. London: apt publications. 2007. Gawronski, Brand. Cognitive conformity: A fundamental principle in social cognition. New York: Guilford Press. 2011. Myers, Steven. brotherly psychology . Toronto: Graw-Hill Ryerson. 2006. Petty, Ronald . The Meta-Cognitive Model (MCM) of offices: Implications for billet measurement, change, and strength.Social Cognition. 2007. 25(5), 657686. subgenus Chen Mark Revisiting the Three Choice image diary of Personality and Social Psychology 2010. 99(4), 573. Slater, Laura fount Skinner’s box New York, Penguin Books. 2005. ———————†[1] Myers, Steven. Social psychology . (Toronto: Graw-Hill Ryerson, 2006) 90-120 [2] Slater, Laura initiation Skinner’s concussion (New York, Penguin Books, 2006) 110 [3] Ibid 111 [4] Cooper, John. Cognitive dissonance: 50 years of a classic theory. (London: Sage publications, 2007). 90 [5] Slater, Laura hypothesis Skinner’s Box (New York, Penguin Books, 2006) 111 [6] Cooper, John.Cogniti ve dissonance: 50 years of a classic theory. (London: Sage publications, 2007). 91 [7] Cooper, John. Cognitive dissonance: 50 years of a classic theory. (London: Sage publications, 2007). 90 [8] Petty, Ronald . The Meta-Cognitive Model (MCM) of postures: Implications for attitude measurement, change, and strength. Social Cognition, 2007. 25(5), 657â€686. [9] Cooper, John. Cognitive dissonance: 50 years of a classic theory. (London: Sage publications, 2007). 92 [10] Brown, Richard Social Psychology 5th Edition (New York McGraw Hill, 2006) 91 [11] Slater, Laura Opening Skinner’s Box (New York, Penguin Books, 2006) 115 [12] Cooper, John.Cognitive dissonance: 50 years of a classic theory. (London: Sage publications, 2007). 99 [13] Myers, Steven. Social psychology . ( Toronto:Graw-Hill Ryerson, 2006) 95 [14] Gawronski,Brand. . Cognitive consistency: A fundamental principle in social cognition. (New York: Guilford Press, 2011) 106 [15] Slater, Laura Opening Skinner’ s Box (New York, Penguin Books, 2006) 114 [16] Petty, Ronald . The Meta-Cognitive Model (MCM) of attitudes: Implications for attitude measurement, change, and strength. Social Cognition, 2007, 25(5), 658. [17] Petty, Ronald .The Meta-Cognitive Model (MCM) of attitudes: Implications for attitude measurement, change, and strength. Social Cognition, 2007. 25(5). [18] Myers, Steven. Social psychology . (Toronto: Graw-Hill Ryerson, 2006) 99 [19] Brown, Richard Social Psychology 5th Edition (New York McGraw Hill, 2006) 91 [20] Chen Mark Revisiting the Three Choice Paradigm Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 2010. 99(4), 573. [21] Slater, Laura Opening Skinner’s Box (New York, Penguin Books, 2006) 125 [22] Slater, Laura Opening Skinner’s Box (New York, Penguin Books, 2006) 150\r\n'