PS262 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Testability
Document Summary
Festinger (cid:224) dissonance: making your view of the world fit with how you feel or what you"ve done: it"s the idea that humans are motivated to maintain consistency among their cognitions (e. g. opinions, attitudes, knowledge) b/c cognitive dissonance, the situation that exists when two cognitions, are psychologically uncomfortable. Do you tell him or do you lie: normally to lie would be dissonant since you are an honest person but you have concerns for his feelings (external justification) so you do not feel dissonant but still don"t change your opinion that it was an awful hair cut, cognitive dissonance theory predicts that because you cannot take back the lie, you will provide yourself with internal justification for your behv. Cognitive dissonance provides an excellent example of how theory serves 3 main functions: organizing the existing literature, providing direction for the testing of hypotheses derived from the orig. theory and the generation of new ones, suggesting many possibilities for intervention.
