PSYC 2230 Chapter Notes - Chapter 9: Cognitive Dissonance, When Prophecy Fails, Balance Theory
4 Dec 2016
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Cognitive dissonance: we attempt to maintain consistency of our beliefs, attitudes, and opinions with our overt behaviours, as long as consistency is maintained no motivation is triggered, cognitions can be consonant (consistent), irrelevant, or dissonant. Only when cognitions are dissonant is motivation activated to resolve the dissonance. 2 cognitions are considered to be dissonant if considered together they represent an inconsistency. One publicly behaves in a manner contrary to one"s privately held opinions. A situation like this would lead to the production of dissonance if one is engaging in such behaviour without suf cient justi cation for doing so. If one behaves in a certain way but cannot justify the con ict of the behaviour with one"s attitude, dissonance should occur and attitude change should follow: justi cation of effort. The more effort we expend in order to reach a goal, the more we will value the objects of our effort.
