Analytical Essay on Cognitive Dissonance under the Paradigm of Behaviorism in Education Free Essay Example

So John may avoid reading studies that suggest bacon is truly bad for his health and may even convince himself that such studies are biased. If you know smoking is bad for your health but you still enjoy smoking, you will likely experience dissonance. So too would a person who considers himself to be honest but who is placed in a situation where he is forced to lie.

• This reduces your guilt and helps you bridge the gap between your love of animals and your diet.
• Afterwards, the students are trained to objectively perceive new facts and information to resolve the psychological stress of the conflict between reality and the student’s value system.
• Participants in the high-dissonance condition chose between a highly desirable product and one rated just 1 point lower on the 8-point scale.
• Stress can be our way to react to any mental, physical, and emotional factor that causes mental tension or any response to…

And, how the concept exists in our daily lives which states the practical application of cognitive dissonance. Further, some critics argue that dissonance may not be the most important concept to explain attitude change. For instance, some researchers believe that other theoretical frameworks can explain the attitude change that Festinger and Carlsmith found in the one dollar/twenty dollars experiment. The Research Note describes a study that tested CDT against a competing explanation. This biased scanning process should increase the chances of accepting the new position—for example, changing one’s position from evaluating the spool-sorting task as dull to the position that it really was an interesting task.

Human Geography

Cognitive dissonance is likely to happen even in day-to-day events regarding relationships and various other areas of life. Small examples from real-life situations can also put us in a state of dissonance where we are coerced to choose between two difficult choices. In this situation, she can either choose to follow her morals and find an alternative that would align with her beliefs. Form new cognitions to justify their attitude-discrepant behaviors.

• We like to know that our beliefs and ideas fit together nicely and that they are in line with the way we act.
• In A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance, Festinger proposed that human beings strive to have internal mental consistency to function in the real world.
• Through the reduction of efforts, poorer performance done by the employees to align their rewards and importance of tasks for the reduction of cognitive dissonance (Liu & Sundar, 2018, p.68).
• After deciding to purchase a product, however, they feel that they chose to purchase that product due to the pressure placed on them by the seller.

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Cognitive Dissonance Examples in TV Shows and Movies

Slowly, he starts to believe that wholesome foods are overrated and one can stay healthy as long as one takes supplements to make up for missing nutrients in their diet. Cixin is worried about climate change and environmental degradation. He justifies his new ride by stating that he needs to carry equipment from one site to another once in a while, and he can’t do that with a smaller and less-powerful vehicle. You might think you would agree if offered the larger amount of money. Would you believe me if I told you that you’d be more likely to rave about the task if I gave you only a dollar? This counterintuitive scenario was Festinger’s seminal experiment.

If the person changes the current attitude, after the dissonance occurs, they are then obligated to commit to that course of behavior. Cognitive dissonance would fall under the paradigm behaviorism in education. Behaviorism is the learning theory where behavior helps a student to learn. Positive reinforcement helps students who learn best with behaviorism so that they can feel comfortable in an academic environment. Cognitive dissonance allows students to provide a reason for their actions to prevent acting out. Afterwards, the students are trained to objectively perceive new facts and information to resolve the psychological stress of the conflict between reality and the student’s value system. Moreover, educational software that applies the derived principles facilitates the students’ ability to successfully handle the questions posed in a complex subject.

Cognitive Dissonance Theory

Nevertheless, teachers must be cognizant that not every student is motivated intrinsically; therefore, some mix of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation might enhance the learning process. Having a growth mindset can help students to assimilate believes about intelligence and may positively impact their learning and instruction. Additionally, providing appropriate and balanced feedback to the students can maintain or even increase their motivation for knowledge acquisition. Social attribution is not free of different forms of errors, inclinations, cultural beliefs that might result in serious biases, misjudgment, or prejudices concerning human mistakes or causes of behavior (Mudhovozi et al., 2010). Generally, individuals tend to attribute the behavior of other people by putting emphasis on their disposition and character without taking for an account the situation at hand and its context. Mudhovozi et al. conducted studied college students to understand actor-observer (in-group-out-group) attribution errors that negatively influence their own and other students’ academic performance. Researchers observed that in-group members evaluated their own academic achievements more positively than those who were out-group members.

When people were made to see their attitude-discrepant behavior face-to-face, they felt hypocritical about themselves and wanted to align their attitudes and behavior by choosing to reform their behaviors. Such a result was observed because the group of people who were paid $1 had no valid justification to claim that the task was interesting.

Tips for Dealing With Cognitive Dissonance

Another contributor to improving learning is attribution theory. It refers to the conclusions made about the causes of behavior or social events. Attribution theory proposes that students possess a strong need to understand their successes and failures of their educational tasks, especially in the situation when the outcome was an unexpected surprise. Additionally, https://ecosoberhouse.com/ students make a better progress in the environment that allows them to maintain a positive self-image and see themselves in a positive light. Therefore, teachers can strive to increase their students’ intrinsic motivation through the application of classroom strategies and activities that support students’ essential need to feel their autonomy.

Cognitions that are more personal, such as beliefs about the self, and highly valued tend to result in greater dissonance. You know that smoking is harmful to your health, but you do it anyway. You rationalize this action by pointing to your high stress levels. Consider a proattitudinal message presented by a high-quality source—one expected to supply effective arguments and, thus, one likely to succeed in implementing the proposal. In this case, the message itself should be taken as very nonthreatening, highly supportive, and the positive outcomes espoused should be viewed as likely to come to fruition. Thus, at moderate background levels of motivation and ability to process the message, an active bolstering attempt may seem unnecessary and recipients may choose to conserve resources rather than actively process the information. On the other hand, this same message from a source with dubious credentials or other indicators of ineffectiveness should send a very different signal.