Cognitive Dissonance Paper
Cognitive Dissonance
Student Name
PSY/400
Instructor
Date
Situation and Subsequent Behavior
Richard is driving along a lonely road late at night after working late that day. He has a 4-year-old daughter who he has not spent much time with the entire week because of the long project that makes him work late. Similarly, he has not been having dinner with his family because he always gets home past dinner time. On this particular day, Richard leaves work a bit earlier in an attempt to get home early enough for dinner and so that he can also spend some time with his year old daughter. After driving on an almost clear road for a few miles, Richard notices little pools of blood along the road. He slows down his car and rolls down the window, as he tries to find out the source of the little pools of blood. After driving for a few meters, he notices a staggering middle-aged man who seems unstable and perhaps hurt. Richard slows down for a while, examines the staggering man from a distance; then he drives away after he remembers that his wife and daughter may be waiting for him. As he drives away, Richard cannot take his mind off the man. He tries to imagine what the man may have been up to, perhaps he got into a fight, perhaps he was drunk and got hit by a car, or perhaps he was a criminal on the loose.
Possible Explanation of Richard’s Behavior Using Attribution Theory
The attribution theory attempts to explain how we attach meaning to either our behavior or other people’s behavior. As explained by Malle (2011), the attribution theory examines how the social observer uses certain tiding to arrive at contributory clarifications for certain events. Attribution theory, therefore, is keen on examining how information is gathered and shared to shape a causal ruling. The first proponent of this theory, Heider believed that individuals are naïve psychologists who try to make sense out of the world around them. This theory was later taken up by various
Student Name
PSY/400
Instructor
Date
Situation and Subsequent Behavior
Richard is driving along a lonely road late at night after working late that day. He has a 4-year-old daughter who he has not spent much time with the entire week because of the long project that makes him work late. Similarly, he has not been having dinner with his family because he always gets home past dinner time. On this particular day, Richard leaves work a bit earlier in an attempt to get home early enough for dinner and so that he can also spend some time with his year old daughter. After driving on an almost clear road for a few miles, Richard notices little pools of blood along the road. He slows down his car and rolls down the window, as he tries to find out the source of the little pools of blood. After driving for a few meters, he notices a staggering middle-aged man who seems unstable and perhaps hurt. Richard slows down for a while, examines the staggering man from a distance; then he drives away after he remembers that his wife and daughter may be waiting for him. As he drives away, Richard cannot take his mind off the man. He tries to imagine what the man may have been up to, perhaps he got into a fight, perhaps he was drunk and got hit by a car, or perhaps he was a criminal on the loose.
Possible Explanation of Richard’s Behavior Using Attribution Theory
The attribution theory attempts to explain how we attach meaning to either our behavior or other people’s behavior. As explained by Malle (2011), the attribution theory examines how the social observer uses certain tiding to arrive at contributory clarifications for certain events. Attribution theory, therefore, is keen on examining how information is gathered and shared to shape a causal ruling. The first proponent of this theory, Heider believed that individuals are naïve psychologists who try to make sense out of the world around them. This theory was later taken up by various
References: Albarracin, D.,Johnson,B.T. & Zana, M.P. (2014). The Handbook of Attitudes. New York, NY: Psychology Press. Malle, B.F. (2011). Attribution Theories: How People Make Sense of Behavior, In Chadee, D. (Ed).Theories in Social Psychology.Wiley-Blackwell. Sanderson, C. A. (2009). Social psychology. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley.