Cognitive Dissonance: Psychological Analysis Paper

Karen
April 21, 2013
Psych. 1100 Psychology
Analysis Paper #3
Cognitive Dissonance
The Psychological story of decision making does not end however when the decision has been made. The act of making a decision can trigger a lot of other properties. According to psychologist Leon Festinger, whenever we choose to do something that conflicts with our prior beliefs, feelings, or values; a state of cognitive dissonance is created in us. (p. 244) A tension between what we think and what we do. When this tension makes us uncomfortable enough, we are motivated to reduce it in a number of ways. We may change the way we think about the decision or try to change the way other people think about it so they can support our decision or it may change
Ben is an A student, who stresses all the time when it comes to exams and has never smoke but believes that it is harmful in many ways. To change his attitude and behavior towards smoking, I would take him out to a party a week before an exam. I would explain to him how smoking is a tool use to relax a person’s thoughts without offering him a cigarette. As the party continues, people begin to loosen up while Ben is still stressing over school. He starts to remember what I told him earlier, he looks at the “positive” side of smoking. Than he picks up a cigarette and begins to smoke. He notices how calm he gets when he smokes and tells himself that this will lower his stress. What Ben is experiencing is cognitive dissonance. Ben starts to realize an issue within him; he enjoys smoking more than his belief in smoking. Time will pass by and Ben will find all kind of reasons to explain his unhealthy habit. The alternative is to feel a great deal of
By using the foot on the door technique, I would advertise a small amount of cookies at a good price or sample a small amount of cookies to the customers. Then I would work on selling the customers a bigger amount of cookies but telling them that they save more money. The Following week I would use the door to the face technique. I would advertise cookies by hiding the smaller amounts of cookies. I would tell the customer that there is only a large amount of cookies that can be sold. If the customer begins to walk away then I would let the customer know that we have smaller cookies in the back waiting to come out of the oven. The population size of this experiment would be all shapes and sizes. I would focus more on children because they seem to be attracted to sweets more than the adults. The gender in this experiment would vary because most people have a desire to eat