| Abstract: | Addresses the problem of incongruity between beliefs and behaviors. The theories of attribution and cognitive dissonance are briefly discussed, and their implications for behavior are noted. Issues that arise from obtaining behavioral effects in the absence of effects on beliefs and evaluations are delineated, and previous theories to account for these results are reviewed. Studies cited by R. E. Nisbett and T. D. Wilson (see record 1978-00295-001), by Wilson (1983), and by D. J. Bem (1972) are scrutinized with respect to the present author's critical and theoretical objectives, and a similar analysis is applied to more recent experiments on overjustification. It is concluded that (a) self-report effects are significant and congruent with behavior more frequently than previous reviewers have indicated, (b) behavior may interfere with inferential processes and thereby erase or prevent from occurring internal state changes that would otherwise be found, and (c) incongruity and other problems are symptomatic of there being no sophisticated theoretical account of how internal states mediate behavior. Basic facts about studies reviewed by Nisbett and Wilson are appended. (109 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
