The relation of congitive-dissonance theory to an aspect of psychotherapeutic practice.

"The present paper is designed to link dissonance theory with one practical reality-oriented aspect of the process of psychotherapy with emotionally troubled individuals—namely, the charging of fees." Freud stated that "money matters are treated by civilized people in the same way as sexual matters—with the same inconsistency, prudishness, and hypocrisy. It is… avowed… that in order to accomplish any significant therapeutic work the patient must be charged a fee that is somewhat painful and discomforting." Dissonance theory "would predict that if a person paid nothing for something that he believed was worth nothing he would not experience cognitive dissonance. Rather his cognitive world would be in a state of harmony in this regard. My main purpose has been to stimulate greater clinical interest in the possibilities of employing general psychological theories, developed in the more traditional academic areas of psychology, to shed light upon seemingly complex issues in the field of clinical psychology." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A dissonance theory approach to defensive projection.

It was hypothesized that cognitive dissonance involving the self-concept leads to the use of projection to reduce the dissonance. Ss were given personality tests, and instead of true results received falisified data indicating favorable or unfavorable personality traits—thereby raising or lowering their self-esteem. In the presence of another S, Ss were shown pictures of men and were told this would be an indicator of their latent homosexuality; GSRs were supported to reflect their degree of anxiety. Ss were asked to estimate the reaction of the other S; Ss with high self-esteem tended to attribute a greater degree of responsiveness of the other S to the pictures. The relationship of psychoanalytic and dissonance theory is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Choice and chance relative deprivation as determinants of cognitive dissonance.

While the limits of conditions that create dissonance may be greater than those stipulated by Festinger (see 32: 347), just where these limits lie is not yet known. An experiment was designed to reveal whether: (a) a chance event can affect the magnitude of dissonance, and (b) the effect of such a chance event depends upon there having been a prior choice in commitment to the event. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Some problems in dissonance theory research on information selectivity.

Inconsistent results obtained from information selectivity experiments based upon dissonance theory may result from fundamental problems in research designs. The hypotheses tested do not necessarily follow from dissonance theory when the research design uses 2 levels of dissonance. The theory predicts curves of seeking and avoiding with at least quadratic components. In many experiments, the curves are treated instead as positively sloped, linear functions of dissonance. The methods used do not clearly separate seeking from avoiding. Interest in information, used as an index of both seeking and avoiding, is not necessarily an index of avoiding. Ratings, rankings, and time spent looking at information, as they have been used in dissonance research, do not allow separation of seeking and avoiding. A typical research design uses a choice between supporting and opposing information, both to create dissonance and to measure its effects. This technique creates a situation in which both dissonance and dissonance reduction would be expected prior to the choice of information. Selectivity research is concerned with seeking behavior which would also be predicted from curiosity motivation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive dissonance.

This article reviews critically the experimental evidence in support of cognitive dissonance theory as applied to complex social events. The criticisms which can be made of this literature fall into 2 main classes. 1st, the experimental manipulations are usually so complex and the crucial variables so confounded that no valid conclusions can be drawn from the data. 2nd, a number of fundamental methodological inadequacies in the analysis of results—as, e.g., rejection of cases and faulty statistical analysis of the data—vitiate the findings. As a result, one can only say that the evidence adduced for cognitive dissonance theory is inconclusive. Suggestions are offered for the methodological improvement of studies in this area. The review concludes with the thesis that the most attractive feature of cognitive dissonance theory, its simplicity, is in actual fact a self-defeating limitation. (44 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dissonance and alcohol: Drinking your troubles away.

Hypothesized that dissonance arousal would increase the amount of drinking and that drinking, in turn, would reduce dissonance and subsequent attitude change in 3 studies with 133 college students over age 21. In Studies 1 and 2, Ss rated brands of an alcoholic beverage to measure the amount of drinking immediately after dissonance was aroused by having them write a counterattitudinal essay. Ss' attitudes were measured immediately after the drinking. Both studies found that although dissonance arousal had little effect on the amount of drinking, whatever drinking occurred was sufficient to eliminate dissonance-reducing attitude change. Study 2 established that these results occurred for light as well as heavy social drinkers. Studies 2 and 3 showed that neither water nor coffee drinking was sufficient to eliminate attitude change in this paradigm. The implications are that some forms of alcohol abuse may evolve through the reinforcement of drinking as a means of reducing dissonance, and that dissonance may be frequently reduced through behaviors that ameliorate the feelings of dissonance without involving cognitive change. (39 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Entry to care: positive choice or fait accompli? developing a more proactive nursing response to the needs of older people and their carers

A range of issues surrounding admission to either residential or nursing home care are considered from the perspectives of older people and their family carers. Drawing on the literature and a number of studies conducted by the authors, the processes and perceptions that shape and influence admission to care are identified. On the basis of the interaction of these factors a four-stage typology of admission is suggested: the positive choice, the rationalized alternative, the discredited option, and the fait accompli. The characteristics of each admission type are discussed and the implications for professionals, particularly nurses, working with older people and their carers are addressed.     

Emotional dissonance, burnout, and in-role performance among nurses and police officers.

Two studies including 108 nurses and 101 police officers tested the proposition that emotionally demanding interactions with recipients may result in emotional dissonance, which, in turn, may lead to job burnout and impaired performance. More specifically, on the basis of the literature on burnout and emotional dissonance, the authors hypothesized that emotional job demands would explain variance in burnout (i.e., exhaustion and cynicism/disengagement) through their influence on emotional dissonance. In addition, the authors predicted that emotional dissonance would be (negatively) related to in-role performance through its relationship with burnout. The findings of a series of structural equation modeling analyses supported both hypotheses. The implications for research and practice are discussed, as well as avenues for additional research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Preference for consistency: The development of a valid measure and the discovery of surprising behavioral implications.

A measure of preference for consistency (the PFC Scale) was developed. In three construct validation experiments, scores on the PFC successfully predicted individuals who would and would not be susceptible to a set of standard consistency-based effects: cognitive balance, foot in the door, and dissonance. The pattern of results in each of the experiments suggested the type of consistency that the PFC measures: a tendency to base one's responses to incoming stimuli on the implications of existing (prior entry) variables, such as previous expectancies, commitments, and choices. A surprisingly large percentage (at least half) of our participants showed no strong inherent preference for consistency—a finding that may explain the frequent failure to detect or replicate (a) traditional consistency effects and (b) a wide variety of other experimental phenomena. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of the severity of threat on the devaluation of forbidden behavior.

If a person is induced to cease performing a desired action through the threat of punishment, he will experience dissonance. His cognition that he is not performing the action is dissonant with his cognition that the action is desirable. An effective way of reducing dissonance is by derogating the action. The greater the threat of punishment the less the dissonance—since a severe threat is consonant with ceasing to perform the action. Thus, the milder the threat, the greater will be a person's tendency to derogate the action. In a laboratory experiment 22 preschool children stopped playing with a desired toy in the face of either a mild or severe threat of punishment. The mild threat led to more derogation of the toy than the severe threat. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Obituary: Leon Festinger (1919–1989).

Presents an obituary for Leon Festinger. The science fiction writer, Stanislaw Lem, speculated that if Newton and Galileo had died in childhood, classical mechanics would have emerged with only a slight delay. But if Dostoevski had been executed and Picasso killed in World War I, there would not have been a Crime and Punishment or a Guernica. One can safely say that if there was never the configuration of genes and experience that emerged as Leon Festinger, there would not have been a theory of cognitive dissonance, and social psychology would not be what it is today. It is even doubtful if experimental social psychology would have emerged as a discipline at all. This is saying on the one hand that experimental social psychology is in some ways a form of art, and on the other that Festinger was experimental social psychology's Picasso. For one must view Festinger's unique laboratory methods of studying social situations as nothing short of a high form of art, and his research as products of rare beauty. An inveterate smoker, who knew the data on smoking better than many, Leon Festinger died of liver cancer—quietly—in his hometown, on February 11, 1989, saying, "Make sure everyone knows that it wasn't lung cancer!" (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-image resilience and dissonance: The role of affirmational resources.

Predicted that high self-esteem Ss (HSEs) would rationalize an esteem-threatening decision less than low self-esteem Ss (LSEs), because HSEs presumably had more favorable self-concepts with which to affirm, and thus repair, their overall sense of self-integrity. This prediction was supported in 2 experiments within the "free-choice" dissonance paradigm: one that manipulated self-esteem through personality feedback and the other that varied it through selection of HSEs and LSEs, but only when Ss were made to focus on their self-concepts. A 3rd experiment countered an alternative explanation of the results in terms of mood effects that may have accompanied the experimental manipulations. Results were discussed in terms of the following: (1) their support for a resources theory of individual differences in resilience to self-image threats—an extension of self-affirmation theory, (2) their implications for self-esteem functioning, and (3) their implications for the continuing debate over self-enhancement vs self-consistency motivation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Postdecision changes in the desirability of alternatives.

Female Ss were asked to rate each of eight articles on desirability, choose between two of them and rate each of the articles again. In addition, some Ss were exposed to a mixture of good and bad information about the choice alternatives after the choice was made. The results support a prediction that choosing between alternatives would create dissonance and attempts to reduce it by making the chosen alternative more desirable and the unchosen alternative less desirable. A second prediction, that dissonance and consequent attempts to reduce it would be greater, the more closely the alternatives approached equality, also received support. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Commitment to social deprivation and verbal conditioning.

Control Ss who experienced high prior deprivation of a reinforcing stimulus (approval) responded more with a reinforced response in a verbal conditioning situation than Ss less deprived. Other Ss committed themselves to undergoing postexperimental deprivation of social reinforcement after the same high prior social deprivation. A model suggested by dissonance theory predicted that such Ss who committed themselves for lower rewards would experience greater dissonance; the greater the dissonance, the more could Ss justify their decisions and reduce dissonance by reducing their motive for social reinforcement, consequently behaving in the conditioning situation as Ss who had low motivation for social reinforcement. As expected, experimental Ss in the High Dissonance condition who committed themselves for low reward ($1.00) responded less to social reinforcement, i.e., they showed a smaller increase in response strength of emission of verbal behavior than Control Ss or Low Dissonance Ss who committed themselves for high reward ($5.00). (19 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Vicarious dissonance: Attitude change from the inconsistency of others.

Three studies support the vicarious dissonance hypothesis that individuals change their attitudes when witnessing members of important groups engage in inconsistent behavior. Study 1, in which participants observed an actor in an induced-compliance paradigm, documented that students who identified with their college supported an issue more after hearing an ingroup member make a counterattitudinal speech in favor of that issue. In Study 2, vicarious dissonance occurred even when participants did not hear a speech, and attitude change was highest when the speaker was known to disagree with the issue. Study 3 showed that speaker choice and aversive consequences moderated vicarious dissonance, and demonstrated that vicarious discomfort--the discomfort observers imagine feeling if in an actor's place--was attenuated after participants expressed their revised attitudes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

My imagination versus your feelings: Can personal affective forecasts be improved by knowing other peoples’ emotions?

A proposed remedy for biased affective forecasts is to base judgments on the actual feelings of people (surrogates) currently experiencing the event, rather than using imagination which conjures an inaccurate vision of the future. Gilbert et al. (2009) forced people to use surrogate reports by withholding all event information, resulting in better predictions. However, in life surrogate information rarely supplants event information—can people effectively integrate both types of information into their judgments? In five studies, respondents predicted the impact of a health state on their own happiness. Respondents incorporated surrogate information into their judgments both in the presence and absence of event information. However, they inappropriately discounted other people’s experiences as a valid predictor of their own—particularly in the presence of event information—and imagined their happiness would be different to surrogates’ happiness. Excluding preexisting event knowledge, changing the size of the surrogate sample, or increasing the size of the response scale did not alter the adjustment. Although surrogate information improved affective forecasts, its influence was diminished by the presence of event information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the pursuit and misuse of useless information.

Decision makers often pursue noninstrumental information—information that appears relevant but, if simply available, would have no impact on choice. Once they pursue such information, people then use it to make their decision. Consequently, the pursuit of information that would have had no impact on choice leads people to make choices they would not otherwise have made. The pursuit of noninstrumental information is documented and its effects on ensuing decisions are explored in a variety of social, consumer, and strategic situations. The causes and implications of this pattern are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reduction of cognitive dissonance through task enhancement and effort expenditure.

This study tested the hypothesis that task performance can facilitate dissonance reduction. It was predicted that dissonance induced by compliance with a negatively valued task setter would be reduced by task enhancement and high effort expenditure. Increased effort was assumed to aid dissonance reduction by validating the initial enhanced valuation of the task. A concept-attainment task was given to 50 undergraduate students who "chose" to comply with an inconsiderate E for no experimental credit (NC), and to 50 students who received credit (C). The NC group persisted longer on an insoluble problem, completed more trials, scored fewer penalty points, and forgot less information than the C group. They also maintained a more performance-anchored level of aspiration and rated the experiment as more interesting. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attitudinal consequences of commitment to unpleasant behavior.

"This study tested a 'nonobvious' hypothesis derived from Festinger's theory of cognitive dissonance: given the fact that a person is committed to an unpleasant behavior, he tends to increase his disliking for that behavior more if he is exposed to information against engaging in it than if he is exposed to information favorable to engaging in it… . the… hypothesis… was supported." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Elements of episodic memory.

Reviews the book, Elements of episodic memory by Endel Tulving (1983). Those of us who have followed Tulving's investigations in the somewhat fragmented form of journal articles are very grateful to have his ideas encapsulated, elaborated, and elegantly expounded in his Elements of episodic memory. Tulving spends the initial third of the book driving home the evidence that the distinction between episodic and semantic memory is not just that episodic is time-lagged and semantic is not: it is more far-ranging, and his new work on amnesia is leading to the conclusion that for some forms of this disorder either type of memory may be attacked but not necessarily both. The first vista that opens from Tulving's vantage point is that "systems" and "schemata" are collections of connections that derive a certain autonomy from being only loosely connected to other collections. The second vista that emerges is a psychology in which the use of numbers is rich and strange. A third vista that opens up is shielded at first by a spectre of opposition. The spectre seizes on the passage on "free radicals," in which Tulving claims that certain thoughts cannot be unambiguously assigned to either episodic or semantic memory. Perhaps the most heartening aspect of this book is that Tulving could never have written this monograph without the foundations of his experiments. It is a great relief to see experimentation validated in so invigorating a form. Nevertheless, the most difficult chapters of the book, on recognition and recall, are built on experimental findings that are not yet properly understood. I am glad Tulving did not delay in writing this book until he felt more secure about the questions raised in these last chapters: the work thereby remains a challenge rather than a fait accompli. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)