Ferstinger's Cognitive Dissonance Theory

Leon Ferstinger in 1957 developed a theory of cognitive dissonance. His theory sugguest that we all have an inner drive to stay true to our attitudes and beliefs to keep a balanced life. When Ferstinger first introduced the term cognitive dissonance to indicate the discomfort we feel whenever we inconsistent notions at the same time. This discomfort or dissonance motivates us to expend behavioral effort to reduce it and restore cognitive consistency Cognitive dissonance is a situation that involes conflict, beliefs, and behaviors. For example, when some people smoke knowing that is causes cancer, but they justify it saying its okay we are young. Or that won’t happen to me. Other models, such as Freud’s conception conflict between Id, Ego,
The degree of dissonance people experience can vary from a few different factors, including how highly we value a particular belief and the degree to which our beliefs are inconsistent. This effects how much we use Ferstinger’s theory. Cognitive dissonance can occur in many areas of life, but it is most popular in situations where a person’s behavior conflicts with beliefs that are necessary to his or her self-identity. For example, when someone goes on a diet it can be for various reasons. If it is important and the person values the goal they have a less likely chance to make excuesses to “cheat” on the diet. If the person doesn’t value there goals as much their will to continue may be weaker. For instanct making excuesses like, “I’ll start tomorrow” or “I’ll be fine”. These excuesses are the definition of cognitive dissonance, by you justifying your actions so you do not feel the guilt of not achieving your set
When there is a inconsistency in behavior a person’s life something must change to eliminate the dissonant. The following is away to shorten the dissonant. First the person can change one or more of their behaviors. This can make a relationship between the two and make the irrnational behavior consistent. When one of the dissonant becomes a behavior then the person can change or get rid of a behavior. The second way is to take in information that out weighs the dissonant behavior. Like how you know that smoking can cause cancer but if take in new information that research show that smoking diffenatly causes cancer may reduce the dissonant. The final way to reduce dissonant is to reduce the importance of the cognitions. If the person convences themselves that it does not matter to just live in the moment and not worry about the long-term affect. Though the dissonant theory does not the three methods will work for everyone, only people that are in a state of cognitive dissonant will take steps to reduce the dissonant according to simply