Sarah's Scenario

Sarah is a fifteen year old student as told from the paper scenario. In my opinion, Sarah comes from a good home and is brought up well with core values, such as a nightly curfew. This information tells me that she has been brought up with nature and nurture characteristics. Clearly Sarah is an intellectual female and seems to have an extroverted persona. So here is the issue, Sarah meets a new group of individuals who want her to join them for a party. That will put Sarah in a position to disobey her parent’s rules of curfew. Socially, she is extroverted and thrives off of other people. There are three factors that influence her willing to go against her parent’s rules. These include belonging, understanding, and enhancing-self. She is new and wants to belong to a new crowd and fit in while trying to understand their outlook and ways of thinking. With that, she is likely to feel more worthy to the group and make her feel better about herself. According to chapter 16 of Learn Psychology, (2013), cognitive dissonance is a discomfort that someone experiences when putting ideas together that conflict with each other. Now in this situation, Sarah displays cognitive dissonance when she knows that she has no business going to anyone’s party because if she does, she will miss her parent’s curfew. If Sarah chooses not to go to the party, she will miss out on having fun with her new friends. This is likely to give her a uncomfortable feeling because she knows she does not need to go. And that is because she knows it will cause conflict with her parents. Sarah is being affected by a few behaviors in this situation. Conformity is when a person changes their ways and thoughts to be alike another persons. Sarah wants to go to this party because she never attended one before. She also wanted this new group of individuals to continue to involve her and invite her to events. Plus she was afraid she would miss out on the fun had she not went. Sarah