PSYC 6 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Cognitive Dissonance, Leon Festinger, Peer Pressure
Document Summary
God spared us because of our belief, so we"re heroes: cognitive dissonance theory. Intrapersonal conflict a: as humans, we strive to maintain a favorable view of ourselves. We want to believe that we are reasonable, decent folks who make wise decisions: we experience a feeling of cognitive discomfort (dissonance) when we:i. Justify behavior by changing one of the dissonant cognitions b: distort a cognition to bring them both in line. Justify behavior by adding new cognitions d: can also lower perceived control/autonomy ( it was peer pressure , dealing with dissonant info. The reduction of dissonance by changing something about i. oneself ii. 5. became more resistant to cheating (led to actual attitude change: forbidden toy study (aronson and carlsmith 1963, children rated the attractiveness of toys, then were forbidden to play with toy they found most attractive b. Measures of performance ii: turning pegs in a pegboard (30 mins, placing spools on/off a tray (30 mins)
