PSYC 2120 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Minimal Deterrence, Cognitive Dissonance, Motivation

• School: York University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 2120
• Professor: Kerry Kawakami

Document Summary

The idea that people have such distaste for perceiving inconsistencies in their beliefs, attitudes, and behavior that they will bias their own attitudes and beliefs to try to deny inconsistencies. The phenomenon whereby people reduce dissonance by convincing themselves that what they suffered for is actually quite valuable. Use of the minimal level of external justification necessary to deter unwanted behavior. A laboratory situation in which people make a choice between two alternatives, and after they do, attraction to the alternatives is assessed. A laboratory situation in which participants are asked to advocate for an opinion they already believe in, but then are reminded about a time when their actions ran counter to that opinion, thereby arousing dissonance. A laboratory situation in which participants are induced to engage in a behavior that runs counter to their true attitudes. A clearly defined, internally consistent, and temporally stable self-concept. The extent to which an individual"s self-concept consists of many different aspects.