Experience Dissonance Research Articles

Certification dissonance: Contradictions between environmental values and certification scheme requirements in small-scale companies

The importance of internalization and employee involvement in the greening of organizations is well-established; however, experiences of environmental certification processes in small-scale companies have largely been overlooked. The aim of this study was to examine the experiences of environmental certification in small-scale companies, and how certification may drive green change in these contexts. The study employed a qualitative approach and thematic analysis. Twenty-eight informants in seven small-scale companies were interviewed, via focus-group interviews with employees and leaders, and in individual interviews with leaders. The main theme that was identified from the reflexive thematic analysis was that certification gave rise to a back-and-forth process between drivers and hindrances, resulting in conflicting emotions and cognitive dissonance—which we denoted certification dissonance. Findings indicate that employees experienced conflicts between their own environmental values and the requirements imposed by the certification scheme. Four main categories of certification dissonance were identified: 1) Company characteristics , 2) the company's relationship with the customers/market , 3) characteristics of the certification scheme, and 4) emotional reactions . The participants struggled to choose between alternatives in different shades of green in what we denoted the ‘eco grey zone’. Systems theory and cognitive dissonance theory provided a theoretical framework for analysis. Based on our findings, we propose a new process model of certification dissonance outcomes. This model illustrates how employees and managers feel trapped within categorical thinking, and experience dissonance between the poles of ‘what is truly green and sustainable’ and ‘being certified’. This study may be of relevance to managers and stakeholders working on environmental sustainability. • Provides a systems perspective to analyse drivers of and hindrances to environmental certification. • Introduces certification dissonance to describe contradictory feelings between values and certification requirements. • Explains how certification schemes may lead to greening or greenwashing. • Proposes a process model of certification dissonance outcomes.

Group identity and extremism: The reflective experiences of youths regarding persuasive communication

• Investigating how the construction of extremism in media discourse influences youth mindsets for extremism appeals. • Qualitative experimental design. • Youths are committed to values that are against extremism. • Youths experience dissonance in their commitment towards values and group identity. • Youth identity is shaped by micro and macro needs. • Policy and practical implications. This paper explores the viewpoints of selected youths who participated in a laboratory setting study on persuasive elements in extremist messages found on social media. Following a laboratory intervention using a video clip and a PowerPoint presentation, structured interviews were conducted to investigate the meaning of commitment towards group identity that is bound by specific values. Findings suggest that youths are committed to values that are against extremism, and that dissonance occurs in regards to commitment towards values and group identity when the youths face difficult options. The study offers a critical perspective of the relationship between group identity and personal values in the context of extremist messages.

Young refugees’ pathways in(to) education - teacher and student voices: opportunities and dilemmas

Abstract Background The study's aim is to gain more knowledge about what may promote or inhibit young refugees' successful educational and psychosocial transitions in the early resettlement period. Experiences during resettlement can be crucial for young refugees' long-term education and mental health outcomes related to potentially traumatizing experiences before and during their flight, worries about family members and friends who still live in unstable conflict areas, and pre-migration/flight/post-migration stressors. Methods The study applied a qualitative, ethnographically oriented approach, based on semi-structured interviews and observations in five upper secondary schools in four municipalities in Norway. The researchers conducted interviews with 47 young refugees and 46 teachers and other school staff members. Results The findings on educational transitions are related to motivation and mastery, time spent on education, language related issues and teachers diversity competence. The psychosocial findings highlight the impact of refugee students' relationships on wellbeing and functioning in school and outside. Three central dilemmas can be drawn from the findings that school staff can encounter in their work to support young refugee: 1) Seeing the individual and group-level challenges, 2) sustaining motivation vs preparation for future demands, and 3) balancing educational and psychosocial demands. Conclusions The teachers experience dissonance from trying to combine loyalty to the educational system with establishing friendly relationships, being close strangers with students they see as having unrealistic aspirations. They guide them into choosing vocational education, leaving both the teachers and their students in a situation where they see few desirable outcomes of education during resettlement. The reasons for, and potential solutions to this problem can be seen in conjunction both with educational policies and with prevailing norms for student behaviour.

Integrated Social Class Identities Improve Academic Performance, Well-Being, and Workplace Satisfaction

Biculturalism has typically been used as a framework to understand the experiences of people who move to new societies or who have multiple ethnic identities; we argue that first-generation college (FGC) students can also be thought of as bicultural as a function of social class. FGC students undergo adjustment to the middle-class culture of universities and face challenges negotiating different cultural identities. The present research demonstrated that FGC students are more likely to identify as bicultural and experience dissonance between home and school (Study 1), that integrated social class identities are linked to positive outcomes for FGC students during (Study 2) and after college (Study 3), and that these effects are due in part to reduced acculturative stress (Study 4). These findings suggest that integrating different class identities may be key to the success of FGC students.

Caught Between Personal and Collective Values: Biodiversity conservation in European decision‐making

AbstractIndividual decision‐makers at different governance levels operate in social contexts, which means that they sometimes need to compromise their personal values. Yet, this dissonance is rarely the direct target of empirical analyses of environmental decision‐making. We undertake a Q‐analysis of decision‐makers' personal perspectives and the perspectives they perceive to dominate in their decision‐making contexts. Our empirical analysis addresses biodiversity conservation, which has traditionally been justified with intrinsic value‐ and science‐based arguments. The arguments have recently been broadened with the concept of ecosystem services, highlighting human benefits and values. This evolving context is interesting because of the new rise of anthropocentric values, which can lead to decision‐makers experiencing dissonance. Our analysis of interviews with 43 biodiversity conservation decision‐makers from nine European countries reveals four personally held perspectives that highlight different, yet partly overlapping, values – intrinsic, human benefit, conservation and connection – as well as three perspectives perceived to dominate in decision‐making – utilitarian, insurance and knowledge values. The comparison of personally held and perceived dominant perspectives points to one major conflict: those decision‐makers who personally associate with intrinsic values and perceive utilitarian values to dominate in decision‐making experience dissonance. By contrast, personally held human benefit values are accommodated well in decision‐making contexts and decision‐makers who perceive insurance values to dominate experience the least conflict with personally held values. These findings demonstrate the potential of arguments stressing long‐term benefits for easing tension and conflicts in conservation decision‐making, and the usefulness of empirically testing of the coincidence of individual and social values. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment

Latina/o Adolescents' Funds of Knowledge Related to Engineering

AbstractBackgroundAccording to a growing body of research, many Latinas/os experience dissonance between their everyday cultural practices and the cultural practices prevalent in engineering. This dissonance contributes to many Latinas/os' sense that engineering is “not for me.”PurposeThis study sought to explore the meaning in the relationship between engineering cultural practices and the funds of knowledge found in Latina/o adolescents' familial, community, and recreational settings.Design/MethodThis ethnographic study followed seven groups of Latina/o adolescents as they identified problems in their communities and solved them through engineering design processes. Using a modified form of constant comparative analysis, we analyzed three data sources: individual interviews, observations of group meetings, and concurrent or retrospective protocols. We developed a coding scheme that categorized the participants' funds of knowledge as they related to engineering.ResultsThe participants' everyday skills and bodies of knowledge aligned with engineering practices. Specifically, their familial, community, and recreational funds of knowledge mapped onto the application of engineering design processes, systems thinking, ethical and empathetic reasoning, knowledge of production and processing, use of communication and construction tools, scientific and mathematical knowledge, and teamwork.ConclusionsEngineering instruction for Latina/o adolescents can be reconceptualized as a third space of learning and knowing where adolescents' everyday familial, community, and recreational practices are actively solicited and connected with the cultural practices of engineering.

Preparing Law Students for Legal Practice

There is a body of research showing that law students experience dissonance between the expectations they have for their role as a lawyer and their perceived ability to fulfil it. Research has also found that law graduates experience dissonance between their role as a lawyer and their inner feelings about the worth of that role. Such misgivings about one's profession appear to be more pronounced in law than, perhaps, in medicine.

In Order to Be You Have to Be: Modeling a Constructivist Approach

Self-study is a method of investigating the self in relation to the other in practice. As a teacher of teachers, embarking on a self-study allowed me to go beyond investigating the content I teach and required me to investigate the manner in which it needed to be taught. This paper is an analysis of the dynamics of teaching and learning that I experienced as a university instructor who taught an instructional methods course to teacher candidates. Throughout the course, the teacher candidates were immersed in a constructivist theory of learning that underpinned the instructional strategies that I modeled throughout the 20 sessions. Twenty-eight fifth-year concurrent education students participated in two separate focus group interviews on two campuses at the end of the course. This data was collected along with my weekly reflective journal. Findings indicate that through an immersion experience dissonance ensued. In spite of the inherent challenges, both the teacher candidates and I were more likely to continue to apply parts of a constructivist learning theory beyond the present and extend what we had learned, into our future teaching and learning practice. If successful, both student and instructor have the potential to create more fully developed classrooms meeting the needs of most learners.

The effect of pre- and post-service performance on consumer evaluation of online retailers

This study examines the effect of consumers' pre- and post-service encounter performance (SEP) on their satisfaction and repurchase intention in online markets. Specifically, we suggest that, in an online context, the different service performances: pre- and post-Service over time, affects consumer evaluation (i.e., overall satisfaction and repurchase intention) of a vendor. We introduce the experience–dissonance process in this research by integrating cognitive consistency theory as well as expectation–confirmation theory in order to investigate the consumer satisfaction formation processes in online transactions. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Dissonance in Experience of Teaching and its Relation to the Quality of Student Learning

Several recent studies on student learning in higher education reported on 'dissonant' forms of contextualised learning engagement. The focus of the present study is on 'dissonant' forms of teaching and their relation to student learning. This relatively large--scale research programme involved surveys of approximately 8829 students and 408 university teachers across 51 different units of study. The data were analysed using a combination of cluster and factor analyses. In units of study in which students report a higher quality learning experience (deep approaches to learning and perceptions of the learning environment that afford such approaches), the relationship between approaches to teaching and perceptions of the teaching context are consonant and coherent for the more senior teachers. In units of study in which students report a lower quality learning experience (surface approaches and perceptions affording such approaches), the relationship between approaches to teaching and perceptions of the teaching environment are more dissonant and incoherent. There is dissonance in the manner in which many teachers in higher education experience their teaching. When more senior teachers report these dissonant experiences of teaching, their students adopt approaches to learning aimed at reproduction rather than understanding. It thus appears that similar structural relations between aspects of student experiences of learning apply to teachers' experiences of teaching.

Reported Cognitive Dissonance and Anxiety: Some Additional Findings

The author questions recent research suggesting that direct measures of cognitive dissonance actually measure chronic anxiety. He proposes that the tendency to experience dissonance may be a personality variable that is a specific form of chronic anxiety.

Reported Cognitive Dissonance and Anxiety: Some Additional Findings

The author questions recent research suggesting that direct measures of cognitive dissonance actually measure chronic anxiety. He proposes that the tendency to experience dissonance may be a personality variable that is a specific form of chronic anxiety.