Festinger's Theory Of Cognitive Dissonance Research Articles

The anatomy of undue influence used by terrorist cults and traffickers to induce helplessness and trauma, so creating false identities

Summary There is a need to update the legal system to recognize the use of hypnosis and undue influence occurring throughout the world. Extremist groups are deceptively recruiting and indoctrinating people to do terrorist attacks. Human traffickers are grooming and using hypnosis and social influence techniques to create labor and sex slaves. In this paper, a number of key concepts and models will be used to more fully define DSM-5's Dissociative Disorder 300.15: Festinger's Cognitive Dissonance Theory, along with Robert Jay Lifton and Margaret Singer's work (1995) are the foundation of the BITE model of mind control (Hassan, 1988). Behavior, Information, Thought, and Emotional Control are the four overlapping components through which destructive groups bring people to be obedient and compliant to authority. A programmed cult identity is created through a complex social influence process. That false identity dominates real identity. The ethics and morality of undue influence are understood differently. In this paper, we analyze the techniques of breaking down the existing personalityand creating a false or pseudo-identity. The Influence Continuum and BITE mind control model and Lifton's eight criteria for Thought Reform are discussed; Scheflin's Social Influence Model (2015) is presented as one tool for analyzing undue influence in a forensic and juridical context. To support the hypothesis presented here, an anonymous online research survey was conducted involving 1033 participants to gather data regarding specific variables of the BITE model, in an effort to develop an instrument that might be useful in determining key aspects of undue influence.

Fight, love, and flee

Horane Smith, the Jamaican‐born award‐winning Canadian writer, reworks the Jamaican legend of Lovers’ Leap in his novel Lover's Leap (1999), to renegotiate the past and uncover what is hushed up in history and literature. He brings to light the white mistress's relationship with the enslaved black man, a topic largely unexplored by writers and scholars. The enslaved black woman/free white mistress dichotomy places Jerome, the Jamaican black slave, in a constant state of dissonance. The subjectivity of the enslaved African is underexplored in the critical literature on Caribbean slavery, and besides, psychoanalysis in Caribbean literature is an underused critical approach; I am thus enticed to braid Leon Festinger's Cognitive Dissonance theory (1957) with Frantz Fanon's “psychoanalytical interpretation of the black problem” in Black Skin White Masks (1952) to delve deep into Jerome's inner self and examine how he responds to attitude and behavior inconsistencies produced within various contexts of hegemonic power.

A Review of the Religious Identity/Sexual Orientation Identity Conflict Literature: Revisiting Festinger's Cognitive Dissonance Theory

Over the past 20 years, numerous research studies have been published indicating that lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals, LGB couples, and family members of LGB individuals are experiencing religious identity/sexual orientation identity conflict. In addition, many of these same studies have included in the findings resolution strategies utilized by participants to negotiate this type of conflict. This article presents a review of the religious identity/sexual orientation identity conflict research and links it to cognitive dissonance theory. Subsequently, implications for counselors and future research are offered in light of this literature review.

Introduction of emotional labour into oncology

Health care professionals do not have emotional labour obligations in their employment contract. However, in everyday work it is often inevitable for them to change their true feelings. This is critically true for professionals treating chronic or cancer patients. The suitable emotional state of the treatment staff does not only influence the practitioner-patient relationship but the process of recovery as well. Depending on the way one might get into the appropriate emotional state, the literature distinguishes between surface, deep and genuine acting. While surface and deep emotional labour has numerous negative psychological consequences genuine acting is usually accompanied by positive side effects. For those working in the field of oncology, emotional labour is a part of the role expectations of the professionals. This is how the appropriate attitude is a fundamental part of the professionals' essence. For the in depth analysis of subjects related to emotional labour, the authors adopted ideas from L. Festinger 's cognitive dissonance theory. The best way to alleviate cognitive dissonance and the negative side effects of emotional labour is to prevent the emergence of them. Oncology professionals should fit their role expectations genuinely, without particular efforts. If this was impossible, or the particular life situations did not allow genuine acting, it is the employer's and the workmates' common duty to help professionals, to ease the load of emotional labour, to diminish the occurring cognitive dissonance with the help of appropriate recompense.

The relationship between cognitive dissonance and helping behavior

An experiment was conducted to study the relationship between cognitive dissonance and helping behavior. A counterattitudinal procedure was employed to arouse dissonance. For half of the participants, an experimental confederate entered the room and elicited an opportunity for them to offer help. In this situation, fewer subjects in the dissonance condition offered help than subjects in the no‐dissonance condition. The least helping occurred among dissonance subjects with the highest level of commitment to the counterattitudinal task. Those with a medium level of commitment offered significantly more help. Despite the fact that results in line with Festinger's cognitive dissonance theory (subjects' attitudinal change) were obtained in the no‐helping situation, in helping situations, dissonance subjects who offered help presented significantly less attitude change than those who did not offer it. This was considered to be a result of helpfulness reducing dissonance arousal.

Some Empirical Evidence for Ecological Dissonance Theory

Using Festinger's cognitive dissonance theory as a model, the extension to Barker's ecological theory, referred to as ecological dissonance theory, was developed. Designed to examine the motivational dynamics involved when environmental systems are in conflict with each other or with cognitive systems, ecological dissonance theory yielded five propositions which were tested in 10 studies. This summary of the studies suggests operationally defined measures of ecological dissonance may correlate with workers' satisfaction with their jobs, involvement with their jobs, alienation from their work, and to a lesser extent, workers' conflict resolution behavior and communication style.

SOME EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FOR ECOLOGICAL DISSONANCE THEORY

Using Festinger's cognitive dissonance theory as a model, the extension to Barker's ecological theory, referred to as ecological dissonance theory, was developed. Designed to examine the motivational dynamics involved when environmental systems are in conflict with each other or with cognitive systems, ecological dissonance theory yielded five propositions which were tested in 10 studies. This summary of the studies suggests operationally defined measures of ecological dissonance may correlate with workers satisfaction with their jobs, involvement with their jobs, alienation from their work, and to a lesser extent, workers' conflict resolution behavior and communication style.

But can she command a ship? Acceptance of women by peers at the coast guard academy

The integration of women into the military, mandated by legislation in 1976, was problematic at first; several studies suggested that women were not welcomed by their colleagues. Peer acceptance is an important issue for the Coast Guard, since female officers are not officially discriminated against in duty assignments. Results of this current study, which assessed whether or not male Coast Guard cadets' attitudes have changed over time, suggest that males have become more tolerant of the idea of women in the military, and especially, that male cadets' perception of their female peers becomes more positive over time. The results are discussed in terms of Festinger's cognitive dissonance theory.

Attitude Change as a Motivational Factor in Producing Behavior Change Related to Implementing Primary Nursing

This study examined the relationship between nurses' improved attitudes toward the feasibility of primary nursing within the Veterans Administration setting and resultant behaviors directed at implementing primary nursing. Festinger's cognitive dissonance theory served as an explanatory model for observed outcomes. Improved attitudes motivated participants to engage in predicted behaviors. Findings implied that effective training is maximized in situations in which correspondence exists between the source of the behavioral deficiency and educational activities designed to remedy the deficiency.

Cognitive dissonance in the placebo treatment of insomnia–a pilot experiment

Insomnia in 11 general hospital in-patients was treated by a placebo. The conditions of administration of the placebo were experimentally varied, and a hypothesis derived from Festinger's cognitive dissonance theory was tested. Consistent with this hypothesis, it was found that patients who were required to make meaningful decisions concerning their treatment derived significantly greater hypnotic (therapeutic) value from it than did patients whose treatment was simply administered to them and who were not required to make such decisions. The power of cognitive dissonance theory to explain the placebo effect, and the therapeutic potential of this approach are discussed.

Husband/Wife Comparisons of Price-Quality Relationships in the Post-Purchase Situation

Summary Consumers' perception of the prices and qualities of products was tested under post-purchase conditions. Respondents were asked to rate their satisfaction with the purchase price, and with two verifiable components of quality—performance and durability—of a selection of 12 consumer durables. The results obtained from 85 married couples indicated that all quality and price perceptions remain highly correlated in the post-purchase situation tested. The associations between quality and price perception were stronger among the wives than among the husbands. Simultaneously, in a great majority of couples the wife was more satisfied than the husband with price and quality, aspects of the products. The results are discussed in terms of Festinger's cognitive dissonance theory.

Some Effects of Initial Attitude Importance on Attitude Change

Summary Twenty students holding either important or moderately important initial attitudes wrote counterattitudinal essays to provide a test of competing predictions derived from Festinger's cognitive dissonance theory and Bem's self-perception theory. As expected by self-perception theory, subjects holding important initial attitudes showed less attitude change after counterattitudinal advocacy than did subjects holding moderately important initial attitudes. Additional data suggested that this differential attitude change was not attributable to a subject selection bias or to the production of differentially persuasive essays across the two importance conditions.

Internal necessity and contradiction in children's thinking

AbstractSmedslund presents a hypothesis about logical (internal) necessity and contradiction as empirical contingencies in the determination of children's intellectual and personal development. The, difference is distinguished between Piaget's concept of equilibration (as “the accord of thought with itself”) and learning (as “the accord of thought with things”). Citing the similarity of the concept of equilibration to Festinger's cognitive dissonance theory, Smedslund holds that the direction of the changes in children's thinking is not determined by external reinforcement.