Model Of Dissonance Research Articles

Weakness, Belonging, and the Intercordia Experience: The Logic and Limits of Dissonance as a Transformative Learning Tool

AbstractEducational theorist Richard Kiely highlights the central importance of “high intensity dissonance” in successful international service‐learning. This essay applies Kiely's model of dissonance and transformative learning to Intercordia, an international service‐learning program offered at the University of St. Michael's College and the University of Toronto, in partnership with the Non‐Governmental Organization (NGO) Intercordia Canada. By placing its students in situations of significant vulnerability and weakness, the Intercordia program attempts to problematize familiar assumptions about the otherness of oppressed persons and thereby to encourage an authentic sense of belonging across boundaries of difference. The results, as reported by participants in the program, are quite profound. At the same time, the program design invites critical questions about how, and to what extent, such transformative experiences of dissonance should be scripted for students as an expected and desired result of their international service.

Cognitive Dissonance and the Success of Democracy

My paper presents two models of 'behavioural political economy.' The first one builds a mathematical model of cognitive dissonance - a psychologically-founded model describing ideologies and mental mind-sets which exhibit the empirically underpinned features of path-dependence and punctuated equilibria. An application here is that people vote because they like emotionally supporting one of the candidates, and would experience dissonance if they had these emotions and at the same time thought that they had no say in the outcome of the elections. The second model uses game theory to show that stability immediately after the establishment of a democratic regime can make or break the fledgling democracy. The policy recommendation is to instigate long-term power sharing agreements in new democracies. Although the two models can be regarded as independent of each other, a great amount of synergy is attainable by incorporating cognitive dissonance in the second one, thereby strengthening its case.

To see the invisible messiah: Messianic socialization in the wake of a failed prophecy in Chabad

The study explores how the meshichistim (messianics) among the Jewish ultra-orthodox Chabad (Lubavitch) Hasidim manage the rupture entailed by the death of their leader, the Rebbe, whom they uphold as the King Messiah. Based on ethnographic research of contemporary pilgrimage to the Rebbe's court in Brooklyn, whose rituals and pedagogical framework are constructed by the meshichistim, the study problematizes the functional assumptions and implications of the rich literature on failed prophecies in millenarian movements, a literature heavily influenced by the theoretical model of cognitive dissonance. The case of Chabad meshichistim suggests that a millenarian group can reinvent itself through multifaceted cultural, pedagogical and ritual endeavors that are rife with internal contradictions. Moreover, these endeavors reveal that the rupture has not been balanced, regularized or normalized, but rather expresses the continuous complexity of life in its shadow.

Discourse and dissonance: Making sense of socio-political change in Northern Ireland

Billig's Rhetorical Psychology proposes that thought and discourse are dialogic, in that an argument for one position is also an argument against other (competing) positions. Here, we use Billig's model of cognitive dissonance in order to understand a particular set of discursive strategies used in relation to a contentious political issue. We consider a discussion about police reform in Northern Ireland, where the participants are members of the nationalist/republican community (which has traditionally opposed the police). In this discussion, the participants use a variety of discursive, rhetorical moves to deny that change has, in fact, taken place. Following Billig's model, we propose that the speakers are bolstering their community position against the rhetorical challenge of conflicting information, within a particular interactional context. In particular, it might be noted that the presence of the researcher introduces an ‘external’ perspective which assumes that significant changes have occurred, and that this provides a primary source of interactional dissonance for the speakers. Ultimately, however, the original community position is reinforced and maintained. We have identified three main strategies by which the speakers achieve this: (1) explicit denial that change has taken place; (2) discursive reworking of ostensible changes such that these are dismissed; (3) partial acknowledgement of change, followed immediately by minimisation/rejection. Because Billig's model has seen little empirical operationalisation, our analysis also provides insights into the processes whereby dissonance is engendered and managed in real-life conversation. In particular, it highlights the social and culturally specific nature of dissonance and its management, as well as the ‘repressive’ function of language use. We conclude by discussing some of the theoretical and practical implications of our analysis.

Action‐Based Model of Dissonance: A Review of Behavioral, Anterior Cingulate, and Prefrontal Cortical Mechanisms

AbstractResearch and theoretical developments on the theory of cognitive dissonance are reviewed. After this critical review, we present the action‐based model of dissonance, which accepts the original theory's proposal that a sufficient cognitive inconsistency causes dissonance and extends the original theory by proposing why cognitive inconsistency prompts dissonance. Finally, we present results from behavioral and physiological experiments examining predictions derived from the action‐based model. In particular, this evidence converges with recent neuroscience evidence in suggesting that the anterior cingulate cortex and left prefrontal cortical region are involved in conflict detection and resolution, respectively.

Left frontal cortical activation and spreading of alternatives: Tests of the action-based model of dissonance.

The action-based model of dissonance predicts that following decisional commitment, approach-oriented motivational processes occur to assist in translating the decision into effective and unconflicted behavior. Therefore, the modulation of these approach-oriented processes should affect the degree to which individuals change their attitudes to be more consistent with the decisional commitment (spreading of alternatives). Experiment 1 demonstrated that a neurofeedback-induced decrease in relative left frontal cortical activation, which has been implicated in approach motivational processes, caused a reduction in spreading of alternatives. Experiment 2 manipulated an action-oriented mindset following a decision and demonstrated that the action-oriented mindset caused increased activation in the left frontal cortical region as well as increased spreading of alternatives. Discussion focuses on how this integration of neuroscience and dissonance theory benefits both parent literatures.

Cognitive Dissonance Theory After 50 Years of Development

Abstract. Research and theoretical developments on the theory of cognitive dissonance are reviewed. After considering the self-consistency, self-affirmation, and aversive consequences revisions, the authors review research that has challenged each of the revisions and that supports the original version of the theory. Then, the authors review the action-based model of dissonance, which accepts the original theory's proposal that a sufficient cognitive inconsistency causes dissonance and extends the original theory by proposing why cognitive inconsistency prompts dissonance. Finally, the authors present results from experiments examining predictions derived from the action-based model and neural processes involved in dissonance reduction.

The effect of induced compliance on relative left frontal cortical activity: a test of the action‐based model of dissonance

AbstractThe action‐based model of dissonance and recent advances in neuroscience suggest that commitment to action should cause greater relative left frontal cortical activity. An induced compliance experiment was conducted in which electroencephalographic activity was recorded following commitment to action, operationalized with a perceived choice manipulation. Perceived high as compared to low choice to engage in the counterattitudinal action caused attitudes to be more consistent with the action. Also, high choice caused greater relative left frontal cortical activity than low choice. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Commentary on Keith Mashinter's "Calculating Sensory Dissonance: Some Discrepancies Arising from the Models of Kameoka & Kuriyagawa, and Hutchinson & Knopoff"

Mashinter's (2006) mathematical model of sensory dissonance neglects the dependence of roughness on waveform, the role of masking, the distribution of roughness across critical bands, the possible positive contribution of fusion or toneness to euphony, and the familiarity and music-theoretical functions of a sonority. Of course not all these aspects can reasonably be included in a model, but they can affect the data with which its predictions are compared.

Cognitive Dissonance and Affect: An Initial Test of a Connectionist Account

In their connectionist model of cognitive dissonance, Van Overwalle & Jordens (2002) put forward the hypothesis that positive affect increases behaviour-induced attitudes, while negative affect decreases attitudes. In this article, this hypothesised role of affect was tested for two well-known paradigms in the cognitive dissonance literature: free choice and induced compliance. For the free-choice paradigm, we replicated the findings in the difficult-high choice condition of Shultz, Léveillé, and Lepper (1999) and additionally induced negative mood. As predicted, negative mood resulted in a more negative attitude compared to no mood induction. For the induced compliance paradigm, we replicated the Linder, Cooper, and Jones (1967) dissonance and reinforcement findings and additionally induced opposite mood in the nochoice (reinforcement) conditions. Specifically, we induced positive mood in the low reward condition and negative mood in the high reward condition. Again as predicted, positive mood increased the attitude and negative mood decreased the attitude, resulting in an elimination of the reinforcement effect.

Cognitive moderators of the longitudinal association between peer rejection and adolescent depressive symptoms.

This longitudinal study examined peer rejection as a predictor of adolescent depressive symptoms during the critical developmental period associated with substantial increases in the prevalence of girls' depression. In a sample of 158 adolescents aged 15-17 years, a peer nomination, sociometric assessment was conducted to examine adolescents' peer status at an initial time point, along with self-report measures of depressive symptoms, depressogenic attributions, and peer importance. Adolescents completed a second measure of depressive symptoms 17 months later. Results were consistent with integrated cognitive vulnerability-stress and cognitive dissonance models, particularly for girls. Specifically, peer rejection was a significant prospective predictor of depressive symptoms when combined with high levels of importance ascribed to peer status and high levels of adolescents' depressogenic attributional styles.

On the Path to Excitement.

CPA Award for Distinguished Contributions to Education and Training in (2002) Prix de la SCP pour contributions remarquables a l'enseignement et a la formation en psychologie (2002) Abstract In the early days of the (Boulder Model) orientation to the education of professional psychologists, clinical graduate students studied in a climate that was both exhilarating and troubled. Students were challenged to blend two strikingly different and conflictual world views, albeit without guidance from previous generations of Accordingly, the development of a methodologically sound, and clinically relevant, research program was a heavy burden. This paper reviews the author's effort to find a research question that would recognize clinical service, achieve scholarly goals, and also satisfy yearnings for a personally exciting topic. The search led to the study of aberrations in affective (excitement) modulation that are found in schizophrenic-spectrum disorder, and thoughts about therapeutic interaction with this population. Clinical graduate students I knew in the 1950s were emotionally buoyed by the idea of a scientist-practitioner model, as proposed at the 1949 Boulder, Colorado conference on the education of clinical psychologists (Raimey, 1950). We liked the concept despite the fact that our faculty had not themselves been given formal scientist-practitioner training. Students received mixed messages from the methods-bent academics who worked on their left-brains and from practitioners who looked after the right hemisphere. We heard assurances that the blend of the two traditions in our heads would produce well-hyphenated scientist-practitioners. The academic curriculum in the late 1950s, featured large doses of both hard-nosed and soft-headed psychology. Typical of the former, those of us then enrolled in the University of Illinois Department dwelled on Osgood's Method and Theory of Experimental Psychology (1953), as well as Hull's (1943), Spence's (1956), and Mowrer's (1960) learning theories. Supplementing the hard-nosed aspects of science (with its t-scopes, rat runways, and verbal learning paradigms) were advances in developmental psychology and the social psychology of attitude and dissonance models. Personality assessment topics should have been engaging to clinical students, but instead they listened with frustration to debates about the number of basic factors (16 or 3 or many) in the structure of normal personality (Cattell,1957; Eysenck, 1960; Guilford, 1954, respectively). Most of us felt that the question was reminiscent of a Thomistic concern about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. In stark contrast, clinically skilled faculty made us sensitive to clients' capacities -but offered only fuzzy prescriptions from Freudian (1933), Rogerian (1951), and other therapeutic and personality theory traditions (Hall & Lindzey, 1957). Although precise scoring practices were taught to summarize projective test protocols (e.g., Klopfer, 1942), the more credible training came from standardized IQ test administration and MMPI's dust bowl efforts to characterize personality traits (Hathaway & McKinley, 1951). Subsequent decades of educational planning have made progress in moulding professional training practices (e.g., Belar & Perry, 1992), although it is noteworthy that debates about the best curriculum for scientist-practitioners still continue. Blue ribbon professional conferences are convened every few years to reconsider our field's educational philosophy and training strategies (Benjamin, 2001). The emotional climate of professional meetings. As an antidote to the frustration arising from a curriculum training two diverse world views, convention addresses given by top scholars generated a great deal of excitement. I shall ever remember Harlow speaking of maternal attachment (complete with the chicken wire, terry-cloth covered, and nipple-laden forgery of monkey mothers), and still recall finding his views far more interesting than Hullian or Skinnerian theories of mother-child interactions (Harlow, 1958, 1962). …

The effect of self-attribute relevance on how self-esteem moderates attitude change in dissonance processes

An experiment was conducted to examine the conditions under which self-esteem operates as an expectancy, as a resource, or does not influence cognitive dissonance processes. Based on the self-standards model of dissonance ( Stone & Cooper, 2001), it was predicted that following a high-choice counter-attitudinal behavior: (a) priming positive self-attributes that were relevant to the discrepant behavior would cause participants with high self-esteem to report more attitude change as compared to participants with low self-esteem, (b) priming positive self-attributes that were irrelevant to the behavior would cause participants with high self-esteem to report less attitude change as compared to participants with low self-esteem, and (c) priming neutral self-attributes would eliminate self-esteem moderation of attitude change. The results of the attitude change measure supported the predictions. The discussion explores different processes by which the accessibility of cognitions about the self mediate dissonance arousal and reduction.

The Dissonance-Inducing Effects of an Inconsistency Between Experienced Empathy and Knowledge of Past Failures to Help: Support for the Action-Based Model of Dissonance

This research was designed to test the hypothesis that an inconsistency between an experienced emotion and another element of knowledge would evoke dissonance motivation. To test this hypothesis, participants were induced to experience either low or high levels of empathy for a young boy with cancer. Then they were reminded either of their past failures to help similar persons or of neutral events. Finally, they were provided an opportunity to help the boy who had cancer. As predicted, participants who were in the high-empathy/reminder-of-past-failures-to-help condition helped more than participants in the other conditions. Discussion focuses on the implications of this research for the conditions sufficient to evoke dissonance motivation. Discussion also suggests how this novel paradigm can be used to increase helping behavior.

A longitudinal analysis of the association between emotion regulation, job satisfaction, and intentions to quit

AbstractThe present longitudinal study explored the association between emotion regulation, defined as the conscious manipulation of one's public displays of emotion, and job satisfaction and intentions to quit. We predicted, based on an emotional dissonance model, that the suppression of unpleasant emotions decreases job satisfaction and increases intentions to quit. We propose a social interaction model that predicts that the amplification of pleasant emotions increases job satisfaction and decreases intentions to quit by improving the quality of interpersonal encounters at work. Data from 111 workers were gathered at two time points separated by four weeks. Advantages of the design included the use of longitudinal data and the statistical control for several personality, job, and demographic factors. Longitudinal regression analyses and tests of mediation revealed that, as predicted, (a) the suppression of unpleasant emotions decreases job satisfaction, which in turn increases intentions to quit, and (b) the amplification of pleasant emotions increases job satisfaction. Applied implications are discussed and suggestions for future research are offered. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

An Adaptive Connectionist Model of Cognitive Dissonance

This article proposes an adaptive connectionist model that implements an attributional account of cognitive dissonance. The model represents an attitude as the connection between the attitude object and behavioral-affective outcomes. Dissonance arises when circumstantial constraints induce a mismatch between the model's (mental) prediction and discrepant behavior or affect. Reduction of dissonance by attitude change is accomplished through long-lasting changes in the connection weights using the error-correcting delta learning algorithm. The model can explain both the typical effects predicted by dissonance theory as well as some atypical effects (i.e., reinforcement effect), using this principle of weight changes and by giving a prominent role to affective experiences. The model was implemented in a standard feedforward connectionist network. Computer simulations showed an adequate fit with several classical dissonance paradigms (inhibition, initiation, forced compliance, free choice, & misattribution), as well as novel studies that underscore the role of affect. A comparison with an earlier constraint satisfaction approach (Shultz & Lepper, 1996) indicates that the feedforward implementation provides a similar fit with these shortcomings of this previous model.

Testing the Action-Based Model of Cognitive Dissonance: The Effect of Action Orientation on Postdecisional Attitudes

Two experiments were designed to test the prediction, derived from the action-based model of cognitive dissonance, that facilitation of an action-oriented mindset would increase cognitive discrepancy reduction. In Experiment 1, following an easy or difficult decision, a manipulated action-oriented mindset (thinking about implementing the decision) caused persons who made a difficult decision to change their evaluations of the decision alternatives in favor of the decision (spreading of alternatives) more than other participants. Experiment 2 conceptually replicated the effects of Experiment 1, even when an action orientation was induced by having persons write about implementing a different decision. Discussion focuses on the implications of these findings.

Learning a second dialect: A model of idiolectal dissonance

This paper investigates the sociolinguistic choices within a group of children in a Swiss elementary school. Due to the special socio-cultural status of the school, the children belong to non-native families moving in from other parts of Switzerland and Europe. The data show that after a time of about two years, the children use a relatively consistent Swiss German dialect in peer-oriented communication which may be different from the dialect used at home. Variation within this dialect co-varies with the social structure within the school class and not with the parents' speech. Interview data and classroom observations allow inferences about the individual child's possible intentions and motivations which are claimed to shape the linguistic repertoire. The 'model of idiolectal dissonance' provides a typology for the linguistic choices observed. The emerging classroom variety is shaped by ecological factors, by the social interactions within the group, and by internal linguistic constraints.

A Self-Standards Model of Cognitive Dissonance

This article presents a new model for understanding the role of the self in cognitive dissonance processes. We focus on the controversies among three major theories of how cognitions about the self mediate dissonance processes: Self-consistency (Aronson, 1992), Self-affirmation (Steele, 1988), and the New Look perspective (Cooper & Fazio, 1984). It is argued that each of these contemporary revisions of dissonance theory assumes that dissonance begins when people commit a behavior and then assess the meaning of the behavior against a standard for judgment. However, each approach makes different predictions for how self-knowledge mediates dissonance because each assumes different self-attributes and standards are used to assess the psychological meaning of a given behavior. The proposed model suggests that the basis of dissonance motivation and the role played by cognitions about the self depend on the type of self-standards made accessible in the context of discrepant behavior. By examining the ways in which people use self-standards to assess the social appropriateness or personal quality of their behavior and use self-attributes to reduce their discomfort, the proposed model can predict the conditions under which each of the contemporary views of the self in dissonance is the most accurate explanation of the process of dissonance arousal and reduction.

Gender Role Identity and the Caregiving Experience of Widowed Men

The relationship between gender role identityand caregiving experience was explored in a sample ofelderly widowed men. A total of 200 males (82.5%Caucasian) were interviewed 12 to 16 months after the death of their wives. Results indicated thatmen who had served as caregivers scored higher on themasculine dimension of the Bem Sex Role Inventory, andmasculinity was a significant predictor of well-being for both caregivers and noncaregivers.Following a cognitive dissonance model (Hirsch, 1996),the results do not support the adoption of feminine orandrogynous ideals as a way of coping with this life demand. Instead, the results add to the growingbody of work in support of a masculine model ofwell-being.