Theory of Cognitive Dissonance & apply it on abortion in USA.2 Research Paper

Theory of Cognitive Dissonance & apply it on abortion in USA.2 - Research Paper Example (Chasek, 2010) Further understanding needs to be established on the theory to bring out the idea that this is a theory that is basically adopted form social psychology. From the title, individuals with basic knowledge on Psychology can draw out the conclusion that that cognitive stands for the mind or the process of thinking while dissonance stands for conflict or inconsistency. From this point it is safe to say that cognitive dissonance comes as a result of psychological conflict arising from upholding two or more parallel beliefs that work in an incompatible mode. This theory has been embraced by the experts in many fields by molding it to fit into their own requirements. An example is in the field of communication alongside various other disciplines. . (McLeod, 2008). This theory is quite the famous one because it manages to displace all forms of previous engagements in form of conditioning by completely viewing as rather purposeful decision makers by majorly opting to balance the beliefs. The mind should therefore be conditioned in such a way that in case one is presented with decision making situations that create dissonance, then one is supposed to apply strategies of dissonance reduction so as to basically regain relevant equilibrium mostly in situations whereby the decision making would have great effect on the self esteem of the individual involved. (Barker, 2003) The theory of dissonance applies in various situations that involve the change of attitude and its formation. The theory has the capability of manipulating individuals to embrace certain behaviors so as to influence the people to change their own attitudes. This quality makes the theory and the thoughts around it relevant for problem solving and decision making. A real life situation as an example is a situation whereby a driver holds on to the beliefs that he does not require seat belts when driving. Then the reality dawns on him when he gets the news that a friend had an accident and lost h is life simply because he had no seat belt on. The dissonance of this driver may possibly be reduced by actually completely altering behavior and hence starting to apply the use of the seat belt because he now finds it necessary to avoid impending implications that may rise if he doesn’t use it. The driver can also embrace the idea that he needs to find an alternative since his hatred for the seat belts in general could still be outstanding. Then he may seek relevant information on available alternatives in the market and fall for the airbags. Therefore the impetus to actually bring dissonance down majorly relies on the amount or magnitude of the held dissonance (McLeod, 2008). The dissonance in us is mostly always important and stronger when we have a belief about something that we hold dear but we go ahead and do something completely parallel to that belief. An example is when we believe that somebody is good, the he goes on to do something that is really bad, then what we have in the mind is cognitive dissonance that results in the kind of discomfort we feel from the entire idea. Dissonance will increase perpendicularly with the level of importance that we give to a certain subject, the strength by which the two conflicting feelings or thought feel the parallel forces against each