Teaching Tip Sheet: Cognitive Dissonance

Her clinical work, research expertise and advocacy for supporting BIPOC communities, LGBTQ+ folx, as well as human sex trafficking survivors have garnered national praise and notoriety. She is an actively involved member of each of her intersecting communities and she is passionate about ensuring that culturally https://g-markets.net/sober-living/100-most-inspiring-addiction-recovery-quotes/ responsive content is accessible for all organizations in need. As discussed above, there is good reason to suggest that some clusters of emotions might be related to specific reduction strategies. Note, however, that these suggestions are not part of the core assumptions of the general model.

Society condemns addicts and alcoholics as bad people, and we buy into it and apply the stigma to ourselves. For a really cool discussion about this, see “The Invention of the Junkie” (click here). Our mind is hard-wired to start to believe our own lies and warped logic in order to relieve this anguish. It is just normal human nature forced to extremes by the toxic behaviors of alcoholism/addiction. A common symptom of the disordered thinking of addiction is an extreme form of rationalization, which is our strongly ingrained nature to substantiate our behavior with plausible reasons, even if these reasons are distorted and untrue.

Introduction to Psychology

When we do this by thinking up positives for our choice and negatives for the other option, it’s called the “spreading of alternatives.” Your brain feels better when you can align your behavior with your values. A part of that self awareness that may help in dealing with cognitive dissonance is to examine the commitments and decisions we make in our lives. If the resolution of cognitive dissonance means that we move forward with a commitment and spring into action, making us feel better, maybe the dissonance was trying to tell us something. Maybe the decision or commitment wasn’t as right for us as we initially thought, even if it means overcoming our “no second-guessing” bias and making a different decision. Admitting it, apologizing if need be, and moving forward can save us a lot of time, mental energy and hurt feelings.

The children had a choice to make–play with the toy that they really wanted and face punishment, or ignore their desire for the toy. For the children threatened with severe punishment, the choice was easy–do not play with the toy. Their desire for the toy was great, but the risk of severe punishment was not worth it.

Cognitive dissonance: What to know

A healthy coping mechanism may be something like exercise, meditation, going to a recovery meeting, talking things over with a friend. This successful book enables addicts and alcoholics to understand why addictive substances hold such power over them, and it allows non-addicts to understand addiction and all the behaviors that go along with it. Loved ones, teachers, clergy, supervisors, 254 Massachusetts Sober Living Homes Transitional Living MA healthcare professionals… A doctor in recovery provides a guided tour through the brain changes, genetics, and psychology that cause addiction… Dissonance due to inconsistency between commitment and information occurs when we commit to a belief, value, or ideal before having all of the information, or new information contradicts the commitment we have made to a belief.

• Participants in the high-dissonance condition chose between a highly desirable product and one rated just 1 point lower on the 8-point scale.
• Coaches are skilled at helping people navigate the stages of behavior change and resolve internal discomfort.
• This lifts the crushing weight of our past actions off our shoulders, and allows us to move forward in life with our behaviors matching our beliefs of how a good person behaves.
• Just like any other disease, progression almost invariably follows the same path.

Cognitive dissonance can even influence how people feel about and view themselves, leading to negative feelings of self-esteem and self-worth. There are a number of different situations that can create conflicts that lead to cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance is a term for the state of discomfort felt when two or more modes of thought contradict each other.

Self-discrepancy theory

For most of us, doing it our way – alone and without a program of recovery – has failed us many times in the past. Becoming a member of a recovery fellowship or support group allows us to connect with others who understand us, and are non-judgmental, because they’ve been there too. Confronting our wrongdoings, taking ownership, making amends, and forgiving ourselves provides a life-changing healing experience. The point is to make us realize that we are not fundamentally bad people. The psychologists have classified these coping mechanisms into a number of different types, but I like to classify them as either dysfunctional coping mechanisms (harmful), or healthy coping mechanisms.

First, someone has to notice cognitive changes, which is difficult, given that MCI presents itself with inconsistent symptoms. In some people, it could manifest as unusual memory lapses, in others issues with orientation, and in others still as struggles with information processing or decision making. For physicians, this makes it hard to tell families and patients what to look out for, and for patients, it makes symptoms easier to hide.

In this way it would be easier for researchers to both understand the nature of specific situations, and the nature of overarching dissonance structures. Further, thinking about the universe of dissonant situations and dissonance-reduction strategies could help to understand how these concepts relate to other areas of psychological inquiry, as well as the boundary conditions for these concepts. Thus, this approach may contribute to the empirical study of dissonance research. Finally, on a more general note, our model could also help understand how people cope with more distressing life events. That is, how people tend to reduce dissonance might actually be an important hint as to how people handle major life events.

Guilt and shame are likely at the top of that list because you know what you are doing goes against your belief system. These feelings may even lead you to hide your actions or decisions from others or to feel like you are a hypocrite. This inconsistency between our ideas, beliefs, and values and our real-life actions creates dissonance – a great psychological discomfort – which we feel as guilt, remorse, shame, and self-loathing. Our mind knows that the easiest way to stop the psychological discomfort is by stopping the behavior, our drinking or using, but our addiction won’t allow us to stop. In A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance (1957), Leon Festinger proposed that human beings strive for internal psychological consistency to function mentally in the real world. A person who experiences internal inconsistency tends to become psychologically uncomfortable and is motivated to reduce the cognitive dissonance.