Cognitive Dissonance

Topic outline

• Background information

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  • Psychology Lecture Series: Self-Justification in Everyday Life This video in youtube is posted by GRCCTV - a YouTube Channel from Grand Rapids Community College in Michigan, USA.
    The whole lecture by Dr. Carol Tavris is available here.

    
    Tavris emphasises how hard it is to make people realise they have made a mistake. Cognitive dissonance is an unpleasant feeling which people have when they are aware of two ideas that contradict each other. People are motivated to reduce dissonance by deciding WHICH of the two ideas is preferable. For example, think of a person who has the habit of smoking cigarettes. If this person finds out that this is unhealthy...they can choose: either stop smoking, or try to find a reason why the health risks are not real.
    
    The question in this excerpt is “why would it be a useful thing to have this unpleasant experience?”
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    If you have any questions about this video or the exercises, please write in this forum.
    

• Listen and make notes
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• Understanding the ideas
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    HotPot module

    What is the advantage of experiencing "dissonance"? HotPot
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    Quiz

    too much dissonance Quiz

    Some people think they experience "too much" cognitive dissonance. Why does Tavris say that this is evidence that this unpleasant feeling is helpful?
    

• English for social psychology
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    H5P

    dissonance H5P
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    HotPot module

    match the verb to the definition HotPot

• NAWL
  • There are three words from NAWL in this video, "evolutionary", "adaptive" and "unity". 
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    HotPot module

    Evolutionary psychology HotPot