Cognitive Dissonance - Psych 202

Who came up with the theory for cognitive dissonance?

• Leon Festinger

• George Miller

• Roger Shepard

• F.C. Donders

How would cognitive dissonance best be described?

• Internal conflict within individuals occur from external factors and have little or nothing to do with an individual's beliefs or attitudes.

• Individuals are always comfortable with conflicting beliefs or attitudes and have no discomfort when keeping these views.

• Individuals experience discomfort upon holding conflicting beliefs or attitudes, and adjust their thoughts or behaviors to resolve the inconsistency.

• Individuals only experience tension with perfectly-aligned beliefs and inconsistencies isn't relevant to their well-being.

Why do we feel discomfort when feeling the simultaneous presence of two conflicting ideas?

• We don't like to be inconsistent.

• The ideas themselves are uncomfortable and therefore project the discomfort onto us.

• We can't make up our minds when choosing either idea.

• We're people with emotions, and feeling discomfort is normal with ideas like these.

Who assisted Festinger with coming up with an experiment to test out cognitive dissonance theory?

• Roger Shepard

• George Miller

• A.S. Luchins

• James Carlsmith

Cognitive dissonance only refers to inner conflicts (ex: Having difficulty making decisions such as whether to study or attend a party, or accepting or offering a marriage proposal).

• True

• False

What was the experiment that Festinger and Carlsmith conducted to test Cognitive Dissonance Theory?

• Participants performed a tedious task, followed by another tedious task.

• Participants performed a tedious task, followed by a monotonous and boring task.

• Participants performed monotonous and boring tasks, then followed by a more tedious task.

• Participants performed monotonous and boring tasks, followed by another boring task.

Which one of these are not a part of the three experiment groups conducted by Festinger and Carlsmith?

• The $1 Group

• The $20 group

• The $50 group
• The Control Group

What was Festinger and Carlsmith's overall hypothesis over Cognitive Dissonance Theory with their three experimental groups?

• Participants in the $1 group would experience more cognitive dissonance than those in the $20 group and the control group
• Participants in the $1 group would experience the same level of cognitive dissonance as those in the $20 group and the control group
• Participants in the $20 group would experience more cognitive dissonance than those in the $1 group and the control group
• Participants in the control group would experience more cognitive dissonance than those in the $1 group and the $20 group

Why does cognitive dissonance theory still matter today in psychology?

• It helps us to understand how people adjust their attitudes to maintain internal consistency.

• It only applies to certain cultures with their internal inconsistensies.

• It has no relevance in modern psychology, and this question only exists to fill up space.

• It is only useful in historical research where internal inconsistencies only have existed in the past.