What is/has been your cognitive dissonance?

[tellmefantasies]

noun. [Psychology]
the state of having inconsistent thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes, especially as relating to behavioural decisions and attitude change.

My two main dissonances at the moment are:
1) The need to be social and in touch with people vs. wanting to cut myself off from them or just hibernate/be asocial a while.
2) Organizational discipline (as in cleaning, waking up early, exercise etc.) vs. staying up late into the night, and doing other stuff except clean, and then sleep irregularly and so, wake irregular and eat irregular.

What's yours? How did you/are you/do you plan to deal with it?

Updates

+1 y

short elaboration if anyone's interested:
www.instructionaldesign.org/.../...dissonance.html

Updates

+1 y

no girls interested in responding?

Updates

+1 y

to be and yet to be... that is the question...

[Intraluminal]

I LOVE the concept of cognitive dissonance, since society uses it all the time to mold and control our behavior. The definition you found isn't a very good one in that while it captures what is happening, it doesn't cover the response.

The most important part of cognitive dissonance is what happens when we try to respond to it.

In Festinger and Carlsmith's classic 1959 experiment, students were asked to perform boring and tedious tasks (e. g. turning pegs a quarter turn, over and over again). The tasks were designed to generate a strong, negative attitude. After an hour of working on the tasks, participants were asked to persuade another subject (who was actually a confederate) that the dull, boring tasks the subject had just completed were actually interesting and engaging. Some participants were paid $20 for the favor, another group was paid $1, and a control group was not asked to perform the favor.

When asked to rate the boring tasks at the conclusion of the study, those in the $1 group rated them more positively than those in the $20 and control groups. This was explained by Festinger and Carlsmith as evidence for cognitive dissonance. The researchers theorized that people experienced dissonance between the conflicting cognitions, "I told someone that the task was interesting", and "I actually found it boring." When paid only $1, students were forced to internalize the attitude they were induced to express, because they had no other justification. Those in the $20 condition, however, had an obvious external justification for their behavior, and thus experienced less dissonance.

[tellmefantasies]

LOL.
I was trying to keep it as simple as possible for the GAG community and not overdoing the explanation so people can get a fair idea or look up more on it themselves. But thanks for the elaboration here! :D

Do you know about the Stanford Prison experiment? Do you think there was a cognitive dissonance there, anywhere? (This is just a random question that just popped up right now. I'm not even sure if it's there. But yeah, I'd like to hear ideas anyway.)

And what's been your dissonance? :)

[Intraluminal]

Just the usual ones society has dumped on me. Vets handing out flowers, etc.

[Intraluminal]

Here's my favorite modern day example: When the US invaded Afghanistan, ex-President Bush came on the television asking families to donate whatever they could to help the school children in Afghanistan who needed paper and pencils. Thousands of school kids collected coins in classrooms across the nation and sent the donations to the White House. The funds ended up being put in to some vague account that never did what it was donated to do. But the "investment" was enough to gain support for a far-away war in an obscure land for vague reasons.

[tellmefantasies]

And that's another recipe for an empty signifer.
It's pretty sad when these generous acts float around like a cloud and not reach where they're supposed to. And that's the ironic part that it was able to mobilise support. Lol. Nice example. I can't think of any.

[Intraluminal]

Well, actually I stole (plagiarized) the example, but I get your meaning. You sound like a very well-read person, what is your field? Semiotics?

[tellmefantasies]

:P
visual art who is into semiotics. But man.. there's so much I need to read to go deeper into that field. I've only been scooping the peripheries.

[Intraluminal]

It is very abstract. I read about it, but it's too cerebral for me. Fascinating concepts though. Do you have any art projects you can share here?

[Anonymous]

1. Tired of being lonely while preferring to be alone.
2. Wanting to get more energy by exercising but normally being too tired.
3. Wanting to get rid of a lot of stuff in my house as I'm tired of sorting through it all but being too stressed over the idea that I might need some of it.

[tellmefantasies]

no kidding.
I have a shelf full of junk that's gathered dust. I keep thinking, 'Oh, what if I need them for some work?' or 'I can probably use them to make something.'
And the dust gathers.

Yeah, I should throw away stuff and feel lighter.

[Opinion Owner]

What I do is take it like one shelf at a time.
I've loads of old prescriptions and medical boxes in my room and I have a list of what to do with each part.

[tellmefantasies]

I've been staring at your comment and staring at my shelf for the past fifteen minutes.
-_-
Yeah, I should probably add it to my ToDoist list and gain some karma points for accomplishment.
What a sad life I live.

[Opinion Owner]

Hey! I live that same life! :/ :P

[tellmefantasies]

I cleaned that shelf!!! \(^o^)/
It took an hour and a half. O_O
There are two more to go... I don't know when that's gonna happen. -_-'

[Opinion Owner]

Well done! :)

I've been there. It'll probably be a week or two. :P

[Opinion Owner]

Thanks for the mho. :)

[WhateverMayBeWillBe]

I have cognitive dissonance in pretty much all aspect of life but usually the most important ones...

Some that come to mind are my appearance, my choice of career, my life choices & everything else I try to determine to do or accomplish in the day, I'm one of the most inconsistent indecisive people around.

My friends have called me out on that multiple times.

[tellmefantasies]

elaborate a little more? :P

[detlef]

Those are mine. You and I are the same.

[tellmefantasies]

:O
I am you and you are me!

[detlef]

Yup. They say that if you travel far enough, you'll meet yourself. Still, I hadn't imagined Malaysia. :)

[tellmefantasies]

T_T
my soul brother!(?)

[detlef]

Soul brother and soul sister. Sounds cool.

[tellmefantasies]

feels like a nebula oblongata!

[detlef]

It knows no distance. Only spirit and thought.

[ConsultantIsBack]

Just seeing that term reminds me of one of my fav pol sci professors. Miss that guy.

[tellmefantasies]

lol.
no contribution? you clear?