Cognitive dissonance

[From Bruce Abbott (971204.0915 EST)]

Bill Powers (971203.1847 MST) --

Bruce Abbott (971203.1955 EST)

I think cognitive dissonance theory is somewhat different than that, at
least for the examples Festinger supplied.

etc. (just using this post as a jumping-off point).

One interpretation that doesn't seem to have been mentioned is that a
cognitive dissonance is a conflict. It was proposed that there was one goal
of being honest and another of getting money, with the experiment pitting
these two goals against each other. Perhaps another story could be told
starting with that premise.

Yes, there are several ways the situation could be modeled via PCT. Clearly
it involves conflicting control systems; to break the conflict would require
the action of yet another control system. Festinger thought that resolving
this particular conflict involved _changing a perception_ (of a remembered
event).

Sounds like a research project to me -- anyone interested?

Regards,

Bruce

[From Bruce Abbott (971204.0925 EST)]

Rick Marken (971203.2215) --

Bruce Abbott (971203.1955 EST)

By the way, when I noted that cognitive dissonance was a
type of control theory about a week ago, no one seemed to
find that interesting.

It's not particularly interesting now, either, because (like
other non-PCT applications of control theory in psychology)
their has been no individual research done to see if the kind
of controlling predicted by the theory actually happens.

The kinds of conflict situations that were studied under cognitive
dissonance theory would seem to be excellent candidates for individual
research conducted in the light of PCT, don't you think?

Regards,

Bruce