Exam 6: Cognitive Dissonance and the Need to Protect Our Self-Esteem

Based on information from the authors of your text about cognitive dissonance and immoral behavior, which of the following people would be most likely to condone having an extramarital affair?

__________ is defined as the combination of excessive self-love and a lack of empathy toward others.

Jorge has just undergone a three-week initiation process to become a member of a fraternity. During the initiation, he was made to do such things as shave his head, run naked through the cafeteria, and sing obnoxious fraternity songs during classes. Jorge now considers the fraternity the best thing that's ever happened to him and is convinced that his fraternity brothers are friends for life. Jorge's attitude towards his fraternity is probably the result of __________.

Maria is on a limited budget and can only afford one album. She really likes two in particular: Iron and Wine's Greatest Hits and the soundtrack from the musical Hamilton. When she gets to listen to the Iron and Wine album, she cannot imagine why she ever considered the Hamilton album. This is because __________.

Why would people be less likely to engage in dissonance-reducing behaviors in a collectivist culture?

Dissonance theorists might assert that just as we suffer for the things we like, we also convince ourselves that we like the things for which we suffer. Use concepts related to the justification of effort to explain this statement.

According to your text, Vietnamese and Cambodian adolescents in the United States often clash with their immigrant parents over cultural values. According to this study, what is most likely to happen to the adolescents who experience the most cognitive dissonance?

__________ is to dissonance-induced attitude change as __________ is to no attitude change.

According to the authors of your text, why would people experience cognitive dissonance after investing a lot of time and effort in pursuit of a goal that falls short of their expectations?

According to Tesser's self-evaluation maintenance theory, which of the following is not a condition that must be met for a person to feel dissonance in a relationship with someone else?

You have worked extremely hard to attain a goal, but soon realize that the goal is not as exciting as you expected. You will probably __________.

Recall that Aronson and his colleagues designed experiments to remind students of their own hypocrisy when it came to using condoms during sex. Participants who made videotaped speeches in which they talked about the difficulties they had using condoms actually changed their attitudes and behaviors related to condom use. These experiments are actually variations on the phenomenon of the ___________ paradigm.

Social psychologists had African American students do carefully constructed self-affirming writing assignments regarding their good qualities outside of school. This type of self-affirmation will not be effective in bolstering self-esteem unless __________.

Petar and Nikolas love the house that they just toured. It is a short sale for $180,000, which is a great price. They are very excited and want to put in an offer. After they begin the paperwork, their realtor tells them that the price does not include the fixtures or the appliances. Those will likely cost an extra $20,000. What tactic is the realtor using?

When people try to maintain their self-esteem and reduce cognitive dissonance, they may resort to maladaptive thinking known as __________.

Who is more likely to dehumanize the enemy in order to deal with cognitive dissonance they are experiencing?

Recall that Brehm (1956) asked women to rate the desirability of a number of appliances and then allowed them to choose one of those appliances as a gift. Twenty minutes later, all women re-rated the same appliances, including the one they chose. Women tended to rate the alternatives they rejected lower than they had originally, and to rate their chosen appliance more positively. These results suggest that people __________.

According to your text, how did gay men resolve their dissonance when two central aspects of their identities conflicted? As a reminder, these were gay men who strongly identified with their Christian churches and whose ministers made anti-gay pronouncements. If they decided to stay with their church, how did they respond?

Recall that Brehm (1956) asked women to rate the desirability of a number of appliances, and then allowed them to choose one of those appliances as a gift. Twenty minutes later, all women re-rated the same appliances, including the one they chose. According to his findings, which of the following (fictitious) participants would rate the toaster lower than she had originally?

Research presented in the text (McMillan, Stice, & Rohde, 2011) had high school and college women write essays against the "thin is beautiful" idea. By writing about the emotional and physical costs of pursuing this unhealthy body image, the women showed __________.