Outline: The Dispute of Will Hollowman’s Cognitive Dissonance. The use of the phrase “cognitive dissonance” branches from the topic of mental discomfort when making an ethically difficult decision. The “dissonance”, or the “conflict” of one’s personal beliefs greatly impacts the way humans interact not only with each other, but with ourselves too. From the start of the book, Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds, it is apparent that the main character, Will Hollowman, is psychologically troubled not only by the murder of his brother, Shawn Hollowman, but the murder of his father, Mickey Hollowman. The sudden death of Shawn puts Will in a state of shock, influencing him to plot the death of Shawn’s former best friend, Riggs. Will decided that he would kill Riggs, even though he wasn’t given any proof of that being the …show more content…
These rules, passed down through generations, dictate that murder must be avenged by murder, an eye for an eye, with no consideration for the legal system or moral implications. As Will sets out on his quest for revenge, he is faced with the internal struggle between his ingrained belief in street justice and his inherent understanding of right and wrong. This conflict is a textbook example of cognitive dissonance, where his actions are at odds with his moral compass. The psychological turmoil is palpable as Will prepares to take the life of Riggs, whom he holds responsible for his brother's death, despite the lack of concrete evidence. This decision, driven by grief and the pressure of community expectations, leads Will into a labyrinth of self-doubt and soul-searching. The mental discomfort Will experiences is illustrative of the broader human condition, where ethical dilemmas force us to reconcile our actions with our beliefs, often leading to profound inner conflict and emotional upheaval. In Will Hollowman's life, a key moment of cognitive dissonance occurs during the pivotal elevator
The Hollow Hope examines the following research question: when can judicial processes be used to produce social change? (Rosenberg 1). Rosenberg starts out the book by describing the two different theories of the courts. The first theory, the Dynamic Court view, views the court as being powerful, vigorous, and potent proponents of change (Rosenberg 1). The second theory, the Constrained Court view, views the court in the complete opposite way. With this view the court is seen as weak, ineffective, and powerless (Rosenberg 3). In this view there are three different constraints that restrict the courts from producing effective political and social change. These constraints include: limited nature of constitutional rights, lack of judicial independence, and the lack of tools the courts need (Rosenberg 35). Even though there are constraints on the court there are conditions where the court is able to overcome the constraints.
American social psychologist and original developer of the theory of Cognitive Dissonance Leon Festinger breaks down his theory into two main parts. First, the presence of dissonance, inconsistency or unpleasantness, will psychologically motivate a person to achieve consonance, consistency or pleasantness (Festinger 3). Psychologist Elliot Aronson, key researcher in the 20th century of this theory, expands on the definition of dissonance to be more straightforward. Dissonance occurs when a person holds two ideas, beliefs, or opinions at the same time that are contradictory with one and other. Part two of the theory states that a person will attempt to avoid situations or knowledge that would possibly or pro...
Cognitive dissonance is when an individual feels uncomfortable because they are a good person but they have chose to do a bad things. Instead of dealing with the consequences they ignore the situation. Cognitive dissonance can relate to Lords of the flies book on Chapter 9. The morning after the boys killed Simon thinking it was the
James Baldwin’s a The Fire Next Time” Down at the Cross – a letter from Region of my Mind” directly relates with the relationship of religion and race, exploring the differences between his experience with the Christian church when he was a young man and the ideals of Islam in the town of Harlem. Baldwin explained the whites as a group of people trapped within a purity given by God, and within this purity it allows them innocence. Baldwin analyzes the church or the Christian faith, because it has historically been used to go against black people dating back to the pre-Emancipation, and with a connection gone bad with Africa he also denies the movement of Black Muslim because he seeks to rather reverse hierarchy, than to destroy it. Through
One study done by Leon Festinger in 1957 demonstrates the desire to resolve cognitive dissonance. In this experiment, participants had to perform a series of extremely boring tasks, such as putting spools of thread into a box, dumping them out, and then putting them back in for half an hour and turning wooden knobs (that performed no action other than turning) quarter turns until they were all turned, and then starting back at the beginning and turning them all another quarter turn until the “end” of the study. After the participants were finished with their deliberately boring task, they were asked to lie to the next set of participants (actually just confederates) and were offered either one dollar or twenty dollars to tell them that the study was exciting and enjoyable. This task created cognitive dissonance, which can also occur when reading Science Fiction. After the participants lied, they were asked to honestly rate the task they performed. Surprisingly, the participants who were paid less rated the experiment more highly than those who were paid more. The explanation behind this is that the participants who were paid more cold justify their lie with the fact that they got twenty for it, thus resolving the cognitive dissonance. On
The Long Way Home: An American Journey From Ellis Island to the Great War by the award winning David Laskin, magnifies the struggles and difficulties that Meyer Epstein, Antonio Pierro and many other immigrants faced as they entered America during World War I. Laskin’s extensive education in historical writing is evident throughout the very detailed book as it almost comes to life. With a bachelors in history and literature from the prestigious Harvard University, Laskin has mastered his writing skills. Laskin’s historic novel The Children’s Blizzard received “The Washington State Book” award which depicted a sudden winter storm in the upper midwest killing many settler children. The Long Way Home exposes the experiences of twelve immigrant
A person will be psychologically motivated to reduce this dissonance in order to alleviate any distress. If an individual cannot externally justify a belief they will seek to internally justify it by changing their attitude or behavior. If an individual believes that the system is fair and just they are likely to adopt ideological mechanisms such as a conservative ideology or meritocratic ideology to reduce dissonance. Constant threats of violence that people see in the media or hear from political leaders can reinforce the idea that the world is an unsafe place and the threat of death is always near (Jost & Hunyady, 2005; Aronson,
Cooper, Joel. Cognitive Dissonance: Fifty Years of a Classic Theory. Los Angeles: SAGE, 2007. Print
Cognitive dissonance theory is the theory that we act to reduce the discomfort we feel when two of our thoughts are inconsistent. There are three methods that dissonance can be condensed. Individuals can modify one or more of the beliefs, attitude, behaviors, and more, this way the connection between the two elements are in agreement with one another. Another method is to gather new information that will compensate the dissonant beliefs. The third method is to decrease the importance of the beliefs, attitudes, behavior, and etc. Dissonance theory does not say that these methods will work; only people in the state of cognitive dissonance will use these methods to condense the degree of their dissonance. Cognitive dissonance theory
Since the theory was published, cognitive dissonance has made a big impact in the way that people view attitudes and behaviors. To have a clear understanding of the cognitive dissonance theory it important to clearly understand the term cognition. A cognition is the knowledge a person has about something. They can relate to emotions, thoughts, facts or values (Barker, 2003). People hold a vast amount of cognitions with them and many of them are not conflicting with each other. But when cognitions do conflict or contradict with each other dissonance occurs and it leaves an individual in a state of uncomfortable distress. It is evident that people do not like being in a state of dissonance but researchers even argue the desire to hav...
(pg8) In other words, Will finds it difficult to comprehend that the one with whom he shared his fondest memories has left him all alone. This is significant because it demonstrates how Will’s love for his brother is so immense that it is hard to let go of him. Will lives in a society where he has to follow the rules, and the rules prevent anyone from crying or snitching, which enables him to get revenge on those who hurt his loved ones. This internal conflict introduces the idea that Shawn's death was Will's motive to follow the 3rd rule that says, "NO.3: REVENGE
“Humans are not a rational animal, but a rationalizing one” (“Class 20”). This was asserted by the much acclaimed, significant, and influential social psychologist Leon Festinger as referencing to his theory of Cognitive Dissonance. Social psychology is “a branch of psychology particularly concerned with understanding social behaviors such as” incentive and compliance (Sheehy). Festinger’s contributions to the social and cognitive branches of psychology as well psychology overall prove themselves worthy to today. This theory specifically challenged many common notions that were seemingly already accepted by behaviorists everywhere during his time (Tavris and Aronson). Its reality awakens its verifications. Consecutively, its “enormous motivational power” affects many on a daily basis (Tavris and Aronson). In the final analysis, the theory of Cognitive Dissonance by Leon Festinger is fundamental to behaviorism while directly changing the way human beings across the planet think and do.
Cognitive dissonance looks at the way people combat contradictions within their minds by actively seeking consistency. For his theory, Festinger refers to cognition as thought/mental processes and dissonance as inconsistency. His famous example is that of an addicted smoker who knows that smoking is detrimental to his or her health and is thus in conflict with his or her self. The main hypothesis of Festinger’s theory is comprised of two parts; Festinger wrote about the first part of his theory that "The existence of dissonance, being psychologically uncomfortable, will motivate the person to try to reduce the dissonance and achieve consonance," and described the second "When dissonance is present, in addition to trying to reduce it, the person will actively avoid situations and information which would likely increase the dissonance" (Festinger, 1957). Festinger elaborates on the importance an individual places on reducing cognitive dissonance by discussing two essential factors: the value of the cognitions and the ratio of cognitions (Festinger, 1957). The former consists of the personal importance or value that the individual places on the opposing cognitions, resulting in either a minor or major dissonance. The latter consists of the proportion of the degre...
Over six million individuals were killed in the Holocaust during World War II in Germany. To this day, people still wonder how an entire country could stand by while millions of people were massacred. Festinger and Carlsmith (1959) and Zimbardo (1971) both conducted experiments that involved cognitive dissonance, which helped explain how good people could be persuaded to do bad things. Cognitive dissonance is a feeling of discomfort that occurs when an individual’s actions are inconsistent with his behavior (Festinger & Carlsmith, 1959). To reduce this tension, an individual often changes his/her attitude to align with his or behavior (Festinger & Carlsmith, 1959). The results of both of these prominent studies provided valuable clinical information regarding the impact of cognitive dissonance that is still
The psychology of interpersonal relationships. New York: Wiley & Co. McLeod, S. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/cognitive-dissonance.html Myers, D. G. (2011). Exploring the psychology of the human mind.