Theories Of Cognitive Consistency A Sourcebook

This volume provides an overview of recent research on the nature, causes, and consequences of cognitive consistency. In 21 chapters, leading scholars address the pivotal role of consistency principles at various levels of social information processing, ranging from micro-level to macro-level processes. The book's scope encompasses mental representation, processing fluency and motivational fit, implicit social cognition, thinking and reasoning, decision making and choice, and interpersonal processes. Key findings, emerging themes, and current directions in the field are explored, and important questions for future research identified.

Cognitive Consistency: Motivational Antecedents and Behavioral presents the behavioral implications of the motivation for consistency. This book discusses the relationship between assumptions and motivation for consistency. Organized into nine chapters, this book begins with an overview of the area of study, empirical problems, and theoretical issues. This text then examines the nature of the motivation for consistency. Other chapters consider the effects of the formal aspects of cognitions. This book discusses as well the behavioral implications of consistency-seeking and the development of theories of cognitive consistency. The final chapter deals with the extent to which the motivation for consistency is based upon cognitive or social consideration. This book is a valuable resource for readers who are interested in attitude formation and change, in particular, and those interested in social psychology and communications, in general. Psychologists, communications specialists, researchers, and theorists working in the scope of the consistency theories will also find this book useful.

Do traditional distinctions between "belief" and "knowledge" still make sense? How are differences between knowledge and belief understood in different cultural contexts? This book explores conflicts between various types of knowledge, especially between orthodox and heterodox knowledge systems, ranging from religious fundamentalism to heresies within the scientific community itself. Beyond addressing many fields in the academy, the book discusses learned individuals interested in the often puzzling spatial and cultural disparities of knowledge and clashes of knowledge.

Originally published: Evanston, Ill.: Row, Peterson, c1957.

Tell any smoker that his habit is unhealthy, and he most likely will agree. What mental process does a person go through when he or she continues to do something unhealthy? When an honest person tells a "white lie," what happens to his or her sense of integrity? If someone must choose between two equally attractive options, why does one's value judgement of the options change after the choice has been made? In 1954 Dr. Leon Festinger drafted a version of a theory describing the psychological phenomenon that occurs in these situations. He called it cognitive dissonance: the feeling of psychological discomfort produced by the combined presence of two thoughts that do not follow from one another. Festinger proposed that the greater the discomfort, the greater the desire to reduce the dissonance of the two cognitive elements. The elegance of this theory has inspired psychologists over the past four decades. Cognitive Dissonance: Perspectives on a Pivotal Theory in Social Psychology documents the on-going research and debate provoked by this influential theory.