Putting Theories into Practice
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Putting Theories into Practice
In politics, humans seem to be very contradictory towards one another. Many situations allot for disagreement as well as interesting discussions and conversations. I was watching the presidential debate when my girlfriend started shedding her opinion, which I didnt quite agree with. It was as if she ignored what one candidate said and believed the other because there was a bias in her thinking. That, along with what each candidate was saying was causing sway in my opinion and I felt discomfort.
I chose Cognitive Dissonance Theory for this incident due to the conflicting ideas going on in my head during this situation. When she started making biased comments about whatever a particular candidate said, I had conflicting thoughts that go right along with the dissonant relationship aspect of the Cognitive Dissonance Theory. I thought that in order to make a decision you need to know everything that happens not just bits and pieces of it, but what conflicted with this thought was her biased comment that was based solely on one statement. What I was after to make my own thoughts and judgments agreeable was to arrive at some level of consistent thoughts within myself as to how I can alleviate the tension. The reason for this dissonance was because of outside sources that led me to take action that caused an effect. But after the discussion with the other person I found myself trying to achieve consonance and reduce dissonance because of my discomfort. In essence I was trying to convince myself that I should try and find some compromise with what she was saying so the conflict would cease to exist. In order for the conflict to stop and cope with the dissonance my attitude had to change, which led me after the conversation to seek out selective exposure. This meant I had to seek information not present at that time to help reduce the dissonance within myself and stop the arguing between her and myself. From what she was saying I also sought out a different type of perception, selective interpretation. From the ambiguous information she offered I tried to compromise and make some of it consistent to my own thoughts that could help further to end the dissonance. The ultimate tactic I used that I wasnt even aware of until I saw this term was minimal justification. The minimal incentive given in this case was just me saying, “Im not saying