Selected Theories in Social Psychology

Question 1

Cognitive Dissonance

Answer 1

This is the unpleasant feeling we have when we hold inconsistent cognitions.

Question 2

How to reduce dissonance?

Answer 2

• changing dissonant cognitions into consonant ones
• adding consonant elements to reduce magnitude of dissonance experienced (cognitive reframing) eg. external pressures such as financial incentives or social pressure

Question 3

Induced Compliance

Question 4

Social Comparison (Festinger)

Answer 4

He studied communication and found that it is used to reach agreements are the following are the reasons that explain the pressure toward uniformity.

People can influence the opinions we hold and we use others to gain information about ourselves. This is done by evaluating our opinions and abilities to those of others.

The need for group locomotion was also a reason. We compare ourselves to other groups and aim for uniformity to determine if we are good enough.

Question 5

why engage in social comparison?

Answer 5

To form an accurate assessment of the self

1. self evaluation- to know and maintain stable and accurate view of ourself (requires feedback)
2. self-enhancement- to establish a positive view of the self (downward comparison)
3. self-improvement- to improve oneself (upward comparison)

Question 6

To whom do we compare ourselves to?

Answer 6

We usually compare ourselves to a similar other:
1. to maintain a postive self-view we do downward comparison and temporal comparisons
2. to self-improve we gets hints from attainable upward comparisons which does has negative outcomes