According to cognitive dissonance theory, there is a tendency for individuals to seek consistency among their cognitions (beliefs, expectations, or opinions of a particular individual). When inconsistency does exist between these beliefs or attitudes, psychological tension(dissonance) occurs and must be resolved through some action. This tension most often resultswhen an individual must choose between two incompatible beliefs or actions and is heightenedwhen alternatives are equally attractive to the individual. This tension state has drive-likeproperties. If dissonance is experienced as an unpleasant drive state, the individual is motivated toreduce it. However, it is not an easy state to reduce. Dissonance can be eliminated by reducingthe importance of the conflicting beliefs, by acquiring new beliefs that change the balance, orremoving the conflicting attitude or behavior. In theory, cognitive dissonance suggests thatactions have a causal relationship upon cognitions.My personal example of cognitive dissonance is the purchase of a 1966 Mustang I madeover the summer. This car was my dream car; it was all original, in good shape, and had all of thefeatures I could ever want. I didnt have much money but I was so excited that I took out myfirst loan to buy this beautiful car. However, when it came time for school in the fall, I discoveredthat it was not the ideal vehicle to drive over the mountains. It was an older car, it didnt haveseatbelts, and was very sluggish traveling over the mountain pass. I was extremely frustrated.Dissonance existed between my belief that I had bought a dream car and that a dream car shouldhave seatbelts and have enough power to make it over a mountain pass. To eliminate thisdissonance, I decided to store the car at my parents house and only drive the car infrequently. Idecided that it didnt really matter that it couldnt drive over the pass; It was still a nice car anddidnt want to put a whol...
