A Literature Review on Cognitive Dissonance & Student Satisfaction

This literature review investigates the relationship between cognitive dissonance and student satisfaction within the context of higher education. It begins by defining cognitive dissonance as the conflict between an individual's beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors, highlighting its potential to cause mental discomfort. The review then explores the different types of relationships among cognitions (consonant, irrelevant, and dissonant) and delves into the theoretical frameworks of cognitive dissonance, particularly Festinger's Cognitive Dissonance Theory. It examines various methods for reducing cognitive dissonance, including changing attitudes, acquiring new information, and minimizing the importance of inconsistencies. The role of 'self' in the dissonance process is analyzed through different models. The review shifts focus to student satisfaction, defining it as a key component of quality assurance in higher education. It discusses theories of student satisfaction, such as the happy-productive theory and consumer satisfaction theory, and identifies dimensions of student satisfaction, including working conditions, education quality, compensation, recognition, instructor support, and course policies. Finally, the review considers the influence of university rankings and reputations on student perceptions. The review concludes by noting the gap in existing research directly linking cognitive dissonance and student satisfaction in higher education, suggesting a need for further investigation in this area and highlighting the value of this research.

Running head: COGNITIVE DISSONANCE AND STUDENT SATISFACTION
Cognitive Dissonance and Student Satisfaction
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1COGNITIVE DISSONANCE AND STUDENT SATISFACTION
Executive Summary
The notion of Cognitive Dissonance, referring to conflicting situations among the behaviours,
attitudes, beliefs and values of individuals regarding specific aspects or actions, has
considerable implications on the level of mental discomfort and psychological stresses which
the individuals seek to reduce. This cognitive dissonance can occur in any aspect or domain
of life and decision-making processes of individuals. Keeping this into consideration, the
concerned research aims to explore the relationship between cognitive dissonance in the
behaviours, attitudes and actions of the students and their overall satisfaction levels in the
aspects of seeking higher education from different universities. For the purpose of the
research, an extensive review of the existing literary and scholarly works is conducted in the
concerned report.

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Research Objective.................................................................................................................3
Research Question..................................................................................................................3
Literature Review.......................................................................................................................4
Introduction............................................................................................................................4
Cognitive Dissonance.............................................................................................................4
Types of Relationships among Cognitions........................................................................4
Cognitive Dissonance: Theoretical Framework.................................................................5
Ways to reduce Cognitive Dissonance...............................................................................5
Role of self in Cognitive Dissonance.................................................................................6
Student Satisfaction................................................................................................................7
Theories of student satisfaction..........................................................................................7
Dimensions of Student satisfaction in Universities...............................................................8
Ranking and Reputations of Universities...............................................................................9
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................9
References................................................................................................................................11

3COGNITIVE DISSONANCE AND STUDENT SATISFACTION
Introduction
Human psychology is in general a myriad of complex and simultaneous activities and
responses to stimuli, which have considerable impacts on the life of human beings and on
various aspects of their every day activities, attitudes, beliefs and behaviours, which in turn
considerably effects their decision-making processes and the level of satisfaction or utility
which they derive from the decisions taken by them (Heine 2015). However, many anomalies
and situations occur in the aspects of human behaviours and decision-making attitudes, one of
which is that of the phenomenon of Cognitive Dissonance, which, in a generalised framework
can be referred to a conflicting situation between the beliefs, attitudes and behaviours of
individuals.
Research Objective
The concerned study aims to see the implications of the cognitive dissonance on the
level of satisfaction of the students with the higher educational institutions or colleges where
they choose to study. The concerned study also aims to explore the magnitude of differences
which are present in the level of cognitive dissonance of the students and how that effects
their selection of colleges and also the features of the colleges or higher educational institute
which contribute in the differences in the level of satisfaction of the students.
Research Question
The research question which the study focusses on is as follows:
How cognitive dissonance among the students effect their level of satisfactions in the
universities where they study?

4COGNITIVE DISSONANCE AND STUDENT SATISFACTION
Literature Review
Introduction
There have been extensive studies regarding cognitive dissonance and its implications
in different sectors of human life and also regarding the factors which contribute to the level
of satisfaction of students in their venture towards attaining higher educations. Keeping this
into consideration, the assignment tries to conduct an extensive review of the existing literary
and scholarly works present in these domains so as to capture the different perceptions
prevailing in these aspects.
Cognitive Dissonance
The notion of “Cognitive Dissonance” can be seen to be comprehensively defined by
Antoniou, Doukas and Subrahmanyam (2013), as a situation of conflicts arising between the
attitudes as well as behaviours of an individual due to the presence of one or more
contradicting ideas, beliefs or values regarding a particular aspect. This assertion is
augmented by the views of Harmon-Jones, Harmon-Jones and Levy (2015), according to
whom, this type of dissonance occurs in the attitudes and behaviours of individuals when
their beliefs are clashed with new or different evidences as perceived by the concerned
individuals. This, in general leads to a situation of mental discomfort as well as stress in the
psychological domain, to reduce which the individuals try to resolve such contradictions
(Wicklund and Brehm 2013).
Types of Relationships among Cognitions
Hinojosa et al. (2017), highlights the three types of relationships which generally
occur in real scenarios to be as follows:
a. Consonant Relationship- Where two actions or cognitions of human beings are consistent
and in relevance to one another

5COGNITIVE DISSONANCE AND STUDENT SATISFACTION
b. Irrelevant Relationship- Where two actions or cognitions have no relationship with one
another
c. Dissonant Relationship- Where two actions are inconsistent or not in relevance with each
other (Perlovsky et al. 2013).
However, the authors do not elaborate on linking these with the theoretical
frameworks of cognitive dissonance which can be seen to be present over the years.
Cognitive Dissonance: Theoretical Framework
Unlike the previous scholarly evidences and literary works, Gawronski (2012)
elaborates on the theoretical and conceptual frameworks which exist in the aspects of
cognitive dissonance in the global scenario, specifically focussing on the Cognitive
Dissonance Theory, first proposed by Leon Festinger (1957). As per the assertions of the
author, this theory came into existence from the ground proposition that human beings, in
general tend to achieve internal psychological consistency for the purpose of their
psychological welfare, peace and proper functioning in real world. Thus, in the presence of
any kind of internal inconsistency the level of discomfort rises which in turn motivates the
individuals to work towards reduction of the cognitive dissonance, by changing different
components of their attitudes or beliefs (Greenwald, Brock and Ostrom 2013). However, the
authors do not elaborate on the ways in which these attitude changes take place.
Ways to reduce Cognitive Dissonance
Chang, Solomon and Westerfield (2016), in this context, taking reference of the
principle of cognitive consistency derived from the Cognitive Dissonance Theory of
Festigner (1957), try to highlight the ways in which in general the cognitive dissonances
among the human beings are eliminated, which are as follows:

6COGNITIVE DISSONANCE AND STUDENT SATISFACTION
a. By changing one or more than one of the conflicting attitudes, beliefs or behaviours of the
concerned individuals so as make the relationships between the actions consonant. However,
as rightly countered by Liang (2016) implementing this mode of elimination of dissonance
becomes difficult for people in most of the cases as they cannot easily change their well-
learned and practiced behaviours.
b. By acquiring new and such information which helps in reducing the dissonant components
in the attitudes or beliefs of the individuals. Liang (2016) asserts this method to be a much
easier and more implemented dissonance reduction mode in the real-world scenarios.
c. By reducing the importance of the need to make the relationship between different actions
to be a consonant one.
Role of self in Cognitive Dissonance
Hinojosa et al. (2017), in this context, compares three models of Cognitive
Dissonance so as to explore the variations of the roles of self in the Cognitive Dissonance
Process, as perceived by these models:
Self-Consistency Model- According to this model, dissonance arises when individuals
perceive differences in their behaviours or actions and their self-perceptions of standards and
moralities and thus the same is reduced through a moral justification of the behaviour. Here
“self” serves as expectancy for the individual’s behaviour (Gawronski 2012).
Self-Affirmation Model- Here “self” is a resource for dissonance reduction and the goal of
the same is restoration of morality and integrity of the whole system and not of that of saving
the self-image of an individual (Baumeister, Bratslavsky and Muraven 2018).
New Look Model- This model disregards the importance of self in dissonance process and
argues that individuals, irrespective of their self-esteem, can feel uncomfortable when

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dissonance arises in their behaviour due to violation of social or normative standards which
they have been subjected to since their childhood.
Student Satisfaction
To study the linkage of cognitive dissonance with that of the decisions and behaviours
of the students, particularly in the aspects of seeking higher education, it is of immense to
explore the different components existing in the aspects of their satisfaction level and the
determinants present in this aspect.
Douglas et al. (2015) perceives student satisfaction (especially in the higher education
or university level) as one of the key components for quality assurance of the educational
institutions, in the context of increasingly competitive education market, where the students
are the final consumers.
Theories of student satisfaction
Exploring in the psychosocial dynamics of the notion of student satisfaction, Yusoff,
McLeay and Woodruffe-Burton (2015), in their research, discusses several crucial theories in
this domain, which are as follows:
a. Happy-productive Theory- According to this theory, the satisfaction of the students is
mediated by different variables like those of stress, well-being and the level of coping up. As
per this theory, if the level of distress of a student is high in a university, then that leads to
low levels of satisfaction (Weerasinghe and Fernando 2017).
b. Consumer Satisfaction Theory- According to this theory, the satisfaction level of students
depends on the level to which the expectations of the students regarding university which
they select match with the actual experiences and perceptions of the same in the concerned
university (Cheng et al. 2016).

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Dimensions of Student satisfaction in Universities
There exist different perceptions regarding the dimensions and factors required for
increased student satisfaction in the aspects of higher education. Cazan and Năstasă (2015),
in this context, highlights four crucial factors contributing to the level of satisfaction of
university students to be as follows:
 Working conditions- Overall environment
 Education quality- Capabilities of the teachers
 Compensation- Financial costs and benefits
 Recognition- Sense of belonging to the society
Figure 1: Factors affecting University Student Satisfaction
(Source: Pubs.sciepub.com 2018)
On the other hand, Gibbons, Neumayer and Perkins (2015), indicates towards the
following factors as drivers of satisfaction among university students:
 Support and guidance of the instructors
 Self-dedication to learn
 Course policies

9COGNITIVE DISSONANCE AND STUDENT SATISFACTION
 Quality of outcome
Ranking and Reputations of Universities
There exist multiple assertions regarding the ways in which the students rank different
universities and on which the reputation of the universities depends. Wilkins and Huisman
(2015), assert that the students, individually rank the universities on the basis of various
factors (both related to academic as well as non-academic amenities).
Concentrating on comparing the national and global ranking systems for universities,
Çakır et al. (2015), in their paper find the differences to be as follows:
Figure 2: Differences in weightage of three indicators
(Source: Çakır et al. 2015)
This indicates towards the fact that while the national ranking systems focus more on
the aspects of institutional amenities, the global ranking system emphasizes significantly on
the components of research related activities and success.
Conclusion
A significant absence of research regarding the linkage between cognitive dissonance
among students and implications of the same on their level of satisfaction in the students’

10COGNITIVE DISSONANCE AND STUDENT SATISFACTION
process for attaining higher education can be seen to be existing in the contemporary literary
framework, thereby indicating towards the scope of research in these domains in the present
period, which validates the importance of the concerned research.

11COGNITIVE DISSONANCE AND STUDENT SATISFACTION
References
Antoniou, C., Doukas, J.A. and Subrahmanyam, A., 2013. Cognitive dissonance, sentiment,
and momentum. Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, 48(1), pp.245-275.
Baumeister, R.F., Bratslavsky, E. and Muraven, M., 2018. Ego depletion: Is the active self a
limited resource?. In Self-Regulation and Self-Control (pp. 24-52). Routledge.
Çakır, M.P., Acartürk, C., Alaşehir, O. and Çilingir, C., 2015. A comparative analysis of
global and national university ranking systems. Scientometrics, 103(3), pp.813-848.
Cazan, A.M. and Năstasă, L.E., 2015. Emotional intelligence, satisfaction with life and
burnout among university students. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 180, pp.1574-
1578.
Chang, T.Y., Solomon, D.H. and Westerfield, M.M., 2016. Looking for someone to blame:
Delegation, cognitive dissonance, and the disposition effect. The Journal of Finance, 71(1),
pp.267-302.
Cheng, M., Taylor, J., Williams, J. and Tong, K., 2016. Student satisfaction and perceptions
of quality: testing the linkages for PhD students. Higher Education Research &
Development, 35(6), pp.1153-1166.
Douglas, J.A., Douglas, A., McClelland, R.J. and Davies, J., 2015. Understanding student
satisfaction and dissatisfaction: an interpretive study in the UK higher education
context. Studies in Higher Education, 40(2), pp.329-349.
Gawronski, B., 2012. Back to the future of dissonance theory: Cognitive consistency as a
core motive. Social Cognition, 30(6), pp.652-668.
Gawronski, B., 2012. Back to the future of dissonance theory: Cognitive consistency as a
core motive. Social Cognition, 30(6), pp.652-668.