Psychology Report: Cognitive Dissonance and Social Comparison Theory

This report delves into two key social psychology theories: cognitive dissonance and social comparison. It begins by defining cognitive dissonance, which explores the discomfort experienced when beliefs and behaviors are inconsistent, and provides an example of a person's conflict between environmental beliefs and car purchase. The report then examines social comparison theory, where individuals compare themselves to others in various aspects like education and lifestyle, with examples of both upward and downward comparisons, and their implications. The report highlights how these theories influence human behavior, covering real-life examples and implications. It emphasizes the need for individuals to reconcile their beliefs and actions to fit into society.

Running Head: Psychology
Psychology
Social Psych Theories

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Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................2
Cognitive Dissonance Theory.......................................................................................................................2
Example of Cognitive Dissonance................................................................................................................2
Social Comparison theory............................................................................................................................3
Example of Social Comparison Theory.........................................................................................................3
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................4
References...................................................................................................................................................5

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Introduction
Social Psychology is a type of discipline in which one is able to understand details behind
the feelings, thoughts and the behavioral attitudes of human beings that are manipulated by the
actual, imagined or implied presence of the other people (Sablonniere, Bourgeois, & Najih,
2013). In today’s world, people feel the pressure to submit to the other conversations to just fit in
to the society. This is majorly known as cognitive psychology. Similarly there are other
psychological theories like cognitive dissonance and social comparison theory. Both such
theories are discussed in this report with the real life examples.
Cognitive Dissonance Theory
Every person has one or the other values and beliefs. Now today, people feel stressed
when their beliefs are not aligned with the other people. Hence, people keep on trying hard to
look for the consistency in their perceptions. In case of there is any discrepancy in their beliefs,
then there will be dissonance and that should be decreased (Metin & Camgoz, 2011).
The level of dissonance that people feel when there is discrepancy in their beliefs can
depend on some factors. There are some perceptions that are very personal and close to a
person’s heart. In such cases the dissonance can be even more. It depends on the dissonance as to
if there will be more pressure to relive the feelings of discomfort or not.
Example of Cognitive Dissonance
There can be many examples which can relate to the cognitive dissonance psychology.
For example: My friend purchased a new car that is also very responsible when it comes to
protecting the environment. I was the one who informed him that the car did not have good gas
mileage.

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Relevance of the theory to this example is because the person had conflict between his
belief and behavior.
Implications: Now the conflict occurred that the car was not environment friendly at all
and he had to take care of the environment too.
Future Consequences: For reducing the dissonance in between the belief and the
behavior, he had few choices. He could sell the car and get a new one which could give good gas
mileage. This was his duty as he was an environment friendly person. He also had another option
for decreasing the dissonance was to imbibe into the actions which could decrease the influence
of less gas consuming vehicle like he could turn towards utilizing public transport or bike rides
to work (Acharya, Blackwell, & Sen, 2018).
Social Comparison theory
The social comparison theory is as the name suggests is comparing oneself with the
others people. People usually compare themselves with the other people in terms of every small
aspect like status, education, lifestyle etc. There are two types of social comparisons. Downward
and Upward comparison is done when one compares oneself with the people who are better them
him. And downward comparison is when one thinks that he is better than the others (Garcia, Tor,
& Schiff, 2013).
Example of Social Comparison Theory
The examples of social comparison theory can be seen multiple times in everyday life. It
personally happened with me any times. I always compare myself with my friends in terms of
education and lifestyle. Some of them are well placed and doing better than me. And some are
not even started, hence this is downward comparison that I do. All this happens to boost the self
esteem and ego of oneself. Majorly the downward comparison is done just to feel good about
ourselves and satisfy our own ego and feel good that we are doing good and better than others in
life (Gerber, Wheeler, & Suls, 2017).

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This example is relevant with the social comparison theory as this is a very simple
example of every day real life comparisons.
The implications that could be taken out from this example that people today feel better
when that are doing well in life and this is the only motivation in their lives. Either they can do
upward comparison and feel inspired or they can compare downward and satisfy themselves that
they are better than many.
The future consequences could be people feeling competent and they could humanity in
the process.
Conclusion
Both Social Comparison theory and Cognitive Dissonance theory are related to the
psychology of people and what they believe and do today (Liu & Keng, 2014). This report
emphasizes on both these two social psychological theories, their definitions and real life
examples in which the implications of these examples are also mentioned with the future
consequence of the examples and the theories as well. In the conclusion it can be said that
people in today’s world feel the need to fit in and that is why their psychology becomes linked
with such social theories.

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References
Acharya, A., Blackwell, M., & Sen, M. (2018). Explaining Preferences from Behavior: A
Cognitive Dissonance Approach. The Journal of Politics , 80 (2).
Garcia, S. M., Tor, A., & Schiff, T. M. (2013). The Psychology of Competition: A Social
Comparison Perspective. Perspectives on Psychological Science , 20 (10), 1-17.
Gerber, J. P., Wheeler, L., & Suls, J. (2017). A Social Comparison Theory Meta-Analysis 60+
Years On. Psychological Bulletin , 144 (2).
Liu, Y. L., & Keng, C. J. (2014). Cognitive Dissonance, Social Comparison, and Disseminating
Untruthful or Negative Truthful Ewom Messages. Social Behavior and Personality An
International Journal , 42 (6).
Metin, I., & Camgoz, S. M. (2011). The Advances in the History of Cognitive Dissonance
Theory. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science , 1 (6).
Sablonniere, R. d., Bourgeois, L. F., & Najih, M. (2013). Dramatic Social Change: A Social
Psychological Perspective. Journal of Social and Political Psychology , 1 (1), 253-272.