Cognitive Dissonance Examples and Effects

However, it’s crucial to remember that addressing cognitive dissonance in addiction isn’t a DIY project. Trained therapists and addiction specialists can help individuals navigate the complex terrain of their thoughts and behaviors, providing tools and support to resolve cognitive dissonance and move towards recovery. Cognitive Dissonance is not always a bad thing, and like any kind of pain or distress, it is communicating something to us.

Understanding the Role of Cognitive Dissonance in Addiction

• Additionally, this model acknowledges the contributions of social cognitive constructs to the maintenance of substance use or addictive behaviour and relapse1.
• Accountability is especially important when it comes to reducing cognitive dissonance and regaining control of your life.
• By Neha KashyapKashyap is a New York-based health journalist with a bachelor’s degree in print journalism from the University of Southern California.
• The observed enhancements might have reflected the reversal of withdrawal effects, rather than improvements over their normal cognitive powers.

Social psychologists believe Cognitive Dissonance to be a mental conflict that occurs when an individual’s beliefs and behaviours are misaligned. Cognitive Dissonance theory holds the principle that when two ideas or actions clash (i.e. they are inconsistent with each other) people will do everything in their will to change these ideas until they become compatible. Cognitive Dissonance happens when an individual holds a series of contradictory beliefs, values and ideas – and is overcome by psychological stress when they partake in any action that goes against one or more of those beliefs.

Health Categories to Explore

Cognitive deficits following prenatal exposure to smoking may reflect structural brain changes. In one study, prenatally exposed adolescent smokers had greater visuospatial memory deficits in conjunction with changes in parahippocampal and hippocampal function compared with adolescent smokers not prenatally exposed (Jacobsen et al., 2006). Brain imaging of adolescent smokers and nonsmokers who were prenatally exposed to smoking has revealed reduced cortical thickness (Toro et al., 2008) and structural alterations in cortical white matter (Jacobsen et al., 2007). These deficits persisted into later adulthood among the male rats, but not the females. The effects of prenatal tobacco exposure are particularly concerning because so many expectant mothers smoke—by one estimate, over 10 percent in the United States (Hamilton et al., 2007). In utero exposure to tobacco byproducts has been linked to cognitive deficits in laboratory animals and human adolescents (Dwyer, Broide, and Leslie, 2008).

GENES, DRUGS, AND COGNITION

By implementing these strategies, individuals in recovery can effectively manage cognitive dissonance and move towards a more harmonious and fulfilling life in sobriety. Furthermore, cognitive dissonance causes individuals to avoid situations or people that may challenge their beliefs or create dissonance. https://ecosoberhouse.com/ They may actively exclude themselves from discussions or environments that introduce opposing ideas to preserve their sense of harmony and avoid discomfort. Individuals may attempt to reduce cognitive dissonance by changing their beliefs, modifying their behavior, or rationalizing their actions.

• By recognizing and addressing cognitive dissonance, therapists can effectively guide individuals toward overcoming their internal conflicts and achieving lasting recovery.
• The factor loading ranges from −1 to 1, and its square represents the percentage of variation that the factor can explain.
• If you experience cognitive dissonance, think about what result each of these actions will have in the long term before adopting them as a coping strategy.
• Matching interventions to the stage of change at which an individual is, can maximize outcome.
• Examples of cognitive dissonance in addiction include viewing non-abusers as boring, believing substance abuse is a sign of artistic life, and dismissing warnings about the dangers of substance abuse as propaganda.
• (2) Compared with individuals with non-Type D personality, those with Type D personality scored significantly higher on nomophobia, negative metacognition, and smartphone addiction.

It’s hard at first, but instead of feeling guilty when you see the gym keychain, you feel proud of yourself. Every time you see the membership tag on your keychain, it reminds you of that pesky cognitive dissonance addiction truth — that exercise is part of a healthy lifestyle. Cognitive dissonance happens when you hold two conflicting thoughts in your mind at the same time — like loving both hamburgers and cows.

In addition, people could use smartphones to socially disengage [39].Thus, individuals with Type D personalities may be more likely to become addicted to smartphone use and develop addictive behavior. The study aimed to explore the discontinuous usage intentions of pan-entertainment mobile live broadcast users and the role of cognitive dissonance and self-efficacy in this process. The findings of the study extend the traditional “cognition-emotion-behavior intention” framework by incorporating the concepts of cognitive dissonance and self-efficacy and provide a more comprehensive understanding of discontinuous usage intentions. The results of the study offer empirical evidence for the role of cognitive dissonance in discontinuous usage intentions and provide insights into the relationship between information overload, service overload, user addiction, and cognitive dissonance. Moreover, the study highlights the significance of self-efficacy in regulating the relationship between information overload, service overload, user addiction, and cognitive dissonance.

This is because they have found a way to justify the unjustifiable and one of the ways that they are able to do this is by cognitive dissonance. Drug addiction manifests clinically as compulsive drug seeking, drug use, and cravings that can persist and recur even after extended periods of abstinence. From a psychological and neurological perspective, addiction is a disorder of altered cognition. The brain regions and processes that underlie addiction overlap extensively with those that are involved in essential cognitive functions, including learning, memory, attention, reasoning, and impulse control. Drugs alter normal brain structure and function in these regions, producing cognitive shifts that promote continued drug use through maladaptive learning and hinder the acquisition of adaptive behaviors that support abstinence.

• As another example, chronic amphetamine and heroin users show a deficits in a range of cognitive skills, including verbal fluency, pattern recognition, planning, and the ability to shift attention from one frame of reference to another (Ornstein et al., 2000).
• Recent research has sought to account for the strikingly long-lasting ability of maladaptive drug-stimulus associations to influence behavior and provoke relapse.
• With continued drug use, cognitive deficits ensue that exacerbate the difficulty of establishing sustained abstinence.
• It’s a mental tug-of-war that can leave individuals feeling trapped and hopeless.
• Service overload of pan-entertainment mobile live broadcast platforms has a positive influence on users’ cognitive dissonance.

2. Research Model

The constant mental gymnastics required to maintain the addiction can lead to chronic stress, anxiety, and depression, further complicating the recovery process. Subjects were placed in either a dissonance- based eating disorder program or a more traditional education intervention, (in which they received educational materials). Participants were encouraged to critique thin ideal body types in written, verbal, and behavioral exercises. Participants from both study groups were interviewed after the study, and again at six months, and one, two and three years after the study. They found that the young women who participated in the dissonance-based therapy group had less dissatisfaction with their bodies at the end of the treatment, and at the time of the 3-year follow-up interview (Stice, et al, 2011).

• You tell yourself it’s OK since you’re taking care of your health in other ways.
• This kind of incongruence — called cognitive dissonance — can cause some serious mental discomfort.
• There were no significant differences between the two groups of children in intelligence, visual/manual dexterity, or sustained attention; however, both groups placed below the normative means on these measures (Pulsifer et al., 2008).
• To reduce this dissonance, they may seek out new information that overrides the belief that greenhouse gasses contribute to global warming.