Cognitive Dissonance TheoryLeon Festinger shared his brilliance with the world when, in opposition to all previous behaviorist psychological work, he created the theory of cognitive dissonance. In his own words, he quickly summarizes this rather complex theory: “If you change a person's behavior, their thoughts and feelings will change to minimize dissonance” (Groenveld, 1999, p.1). To decode this dense statement, we must first be aware that Festinger held it true that human beings have a deep and abiding need in their psyche to be consistent in our attitudes and behaviors; we want to feel in agreement and united in thought and action. Inner harmony sounds good to everyone, and so according to Festinger when we feel a disharmony, or dissonance, within us, between two factors, we strive to decrease this tension by changing our original thought, giving strength to the opposing thought, or letting go the behavior. All three techniques aim to decrease dissonance because they threaten to experience such a large crack in our logic that dissonance often creates. Let's say I realized that the college I'm attending doesn't offer me the courses I'm interested in. I feel a post-decision dissonance, now that I've chosen my school, within myself because of this logical inconsistency: I value a college that offers courses that are interesting to me. I don't attend a college that offers courses that are interesting to me. I really want to solve it because otherwise I feel lost like a "schizophrenic", as Festinger says. Because my beliefs and behavior are in conflict, I try to eliminate and reconcile the difference by choosing one of three paths (TIP: Theories, 1999):1. I can discount my belief and say, “The lessons are… at the heart of the paper… where women discover they love guys who use or abuse them, which is an unhealthy extreme of minimal justification theory. It happens. very frequently in college. References Griffin, E. (1997). First Look at Communication Theory New York: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Groenveld, J. (1999). http://www.crl.com/~tzimon/General/cult_tot.html .Kearsley, G.(1999 Cognitive Dissonance (TIP) Database [online] Available: http://www.gwu. edu/~tip/festinge .htm.Neilands, T. (1995 December) The time course of the process of self-concept threat reduction among individuals with low and high self-esteem (dissertation [Available online: http:/). /uts.cc.utexas.edu/~neilands/psych/research/bigd/ch6.htm.Trenholm, S. & Jensen, A. (1996 Interpersonal Communication New York: Wadworth Publishing Company.