Cognitive Dissonance: A Guide to Mental Clarity and Emotional Health

Share This Article Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share via Email Gender Dysphoria is a deeply personal experience that varies greatly from one individual to another, affecting their psychological well-being and daily life…. My primary focus is to help you develop strategies to navigate through life’s challenges and uncertainties. Whether it’s understanding the intricacies of neurodiversity or learning how to set effective boundaries in your personal life, I am here to provide structured guidance. For those grappling with workaholism or dealing with the constant cycle of rumination, I offer practical solutions grounded in psychological principles. The neurotransmitters within the brain have been modified to now accommodate drugs and alcohol, essentially brainwashing people into believing that these substances are “good” for them. However, while that may be true, evidence-based scientific research has shown that this disease plays mind games, controlling all aspects of a person’s life, mentally, physically, and socially.

How does cognitive dissonance affect mental health?

Resolving cognitive dissonance is essential to living a life of purpose, meaning, joy, and growth. Resolving cognitive dissonance empowers individuals to live authentically and embrace their true selves. When cognitive dissonance is resolved, individuals gain clarity and confidence in their choices. This leads to better decision-making and reduces the risk of regret or second-guessing. Persistent cognitive dissonance can contribute to or exacerbate mental health conditions like anxiety and depression. You can also lessen the chances of dissonance beginning in the first place if you practice being mindful, Noulas says.

Can therapy help resolve cognitive dissonance?

Despite parental conflict, children generally did not wish to adhere to narratives of blame directed toward their parents (Blow & Daniel, 2016). When children removed themselves from an obligation to repair their family dynamics, they reported developing feelings of self-blame, guilt, sadness, and jealousy (Christopher et al., 2017; Stokkebekk, Iversen, Hollekim, et al., 2019). By taking proactive steps towards addressing cognitive dissonance, individuals can achieve greater alignment between their beliefs and actions, leading to enhanced well-being and drug addiction personal growth. For example, imagine someone who strongly values environmental conservation but regularly engages in behaviors that harm the environment.

Emotional Regulation Therapy: Effective Techniques for Managing Your Feelings

I am learning that I am not alone and that my mental health can be treated and that I can one day live a much happier life. For instance, imagine you believe in the importance of living a healthy lifestyle but frequently indulge in junk food. This creates dissonance between your actions (eating unhealthily) and your belief (valuing health). The discomfort from this inconsistency might prompt you to make a change, either by adjusting your behavior (eating healthier) or by rationalizing your actions (“It’s okay to indulge occasionally”). Recovery is possible, and with the right support, individuals can embark on a journey towards a healthier, more fulfilling life.

Our personalized treatment plans empower individuals to restore balance between thought and behavior and find lasting peace of mind. This day is a reminder of the importance of mental health and the crucial role that psychotherapists play in guiding us through life’s most complex emotional and psychological challenges. Whether dealing with cognitive dissonance or any other mental health issue, therapy offers a path toward healing, self-discovery, and a balanced life. Addiction is a complex and multifaceted issue that not only affects an individual’s physical health but also influences their thought patterns and behaviors. One psychological phenomenon that plays a significant role in addiction is cognitive dissonance recovery.

Cognitive Dissonance Therapy: Transforming Conflicting Beliefs for Better Mental Health

We further argue that this perspective contributes to reconciling fragmented (and sometimes contrary) viewpoints present in the literature on dissonance reduction. In addition to proposing the general model of dissonance reduction, we illustrate at the hand of empirical data how research on dissonance reduction can be performed without relying on experimental paradigms that focus on a specific reduction strategy. In general, one problematic feature of past dissonance studies is the employment of between-group designs (experiment group vs. control group), were individuals are treated as homogenous entities reacting more or less identically to the manipulation.

They may utilize various therapeutic techniques, such as cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), to assist you in challenging and restructuring conflicting beliefs. We suggest research exploring the mechanism of cognitive dissonance has the utility to inform “evidence-of-narrative practice,” and thereby may expand its utility for family mediators of divorce. According to Rafti (2019), narrative therapy fits well with the therapists’ arsenal of tools, including, among other approaches, the structured-negotiation model, transformative model, and facilitative mediation. We recommend the use of narrative therapy may depend upon, if and how, cognitive dissonance occurs (i.e., in triangulation and role diffusion) and the degree it does in post-divorce parenting (high/low conflict) and the parent-child relationship.

For instance, dissonant behavior in the presence of friends and family (vs. alone) might bring about self-justification or vindication since the undoing of the dissonant behavior might be embarrassing. Within a developmental viewpoint, Kaplan and Crockett (1968) argue that cognitive complexity determines the reduction strategy. For example, due to lack of cognitive complexity, children’s reduction strategies are often rather primitive (e.g., denial), whereas adults are more refined (e.g., rationalization). More broadly, it has been suggested that dissonance reduction works as an exclusive switch (Simon et al., 1995), meaning that people will engage in only one dissonance-reduction strategy at a time, choosing whichever alternative is made available to them. For instance, when the cognitive conflict is made highly salient, or self-affirmation is readily available, trivialization will be more likely.

• This current state of affairs makes it difficult to reconcile the different approaches within a single theoretical account.
• Note that in our model dissonance detection has already occurred, and it thus deals exclusively with the dissonance-reduction process.
• This is because they are set on their own beliefs and justify them, even though they are misguided and careless.
• Here, the individual is more likely to retreat from, rather than approach, the situation (Lewis, 2016).
• However, if the reduction strategy fails, the individual might feel a prolonged sense of annoyance and irritation.

The subsequent emotion (after “making up” for bad behavior) might be a feeling of serenity. However, a failed attempt to make up might lead to continued guilt, which might in turn lead to the individual trying to compensate with an indirect gesture rather than addressing the main issue. This positioned the child as an independent agent and the parents as “neutral and supportive recipients” (Stokkebekk, Iversen, Hollekim, et al., 2019).

Don’t hesitate to reach out to Arrowwood Addiction Center today – it could be the first step towards breaking free from the chains of addiction and embracing a brighter future. In sum, these simple re-analyses demonstrate the danger in over-emphasizing general trends in typical dissonance studies. They also show that conceptualizing dissonance reduction in the broader terms of emotion-regulation could be a viable approach moving forward. Divorce is rarely a single event but rather is a process of disruptions that result in a cascade of effects across multiple phases, including pre-separation, separation, and post-separation/post-divorce (D’Abate, 2016).

To help individuals recognize and resolve their inconsistent thoughts and behaviors, ultimately leading to improved mental health and well-being. The analysis revealed that for some individuals, the emotional experience of the dissonant situation was predominantly characterized by either Anger, Anxiety/Fear or Self-consciousness. Other individuals experienced overall negative or overall positive emotions, whereas a considerable portion (almost 20 percent) experienced a mixture of both positive and negative emotions. Lastly, some individuals experienced very low overall levels of emotions (see Table 3). Thus, focusing simply on the total mean score would conduce to misrepresentation of how individuals experienced the dissonant situation.

Although, when something they once believed turns out too good to be true, it conflicts with their pre-existing beliefs about their decision-making abilities. Addicted individuals crave drugs and alcohol, which distorts their ability to process information. When making the choice of whether to use or not, they believe in holding onto the ideas and comfort of engaging in things that they know are bad and irrational to a majority of other people. Oftentimes, people have an explanation for their behavior and tend to rationalize it to make what they are doing seem more acceptable. For example, the thought “I value kindness” paired with the action “I just punched someone in the face” is going to bring on some pretty strong feelings of regret, guilt, and disappointment. Dissonance feels like having one foot on one boat and the other foot on another boat.