Cognitive Dissonance: Reexamining a Pivotal Theory in Psychology

by Eddie Harmon-Jones (editor)

2019 Outstanding Academic Title What mental process occurs when a person does something she knows is unhealthy? When an honest person tells a "white lie," what happens to his or her sense of integrity? If we must choose between two equally attractive options, why does our value judgement of the options change after the choice has been made? In 1954 Dr. Leon Festinger first posited a theory of cognitive dissonance to describe the psychological phenomenon that occurs in these situations. In the years since, cognitive dissonance has become a central pillar of psychological theory, as was documented in the first edition of this book.  In this new and fully-updated edition, editor Eddie Harmon-Jones brings the study of cognitive dissonance into the twenty-first century.  Contributors survey recent discoveries about the role dissonance plays in a variety of information processes, as well as connections between dissonance processes and other motivational processes.  Other authors introduce mathematical and action-based models that summarize how dissonance works.  Evidence describing the neural correlates of dissonance are also provided, helping demonstrate the biological foundations of the theory.    

297 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 12, 2019

Reviews

[Robert Bogue]

There’s a lot of research that has been done on cognitive dissonance.  Cognitive Dissonance: Reexamining a Pivotal Theory in Psychology is a guide to evaluate the research and what we’ve learned over the 60+ years since it was first proposed.  (See A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance for Leon Festinger’s original work.)  The perspective of the editor is to provide differing points of view to allow readers to draw their own conclusions.  Contrast this a bit with Joel Cooper’s views in Cognitive Dissonance: Fifty Years of a Classic Theory, which doesn’t include criticisms of his proposed revisions to the model – some of which are relatively serious concerns.

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[Cognition · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have just received a copy of this book and I am so eager to read this.