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Controlling Nonverbal Behavior and Dissonant Cognition

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In at least 400 words, answer the following discussion questions:

1) Why is it important to study nonverbal behavior? Do you think that individuals can control nonverbal behavior? Why or why not?

2) What is dissonant cognition? What effect does dissonant cognition have on an individual's attitudes and behaviors?

References

Bordens, K & Horowitz, I. (2001). Social Psychology. Psychology Press

Breckler, S.J., Olson, J. M., Wiggins, E.C. (2006). Social Psychology Alive. Cengage Learning

Fiske, S. T. (2010). Social beings: Core motives in social psychology (2nd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

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Solution Summary

In at least 400 words, answer the following discussion questions:

1) Why is it important to study nonverbal behavior? Do you think that individuals can control nonverbal behavior? Why or why not?

2) What is dissonant cognition? What effect does dissonant cognition have on an individual's attitudes and behaviors?

References

Bordens, K & Horowitz, I. (2001). Social Psychology. Psychology Press

Breckler, S.J., Olson, J. M., Wiggins, E.C. (2006). Social Psychology Alive. Cengage Learning

Fiske, S. T. (2010). Social beings: Core motives in social psychology (2nd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

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What is dissonant cognition? What effect does dissonant cognition have on an individual's attitudes and behaviors?

To explain dissonant cognition, an understanding of consonant cognition is needed also. Consonant cognition is a state of agreement an inner consistency resulting from compatibility with an individual's attitude, behavior, beliefs, and knowledge. Individuals have thousands of knowledge stored in his or her memory, but are only conscious of a small amount at one time. However, certain consonants remain logically linked, positively or negatively. Consonant cognitions are consistent with one another and imply that the other is good or valid. Two examples of consonant cognitions are brushing your teeth two times per day because brushing teeth helps to prevent cavities which supports the reason to do so (Breckler, Olson & Wiggins, 2006).

Dissonance cognition means that inconsistencies in the attitude and behavior of an ...

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