Cognitive dissonance

Ha. I think this blog has become abit like my journal already. Records of lotsa thoughts and memories. This entry is my own encouragement to myself, since i was amazed at the coincidence of what i learnt during both my slacking & studying recently. Psychology is so cool~ If only i had one more elective to take, i would have taken psych A & B.

Was watching the show 'Liar Game' that Patrick so sweetly gave to me as bye bye pressie. It's a bit like 'Hunter X Hunter' the anime, but this one's a real life psychology jap drama. About this organization that believes that all humans are evil deep down, will lie and take advantage of others for their own benefit, so they organised this Liar Game to see who the best liar is, with tons of money as reward or at stake. Glad to say that the show ends with lotsa hope for us all, cos there was one girl who was truly pure and showed everyone that it is possible to stay pure even in an evil environment. This was great encouragement to live 'in the light' in the midst of darkness.

One small psychology snippet for everyone! It's a rare cartoonish bit of the show, but explains quite clearly about 'cognitive dissonance'.



According to Wikipedia, "cognitive dissonance is a psychological state that describes the uncomfortable feeling when a person begins to understand that something the person believes to be true is, in fact, not true. In simple terms, it can be the filtering of information that conflicts with what one already believes, in an effort to ignore that information and reinforce one's beliefs. In detailed terms, it is the perception of incompatibility between two cognitions, where "cognition" is defined as any element of knowledge, including attitude, emotion, belief, or behavior. The theory of cognitive dissonance states that contradicting cognitions serve as a driving force that compels the mind to acquire or invent new thoughts or beliefs, or to modify existing beliefs, so as to reduce the amount of dissonance (conflict) between cognitions." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance)

Even as i continued to ponder, i surprisingly read in my notes, a few days later, this part about a book by Robert Caroll - 'When prophecy failed'. "According to his theory, ppl cannot tolerate conflict btw diff states & experiences for very long."
They'd usually deal with them by:
1. avoiding this conflicting evidence
2. seeking a grp support for the original belief
3. reinterpreting their beliefs

Prob that's why YPM / OCF to is so dear to my heart. I feel comfortable to be with the ppl of the same belief! And it's my grp support, and helps correct and impart some of my beliefs. Plus a boldness booster cos i can't avoid certain conflicts, but got to tackle them head on. So even in the midst of busy-ness, i shall try not to stop attending ocf! For others back home, ypm ya! :)

I think everyone experiences the same feelings as me. Maybe not as badly sometimes, cos i'm easily influenced. Ha. The triangle in the 2 choices (refer to video) is not always as clear as it should be, or i let cognitive dissonance make it blurry. I guess that's why i've got to continually spend time with God isn't it? If not i won't even know which stand to take, let alone decide on that stand. Esp when there's a new covenant:
'I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.' Ezekiel 36:26-27

Okies. That's all. Hope ppl were entertained. My main source of homesick remedies are blogs now. Ma-ta-ne.

P.S. to Patrick: Love the show! Thanks for giving it to me. Just one thing. It was scary!!! I know it's really just tiny tiny bits of music, and a mask that made it scary, but i'm really faint-hearted you know? Warn me first next time k?! haha. Other than that, love the show!