|
Self-justification describes how, when a person encounters cognitive dissonance, or a situation in which a person's behavior is inconsistent with their beliefs, that person tends to justify the behavior and deny any negative feedback associated with the behavior. == Cognitive dissonance: the engine that drives self-justification == The need to justify our actions and decisions, especially the ones inconsistent with our beliefs, comes from the unpleasant feeling called cognitive dissonance.〔Festinger, L. (1957). ''A theory of cognitive dissonance''. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.〕 Cognitive dissonance is a state of tension that occurs whenever a person holds two inconsistent cognitions. For example, "smoking will shorten the life which I wish to live for as long as possible" and yet "I smoke three packs a day". Dissonance is bothersome in any circumstance but it is especially painful when an important element of self-concept is threatened. For instance, if the smoker considered himself a healthy person, this would cause a greater deal of dissonance than if he considered himself an unhealthy person because the dissonant action is in direct conflict with an image of himself. In this case, people who tried to stop smoking but failed start to think that smoking is not harmful as much as they thought.〔Gibbons,F.X., Eggleston, T.J.,& Benthin, A.C.(1997). Cognitive reactions to smoking relapse: The reciprocal relation between dissonance and self-esteem. ''Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72'', 184-195. 〕 Dissonance can result from an action dissonant with either a negative or positive concept. For example, Aronson〔Aronson, E. (1995). The Social Animal. New York: W.H. Freeman and Co.〕 showed that students who failed numerous times at a task showed evidence of dissonance when they later succeeded at the same task. Some even went to the extent of incorrectly changing answers in order to present a consistent image. Steele〔Steele, C. M. (1988). The psychology of self-affirmation: Sustaining the integrity of the self. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.). ''Advances in Experimental Social Psychology'', Vol. 21, p. 261–302. New York: Academic Press.〕 argues that the main cause of dissonance is not necessarily the difference between actions and beliefs, but the resulting degradation of self-image. By not behaving in line with his beliefs, this may threaten his integrity. One method of reducing dissonance would then be to reaffirm his ‘goodness’. Researchers have shown that this reaffirmation is actually better at reducing dissonant feelings if it is in an unrelated area than a related one. For example, if a smoker is experiencing dissonance because he knows that smoking is bad for his health, he could reduce his dissonance by reminding himself that he is an environmentally friendly person and does a lot of good in reducing his carbon footprint. However, a reminder that he is a healthy person who exercises regularly is actually more likely to increase feelings of dissonance.〔Blanton, H., Cooper, J., Skurnik, I., & Aronson, J. (2009). (When bad things happen to good feedback: Exacerbating the need for self-justification with self-affirmations. ) ''Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 23''(7), 684–692.〕 In support of this idea, research shows that in low-threat situations, people with high self-esteem are less likely to engage in self-justification strategies than those with low self-esteem. It is possible that people with high self-esteem have more accessible positive thoughts about themselves that can successfully reduce dissonance. However, in high threat situations, these positive thoughts are not enough, and high self-esteem people do engage in self-justification strategies.〔Holland, R., Meertens, R. M., & Van Vugt, M. (2002). (Dissonance on the road: Self-esteem as a moderator of internal and external self-justification strategies. ) ''Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28''(12), 1713-1724.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Self-justification」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|