Cognitive Dissonance Theory and Racism

Since the field of social mental science first began its investigation into the phenomenon of racial discrimination and outrage, a number of portentous theories bear been constructed in an move to effectively believe prejudice and provide theoretical taste into the various ways in which we as a society, individuals, and psychologists argon to help castrate this ample global issue. Such social psychological theories include: tyrannous Personality Theory, The Frustration belligerence Hypothesis, Realist Conflict scheme, affectionate individualism Theory, Social Learning theory, Social Cognition and Cognitive dissonance theory. Each of these theories has provided theoretical cleverness into various fundamental factors that atomic number 18 pertinent to the formulation, maintenance, and expression of prejudice. However, of totally the social psychological theories that have attempted to effectively conceptualize prejudice and in so doing develop ways of bring dow n its grossly harmful effects on the individual and society, Festingers (1957) theory of Cognitive Dissonance seems whiz of the most relevant to the clinical applications of working with racist individuals, in the first place because the theory provides clinicians with both hearty conceptual and practical insight into deuce of the primary psychological elements that are most relevant to the process of helping clients change their racist or damaging viewpoints in treatment, namely the comparative process that exists between an individuals knowledges and the behavioural consequences that follow as a result. \nThe theory of cognitive dissonance, jibe to Festinger (1957), postulates that pairs of cognitions can be any related or misrelated to genius another. If two cognitions are related to one another, they are considered then to be either consonant or discordant. For two cognitions to be consonant one must follow like a shot from the other; they are considered dissonant if the inverse of one cognition follows from the other....