Running head: COGNITIVE DISSONANCE THEORY

Communication Theory
COMM 25902
Vanessa Heeman
April 16, 2013
Theory Assignment
This was one of my favorite projects I completed while I was an undergraduate student.
We were instructed to choose a communication theory of our choice and find a video clip that
demonstrated the theory and apply its key concepts. I chose the cognitive dissonance theory
because I believe everyone can apply this theory to a situation in their life. An example of this
would be someone knowing they have a genetic predisposition to lung cancer, but they continue
to smoke tobacco. I thought this was an interesting theory to learn more about, because it is a
phenomenon that affects peoples daily lives. I didnt know exactly what video clip to choose for
this theory when it was assigned to the class, but I stumbled across a great example of it when I
was watching my weekly episode of Greys Anatomy. The episode was based on two of the main
characters, April and Jackson, who were very much attracted to each other, but had different
personal values and beliefs. April was a very religious person and didnt believe in sex before
marriage, however while on a business trip, she lost her virginity to Jackson. She was completely
distraught after this happened, because her actions didnt align with her personal beliefs and it
affected the way she handled the situation. I chose to do research on how peoples actions
change based on previous beliefs and their current actions. I enjoyed completing the project,
because I was I able to share clips of my favorite show with the class and effectively apply the
cognitive dissonance theory to it. This project shows that I am capable of applying new concepts
to applicable real life situations which is a valuable asset in the business world.

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THEORY: Cognitive Dissonance Theory (CDT) (Festinger, 1957)

MATERIALS: Video clips of Greys Anatomy, season 8, episode 21 Moment of Truth &
episode 22 Let the Bad Times Roll
RUN TIME: 00:4:05
VIDEO LINK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-hI4eAZFF0 (0:00-1:20)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEjtc89jTl4 (0:00-0:35)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfGEByyEoNU (0:00-2:02)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDWPWZuPgOI (0:20-1:11)

DESCRIPTION: The video clips covers a situation in which April decides to break her vow of
chastity as a Christian and give her virginity to her friend and coworker Jackson. Being that this
was a very important life decision that goes against her core beliefs, she immediately begins to
feel an overwhelming magnitude of dissonance despite the fact that she liked her experience.
APPLICATION: The purpose of the following report is to apply key concepts of Festingers
(1957) cognitive dissonance theory (CDT) to the situation between April Kepner and Jackson
Avery as they have a one-night stand on a business trip. This application will illustrate how
engaging in behaviors or thoughts that go against ones personal values, beliefs, or attitudes will
produce feelings of discomfort due to the inconsistency produced by the dissonant relationship.
First, the theoretical concept of cognitions and the type of dissonant relationship April
encounters in the video clip which produces cognitive dissonance. Next, the assumptions of CDT
that explain the arousal of dissonance in April will be addressed specifically targeting the
importance beliefs, attitudes, and behavior play in a providing cognitive consistency which is
why April has such an adverse reaction to her decision in hindsight. Finally, the ways in which
April seeks to reduce the dissonance as a result of her choice to have a one-night stand. She
practices the conceptual perceptions of selective attention and selective interpretation in
justifying her rationale to try and come to terms with her actions, like when April engages yet in
anther rendezvous with Avery in an attempt to produce a consonant relationship with her
decision while still on the trip then later tries to distance herself from the continued temptation
by avoiding Avery once back to work at the hospital.

The framework of CDT focuses on the concept of cognitions, which are ways of knowing
beliefs, judgments, and thoughts, and how they affect a persons actions (West & Turner, 2010).
For example, certain beliefs will support a certain attitude which then will dictate a particular
behavior. In the series of video clips, the character April Kepner, a hospital resident, is known to
be the good girl on the staff. She has the reputation of having consonant relationships with her

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beliefs and actions which mean that both elements are in equilibrium or agree with each other
(West & Turner, 2010). She affiliates herself as a Christian and holds the values laid out by the
religion to high esteem. Throughout the show, she continuously shows examples of consonance
relationships by how her actions align with her core values by being the best person she can be
by earning an honest living, not indulging in gossip or swearing, and not engaging in sexual
activity before marriage. Due to this consistency, she has had very little opportunity to feel the
phenomenon known as cognitive dissonance which is defined as a feeling of discomfort resulting
from inconsistent attitudes, thoughts, and behaviors (West & Turner, 2010). When the hospital
staff goes away for the weekend to take qualifying exams, April begins to crack a bit under the
pressure and behaves in a way where some dissonant relationships between her beliefs and
actions are formed such as when she punches a guy out of anger, begins swearing, and makes
physical advances on her friend. It isnt until April makes a decision to violate her personal
beliefs and give up her virginity outside of marriage to her best friend and coworker Jackson
Avery that she begins to experience extreme psychological discomfort. This decision produces a
dissonant relationship between Aprils belief of not having sex outside of marriage, yet giving
Jackson her virginity anyways.
All four assumptions of CDT theory were encompassed within the four clips featuring April
going through the various stages of experiencing cognitive dissonance. The first assumption
states that people desire consistency in their beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors (West & Turner,
2010). An example of this is shown early on in the clip when she states that her life has been
governed by specific rules since she was a child which when followed produced consistency. She
desired her actions to be consonant with her beliefs. The next two assumptions encompass the
main point of the theory and theme of the clips, which are that dissonance is created by
psychological inconsistencies and it is an aversive state that drives people to action. April shows
this when she experiences discomfort with her decision to engage in premarital sex and has
episodes of panic regarding her realization. Once dissonance is felt, the person almost always
strives to reduce it and achieve consonance again. She was seen doing this by first trying to
rationalize her decision, then later on trying to distance herself from the temptation by avoiding
Avery once they are back at their normal work place in an attempt to regain the innocence she
had before they were together.
CDT predicts that once cognitive dissonance is experienced from incompatible beliefs and
actions, that the discomfit will motivate change (West & Turner, 2010). The first example of this
is shown when April begins to change her views on why premarital sex would be ok. She uses
the rationale that as an adult moving onto a new stage in her life with new opportunities,
something that feels so good couldnt possibly be bad. Rationale is used when one is trying to
justify actions by determining reasoning for the inconsistency (West & Turner, 2010). The state
of arousal that is assumed to be elicited by inconsistent beliefs serves as a signal that the current
system of beliefs has to be revised to facilitate context-appropriate action (Gawronski, 2012).
April engages in a couple different methods when trying to cope with her internal dissonance
that was created by her actions. According to the theory, there are three main ways in which
people strive to decrease dissonance. April engages in examples of all of them through her
emotional roller coaster processing of her predicament. First, she tries to change her beliefs to
eliminate the dissonance of premarital sex. She tells herself that since it feels good it really cant
be considered bad. By continuing to engage in sexual affairs with Jackson, she increases the

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consistency of her added cognitive changes which reinforces her previous thought process of
becoming more accepting of this new activity in her social life. Lastly, she makes the distinction
that the problem wasnt the fact that she broke her promise to Jesus, but it was that her
previous supposition for the possibility of something being good and not being bad (even though
it was against her beliefs) turned out to be true which made her crave sex even more which was
something she had never even desired beforehand.
The mind being a very powerful aspect of human beings is known to be internally consistent
when considering cognitive dissonance, which is why it generates biased behaviors (Dias, Oda,
Akiba, Arruda, & Bruder, 2009). When someone decides to violate that consistency, dissonance
is experienced initially psychologically, which can then produce other effects such as physically.
This is seen when April and Jackson sit next to each other than morning after their rendezvous.
Obviously the feelings of discomfort from the realization of the finality of her actions produced
feelings of internal guilt, anxiety, and uneasiness that settled into her subconscious. She had such
an intense reaction from April. She expressed that she believed Jesus hated her which would
mean a chasm was created between her and the core values and belief system she identifies and
grew up with which is of high importance. This shows that she was feeling a great amount of
magnitude of dissonance, which is the quantitative amount of discomfort felt (West & Turner,
2010). This also translates into external physiological effects when April is having a panic attack
in the mens restroom during her exam interview. She attributes her inability to attain a sense of
peace and calmness and ask God for help because she actively went against one of the major
tenants of her religion. Typically, in a situation of uneasiness, she would pray which would be a
consistent action with her beliefs. However, since she believes her relationship with God is
severed due to her inconsistent actions, she believes she is left with no other choice than to deal
with things herself. This leads her to irrationally storm into the mens restroom so that she can
dry her shirt from the persistent sweating that has ensued due to nerves about the interview and
possibly from her discomfort about her previous nights decision. She tries to reform her beliefs
and become comfortable with extramarital sexual activity, because she wants to continue this
behavior fully knowing it goes against her current beliefs. Although discomfort is usually
associated with a negative connotation, the fact that it motivates change in people can be seen as
a positive thing when personal growth is taken into account. Eventually, April came to the
conclusion that even though she made a decision inconsistent with her beliefs, it didnt change
the person that she was.
Since CDT theory can most commonly be applied to the decision making process, it is important
to keep into perspective that, the decision-making between two alternatives, both have positive
and negative aspects: this is the normal type of decision-making situations (Allahyani, 2012).
When weighing these polar aspects of choices, people will alter their perceptions and avoid
information that increases dissonance. Selective interpretation is seen when she interprets the
feelings she experiences during sex as good experience rather than a heinous act, and attributes
goodness to her current beliefs to try and distinguish a positive correlation between the two. She
engaged in selective attention when comparing herself to other staff members when rating how
bad her actions really could have been being that she only had a single hook up as opposed to the
numerous and shameless encounters between her coworkers. Selective exposure would have
taken place if as a result of her feeling like her connection with Jesus was broke, if she stopped
doing things associated with her religion such as going to church and praying with the

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knowledge that she would be reminded of her current actions and the dissonant relationship with
her beliefs.
In conclusion, this report applied the theoretical concepts of cognitions, resulting cognitive
dissonance from inconsistent actions and behaviors, consonant and dissonant relationships,
magnitude if dissonance derived from importance, assumptions of CDT, and finally ways to
reduce dissonance through various forms of perception when one is experiencing discomfort
from an inconsistency. The purpose of this analysis was to examine how intrapersonal feelings of
discomfort push people to act in certain ways to reduce the dissonance they are experiencing.
This theoretical application helps to explain why people desire consistency in their lives and the
effort they go through to avoid or cope with cognitive dissonance when it occurs.

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6
References

Allahyani, M. (2012). The relationship between cognitive dissonance and decision-making styles
in a sample of female students at the university of Umm Al Qura. Education. 641-663.
Dias, ., Oda, E., Akiba, H., Arruda, L., & Bruder, L. (2009). Is cognitive dissonance an
intrinsic property of the human mind? An experimental solution to a half-century
debate. World Academy of Science, Engineering & Technology, 54-78.
Gawronski, B. (2012). Back to the future of dissonance theory: cognitive consistency as a core
motive. Social Cognition, 30(6), 652-668.
Turner, L. & West, R. (2010). Introducing Communication Theory: Analysis and Application.
(4th ed). New York: McGraw Hill.