By: Aurora Dziadul | Staff Writer
We can all think of a time when we did something contrary to our attitudes. Maybe you didn’t study for an important test and ended up failing, snapped at a friend who was just trying to help you, or told someone something you swore you’d never tell. It usually leaves you feeling like a terrible person when your actions don’t align with your mental image of yourself. You’re generally a good student and friend! So how do you deal with the mental divide that misalignment creates?
Psychologists have identified something called cognitive dissonance, which occurs whenever our beliefs about ourselves or the world conflict with our actions or some other thoughts we have. This creates a great deal of mental discomfort, as we psychologically and socially like to appear consistent with both our actions and our beliefs or values. How you deal with this dissonance depends on the situation, but most people employ a solution called rationalization, where they come up with a third reason for why they engaged in a certain behavior (without contradicting the beliefs they already hold).
For example, if you fail a test after choosing to go to a game instead of studying, you might justify it by saying that tests do not truly measure how much you are learning, and that the effort you put into your papers, projects, and participation is what makes you a good student. Similarly, you could justify snapping at a friend by thinking that they provoked you and that you had no choice but to argue back. This is the most common way of reducing dissonance and allows us to keep our previous ideas about ourselves without changing our behavior at all.
However, sometimes rationalizing our behavior simply doesn’t work, and we have to change our attitude about something. Maybe you consider yourself to be an environmentally-conscious person but always forget to recycle your plastic bottles, or leave the lights on, or the water running. Instead of justifying it, you might simply decide that it isn’t that important for you to be friendly to the environment, and that one person really can’t make that much of a difference to begin with.
Finally, in some cases we are forced to change our behavior in order to keep our current attitude about something. This occurs most frequently with ideas that we feel strongly about, although it is probably one of the least used manners of reducing cognitive dissonance. Say you really want to get into graduate school, so your perception of yourself as a good student is important to you. Next time, instead of hanging out with your friends you might study for that test so that you don’t experience a bad grade again.
Of course, these processes don’t usually happen within our conscious awareness. Most of the time, you resolve cognitive dissonance without even realizing you’re doing so. However, there is a way that you can harness the power of this mental discomfort in order to solve a common problem that college students face: procrastination. Many students find themselves holding off on doing their work until the last possible minute, making their own lives infinitely more stressful. One of the most helpful tips to stop procrastinating is to block off time to do your work. If you have two hours free on Sunday afternoon, write down in your calendar that you’re going to work on an assignment during this time; even better if you specify which assignment!
You can also try telling people, whether that be friends, family, or even your pet that you are going to do something by such and such a date (preferably a date prior to when it’s due). We want to appear consistent to other people even more so than to ourselves. Therefore, if you tell someone that you are going to do something, you are considerably more likely to do so.
Lastly, consider focusing on why the task is important for you. If you think something is pointless, you’re not going to have much motivation to do it. But, if you focus on why that paper or test is going to help you understand the material better, aid your academic or career goals, or simply stretch your mind, you may find yourself almost excited to start it!
Now, instead of fighting your cognitive dissonance, you can embrace it. Next time you’re struggling to get your work done on time, try employing one of these tips!
