Chapter 16: Cognitive Dissonance Theory

Cognitive Dissonance Theory holds that people experience discomfort when there is an inconsistency between their attitudes and their actions. This discomfort is known as "cognitive dissonance", and the theory states that people have an inherent need to avoid or alleviate this feeling. The level of dissonance a person experiences is directly proportional to the importance of the issue as well as the level of the discrepancy between the person's attitudes and behaviors.
To deal with cognitive dissonance, people can either change their behaviors or their attitudes; attitudes are easier to change.

As an example of this theory, a person might decide that he or she wants to save money rather than spending it. This person might set some kind of spending limit for a certain period, such as a month and decide that they will not go over that limit until they have saved what they wanted to save. However, as time goes on, the person might begin to go over the limit slightly at first, then gradually increasing their "overspending". As this person saw him or herself doing this, he or she would most likely try to rationalize the behavior by telling him or herself that it's only a slight overspending. Eventually, however, the monthly spending limit would most likely collapse. Rather than change the spending behavior, a person is more likely to change his or her attitude towards the spending behavior in order to justify it, ultimately leading him or her down a sort of slippery slope until the previously-established system is gone completely.

Chapter 15: Elaboration Likelihood Model

The Elaboration Likelihood Model deals with how people react to persuasive messages. According to the theory, people can react to persuasive messages in one of two ways, and the way they react affects what kind of change might occur in them. The first of these ways, known as the "central route", focuses on the content of the message. In the central route, a person examines the content of the message and carefully thinks about whatever issue it concerns. The second way a person can react to a persuasive message is to focus on aspects of the speaker moreso than the message itself. People using this method, called the "peripheral route", may focus more on the attitude, credibility, or likability of the speaker as opposed to the message itself. People use this method as a "shortcut" in order to think about a message without actually examining its contents.

Examples of this theory at work can be seen in the field of politics. A great deal of political advertising is used to present a good image of a particular candidate using graphics, music, and certain kinds of emotional appeals. These are examples of the peripheral route; the ads focus more on the person than on the message in the hopes that people using the peripheral route will vote in favor of the candidate in the ad.

Chapter 13: Constructivism

Constructivism is a theory that examines cognitive communication. The goal of this theory is to study the human mind, or, as researchers call it, the "black box". The main argument of this theory is that people make sense of the world through a set of constructs, and these constructs determine how a person will communicate.

A major aspect of this theory is the idea of "cognitive complexity", or the set of mental constructs a person has that enable him or her to more effectively read the subtle differences between different people. According to the theory, the more constructs a person has, the more cognitively complex they are in a given area. The focus of this theory is on personal constructs, which are constructs that humans use to view the world in terms of people.

An example of this theory at work could be when a person enters a classroom for the first time and does a quick visual survey of the class. The more cognitively complex a person is, the more constructs they will have for classifying the people in the classroom. They may start with the more obvious constructs-male vs. female, short vs. tall, etc. However, a more cognitively complex person will look a bit more closely and will most likely have a greater number of categories to place people in. In fact, they may have so many constructs that they find it difficult to easily categorize everyone in the class.

Chapter 11: Relational Dialectics

Relational Dialectics deals with human relationships. The major assumption that this theory operates under is that people always have three dialectical tensions in their relationships.

The first of these dialectic tensions is the "Integration-Separation" dialectic. Internally, this refers to the conflict between the people in the relationship between connectedness and separation. Externally, it refers to the conflict over how the people in the relationship will relate to others outside the relationship; will they be more inclusive of others, or will they keep themselves more secluded in their relationship?

The second dialectic is "Stability-Change". Internally, this refers to the levels of certainty and uncertainty between the two people in the relationship. Externally, it refers to what the relationship is like in relation to other peoples' relationships, i.e. its level of conventionality versus its level of uniqueness.

The third dialectic is "Expression-Nonexpression". Internally, this refers to how open or closed the people in the relationship are to each other. Externally, it refers to how much information the people in the relationship reveal to people outside the relationship.

I once overheard a girl on her cell phone talking to one of her friends about her boyfriend's apparent lack of openness. She also seemed concerned that he didn't feel as close to her as she did to him. This girl's concerns illustrated the Expression-Nonexpression and Integration-Separation dialectics, respectively.