"Cognitive dissonance is everywhere - but it's not well understood. When we're aware of it, it can be a powerful motivator for behavioral change and help us enhance insight. When we're not, it can cause us to rationalize harmful behavior and keep us stuck in the same painful cycles. Many of us live with the mental and emotional strain of holding conflicting truths about ourselves and our world."
"We can be confronted with cognitive dissonance at various points throughout our lives - in childhood, when so many of us are taught that we are not acceptable as is, in adolescence and adulthood, when we receive and buy into messages from society about what success looks like that run counter to what we know about, or truly want for, ourselves."
"or families where the narrative about a particular situation varies widely from the truth. Whether it occurs in an intimate relationship, in a family system, or in a society plagued by the discrepant expression of its purported values, the effects of cognitive dissonance can be just as damaging. As a racially ambiguous woman adopted internationally into a white family with three older biological sons, cognitive dissonance shaped much of my upbringing."
Cognitive dissonance creates mental and emotional strain by forcing individuals to hold conflicting truths about themselves and their world. Awareness of cognitive dissonance can motivate behavioral change and enhance insight, while unawareness can lead to rationalizing harmful behavior and repeating painful cycles. Cognitive dissonance appears in childhood, adolescence, and adulthood when social messages conflict with personal desires or self-knowledge. Certain upbringings, including overt abuse, neglect, highly image-conscious families, or divergent family narratives, increase dissonance. Cognitive dissonance affects intimate relationships, family systems, and societies, producing damage. Attempts to resolve dissonance frequently generate false narratives that reshape personal and collective realities. Clinical cases show family-reinforced negative beliefs as a byproduct.
Read at Psychology Today
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