Perception And Cognitive Dissonance Theory

Adelman 1

What is Perception?

Perception, according to Yolanda Williams, a psychology professor; can be defined as our way to recognize and interpret information we?ve gathered through our senses. This also includes how we respond to a certain situation with the given information (Williams). Psychology is the study of behavior and mental processes (Milnes). Perception relates to psychology because as discussed in the notes, psychology is the study of behavior and mental processes, while perception is how we react to situations. In other words, our behavior towards that situation.

Another word often associated with perception is sensation. They are often used interchangeably, however; sensation is the process of reevaluating information from

There are many theories about different subjects in perception. There are also disorders that relate to perception even though you may think perception is just a person?s view point.

First, the self-perception theory, inspired by B. F. Skinner?s analyses, is when individuals come to ?know? or better understand their own attitudes, emotions, and other personal states mostly by concluding them from observing their own behavior and/or the situations in which this behavior occurs. One example would be an individual who describes ?butterflies in the stomach?. We have all identified this feeling for ourselves, on our own (Bem).

The cognitive dissonance theory is a person having two thoughts that contradict each other. For example, a person that thinks eating sugar is bad for you, but then continues to eat sugar because they believe that by not eating sugar, it wouldn?t change anything, so nothing will change the current health the individual is in. These thoughts are contradicting, almost hypocritical. According to Leon Festinger, the existence of dissonance causes the individual to be psychologically uncomfortable, which then allows the individual to try to remain constant in his/her thoughts. Also, while the individual wants to become consistent, the individual will try to avoid situations that include that subject that causes dissonance

The Dress that became an internet phenomenon over-night, because people couldn?t agree on what color it was. Some people swore that they saw a white dress with gold lace, while others saw a blue dress with black lace. Scientists studied the dress and came to the conclusion that the different perception in color is due to the expectation that the dress will appear the same under different lighting, explaining color constancy. People who saw the dress as white and gold, probably saw that the dress was lit by sunshine, causing their brains to ignore the shorter, bluer wavelengths. The people that saw the dress as blue and black, saw it lit by a false lighting; causing their brains to ignore longer, redder wavelengths