Behavior and Situations That Cause Dissonance Arousing Circumstances

A specific situation that illustrates dissonance-arousing circumstances is when someone has to make a choice. If a person who believes in being healthy chooses to partake in unhealthy behavior this can cause dissonance. Their belief about themselves is conflicted by the actions they make. Their actions result from their choices. 

Another behavior that illustrates dissonance-arousing circumstances is effort justification. This type of behavior is illustrated when a the outcome of an action is valued equally to the amount of effort put into receiving the outcome. An example of effort justification is the value of a diploma being high because the effort expended to receive it is high. 

Cognitive dissonance is an uncomfortable feeling someone gets when they have 2 different beliefs that conflict with each other. This feeling is uncomfortable because one of the beliefs are about the self. The other belief goes against the belief about self, and this causes discomfort for the person with these conflicting ideas.