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| By unknown, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org |
The following extract is taken from a current research outline, which aims to bring together the ethological idea of self-directed actions and concepts from social psychology - in this case, Leon Festinger's concept of Cognitive Dissonance.
In
terms of psychological concepts, perhaps the closest social
psychology has come to recognising the cognitive processes pertaining
to displacement behaviour is Festinger's notion of cognitive
dissonance. Festinger's theory (1962) aims to understand mental
discomfort and how it is regulated. Cognitive dissonance is a form of
tension where a conflict exists between current thoughts and a past
action. In other words, it is a tension born of hindsight (regret,
guilt, anxiety, uncertainty) and it is so unsettling that it can only
be resolved through changing how a person thinks about a past event,
and/or changing how others thinks about it and/ or changing behaviour
in order to create greater congruence (less dissonance) between what
one believe one should have done and what one actually did. For
example, a person who buys a new computer may be very happy with his
purchase but this mental satisfaction will be threatened if he finds
the same computer at discounted price in a different store later. To
re-establish peace of mind he must either convince himself that, for
example, the first store will give him better long-term service, or
convince others that it was worth paying a bit extra, or aim to take
the machine back for a refund in order to benefit from the cheaper
offer.
However,
Festinger's concept of cognitive dissonance is a disembodied one. In
other words, discomfort is mediated through thoughts and socially
directed actions. But Festinger does not focus on the possibility
that cognitive dissonance, especially where it is prolonged and/or
where a person is unable to resolve the dissonance, may produce
self-directed behaviours and, perhaps, in severe cases of mental
conflict or disturbance, even stereotypical activities. It is also,
as previously stated, a backward focused process whereby it is the
past event that is causing dissonance in the present moment. In
these respects, Festinger's concept does not include the idea that
mental discomfort might also be produced by a forward focused
process. In other words, presently occurring cognition may become
contradicted by a suddenly changed situation. In this case, an
eagerly expected, desired or anticipated event will produce mental
discomfort if the situation suddenly alters so that it no longer
supports those expectations, desires or anticipations. For example,
a gambler who strongly believes his horse is going to win, will
experience sudden discomfort if the leading animal bet upon falls
just ahead of the finish line. The sudden thwarting of a positively
anticipated outcome would create mental discomfort as two opposing
cognitive-behavioural systems (celebration v. disappointment) are
momentarily in balance. As a result, a self-directed action would be
highly likely to follow as a means to reducing this stress so that a
transition towards the most adaptive response to external events can
emerge. In some instances, where self-directed behaviour fails to
reduce tension sufficiently then an outward aggression or anger will
be expressed but at this point the mental tension is broken
completely and no forward focused dissonance would be experienced
thereafter.
If
displacement behaviour can be viewed as a forward focused behaviour
which serves to adapt cognition and behaviour to a newly emerged
reality, and if cognitive dissonance is viewed as a backward process
of mediating discomfort after the new reality has settled and become
accepted, then it is rational for these concepts to be understood as
part of a larger process of homeostasis, whereby external stimuli and
internal physiological responses are mediated. If displacement
behaviour facilitates cognitive and behavioural acclimatisation to
the unfolding present (e.g. against all expectation the horse lost
the race), then cognitive dissonance facilitates attitudinal
adjustment to the gambler's newly established relationship to the
world which cannot be changed in any way other than how s/he frames
it to himself ('oh well, easy come, easy go!'). In other words, both
processes serve an adaptive process of reconciling self to world but
via differing means: one utilising physical self-directed contact as
a means to reducing the initial stress after a thwarted expectation
and the second involving mental reframing as the pain endured is
slowly accepted and even positively regarded.
As
a final note, it is important to add that displacement behaviour and
cognitive dissonance have one further aspect in common: they serve to
manage a situation that cannot be reversed in time nor negated
destructively. In other words, these processes are concerned with
how to tolerate and adapt to the world rather than destroy it in rage
or retreat into psychotic fantasy or enter a frozen catatonic state.
References
Festinger,
L. (1962) Cognitive
dissonance. Scientific American, Vol 207(4), 93-107
