Author: Edward Rodd

Cognitive Dissonance is the discomfort that arises when one’s thoughts and behaviors do not correspond. For example, if a person supports conservation and the environment yet drives a car which is fuel-inefficient, they will experience cognitive dissonance. To reduce this cognitive dissonance, they will convince themselves that the car is actually not bad for the environment or buy a new one.

Cognitive dissonance is reduced to justify one’s current situation, especially if that particular situation is one that they already committed to. I personally experienced cognitive dissonance during my first few months at college. Specifically, I wondered constantly if college was worth it and whether my major was something I was interested in. But, I began to justify more and more my choice to attend Penn State and choose the major that I did the more time I spent here. This was because it was easier to rationalize that I made the right choice rather than start all over and switch majors or transfer. And, as a result, I became happier and more comfortable in college because I had a positive attitude towards it. If I didn’t commit so much to college, I probably would have not adopted this new mindset.

A similar example is my experience in fraternity life. I personally believe that the time I put into pledging my fraternity makes me value it much more. It is far easier to appreciate the fraternity rather than think that the pledging process was a waste of time.

Cognitive dissonance is an interesting subject. There were many times in my life where my attitudes changed to match my current behavior. However, cognitive dissonance can also be reduced by changing one’s behavior. For example, instead of justifying my choice to stay in my major or stay at Penn State, I could have switched my major or transferred. I often wonder how different my life would have been if I would have done this. Interestingly, there is a chance that if I did change my major or transfer I would regret my decision. Then, I would adopt a new attitude to justify my decision. Thus, the cycle would continue.

Classical conditioning is a type of learning in which an individual learns to associate stimuli. For example, if someone sees lightning, they expect thunder. Therefore, whenever they see lightning, they wince because they are anticipating thunder. Meanwhile, phobias are a persistent or irrational fear of an object or situation that disrupts behavior. Both phobias and classical conditioning relate to my white coat syndrome. White coat syndrome is the phenomenon where people experience a higher than normal blood pressure in clinical settings, mostly due to anxiety. In my case, I become very anxious whenever I get a physical.

My white coat syndrome relates to classical conditioning because I associate the stimuli of the doctor’s office with anxiety. I think this is because whenever I visit the doctor’s I know that I am going to be uncomfortable and may have to get a shot. My unconditioned stimulus was getting a shot, and my unconditioned response was to become fearful. Since I associate the doctor’s office with shots, the doctor’s office can be classified as my conditioned stimulus. And finally, my conditioned response is anxiety towards the conditioned stimulus which is the doctor’s office.

Knowing that my white coat syndrome is linked to classical conditioning is very relieving because it assures me that my anxiety is associated only with this particular setting. I generally do not become too anxious when I stand near a cliff or speak in public. This is because I never had negative experiences with the two. Therefore, I do not have a fearful reaction to the stimuli of heights or public speaking.

My white coat syndrome can also be related to phobias because my anxiety is irrational and disrupts my behavior. There is no reason that I should be afraid of the doctor’s because it is safe, and my anxiety causes me to become too nervous. Although my white coat syndrome can be classified as a phobia, it is a very mild one. While most phobias are persistent, I managed to calm myself down and lower my blood pressure to a normal level. My behavior may be disrupted by my nervousness, but I can still communicate with my doctor and perform the tasks necessary to complete my physical. If I was not able to calm myself down and had a complete panic attack, then I would classify my phobia as severe.

Extinction is the process in classical conditioning in which a conditioned response is gradually reduced because the unconditioned stimuli no longer follows the conditioned stimuli. In order for my white coat syndrome to end, I need to no longer associate the doctor’s office, my conditioned stimuli, with shots and uncomfortable situations, my unconditioned stimulus. Fortunately, the next time I get a physical I will most likely not need a shot. As a result, there will no longer be an unconditioned stimulus and my conditioned response of anxiety will be less.

 

Memory is a tricky subject. When recalling certain events in our lives, we tend to fill in missing information to make our story more coherent, and this missing information may be told to us by other people. As a result, many of the memories we have from certain events may not even be true memories. For example, lets say you fell off your bike and had no recollection of it. But, your friend told you the details of how and where you fell off your bike. This causes you to consider your friend’s description as your own memory. This is called “Implanting memories”, and it is the phenomenon where people consider memories as true because the events are told to them by other people. In extreme cases, people can even be convinced that something happened to them that had never occurred. I experienced the phenomenon of implanted memories when I got a concussion, and although I wasn’t lied to about what happened to me, I still cannot tell which events are my own memories.

The events leading up to and following the concussion are blurry. I remember walking through the woods with my friends, and since nobody told me about this particular part, I can assume that it actually happened. Then, we had the fantastic idea of pushing each other while laying in a hammock. Although I have been told about this part, I am almost certain that I have valid memories of pushing my friends in the hammock that day. I was told that my concussion occurred because I tried to grab a leaf from a tree while being swung in the hammock but accidentally grabbed a whole branch. This ruined my momentum and caused me to fall abruptly to the ground. Here is where it all gets blurry. I have memories of grabbing leaves from the branches while being swung in the hammock, but is this because I was told that grabbing the leaves was the cause of my concussion? I don’t know for sure, and, in fact, I never will. After I fell, my friends told me that I didn’t remember why I was there. This caused some of my friends to tease me because they thought I was joking. For others, it caused panic and fear. For the first few weeks after the concussion, I didn’t remember any of their reactions. But as I was told what happened, I began to have visual memories of my friend’s reactions. However, these “memories”, no matter how real they seem to me, are most definitely fake.

The stories I have been told about my concussion caused me to form memories that likely not true, and I am certain about this. But, what truly interests me is the fact that I cannot distinguish between reality and implanted memories. Whether I actually remember grabbing the leaves or pushing the hammock is a mystery to me. Also, scenarios like these are not limited to concussions. There can be several memories I have that I think are true but only seem real to me because someone told me. Memory is tricky, and it can blur the lines of reality.

 

Behaviorism was a form of psychology in the 1920’s which used objective, scientific analysis. It was the idea that mental events are triggered by external stimuli that lead to behaviors. An excellent example of behaviorism was shown in an Office clip during class. In this clip, Jim offered Dwight an Altoid whenever his computer rebooted. After doing this several times, Jim rebooted his computer without offering Dwight an Altoid. Even though Jim did not offer him one, Dwight automatically held out his hand.

My experience is directly related to behaviorism because my friend who took the class last year did a behaviorism experiment on me without me knowing. His plan was simple: whenever his phone made a sound he would offer me a piece of gum. I did not pick up on this at all. I just thought that my friend was being really nice and kept on offering me gum. In fact, I thought that my friend was so generous that he would not care if I took food from his room. So when he was at class, I would go into his dorm and take whatever snacks I wanted.

Now, the behaviorism has taken on a different form. Instead of me reacting to the sound of the phone, I reacted to my friend’s generosity. Specifically, I thought that he was so generous that I could take advantage of him. If he did not offer me gum, I would have been hesitant to go into his room and take snacks. But since he was so nice, I thought that he would not care if I took some food from him. But this begs the question: wouldn’t a normal person not take food from somebody who is nice to them? I think that I saw his generosity as an invitation to take and share whatever is his. I wasn’t taking food to anger him, but rather because I thought that it would do harm. If I thought that it was ok to take food, why wouldn’t I?

My friend’s experiment ultimately failed. His phone’s sound went off and I did not react at all. But, the experience still has an important lesson about behaviorism: people are more inclined to take from people that are generous to them. If my friend set some boundaries and did not offer me as much gum, I would have likely not felt welcomed to take food from his room.

My friend eventually told me that he performed the experiment on me and discussed how it backfired on him. Although it failed, we both agreed it was a funny and memorable experience.