Help you help yourself
Published: Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Updated: Tuesday, August 18, 2009
As undergraduates, our minds are our tools. We need to learn to use them in order to do our work.
To start with, psychologists Elliot Aronson and Carol Tavris, in their book "Mistakes Were Made But Not By Me" think cognitive dissonance is to blame for the failure to perform work. Cognitive dissonance is the resolving nature of brains. When we are conflicted between two thoughts, our minds resolve much stronger toward the idea we choose.
For example, say I have two conflicting thoughts, "I have to do my homework," and, "I want to play computer games." If I end up playing computer games, cognitive dissonance theory states that I am going to justify the playing action more because I had to fight for it.
It is easy to trick myself into thinking I am doing more work than I actually am. Worse, self-delusion is easier than deluding anyone else. This is because what I report to myself is a large part of anything that I can know about myself.
Therefore, the clear answer is to work to justify actions before I do them, instead of the other way around.
In light of this, Professor of Rhetoric Jason Ingram explained why Francis Bacon in the 17th century said that rhetoric is the application of imagination to the will. When I am at the dining hall and I want a doughnut but I know it will make me fat, I use my imagination of the negative consequences not to eat the doughnut. We should use our imaginations to influence our decisions.
Bacon's rhetoric is similar to a contemporary article by Stephen Wray from Newsweek last year. According to studies, if I think about concrete aspects of a task, I am closer to physically doing that task (read: less likely to procrastinate). In one of the studies, people assigned to tasks such as opening a bank account were asked to consider the kind of carpeting and what it would be like to go up to the bank teller. Whereas the other group was asked to consider more abstract thoughts like what banking is, the first group was more likely to do its task.
Use cognitive dissonance theory to be more aware about what you are doing and what you want to do. If I want to have better grades, great, but cognitive dissonance theory can at least help me own up to that. This theory helps in understanding why people end up justifying seemingly worse behaviors. Rhetoric, as self-persuasion by using imagination, can help the formation of better choices in the first place.
Finally, imagining material aspects of tasks, such as being in the library or studying the books, brings a person physically closer to doing that task.
When you do your work, life gets better now and also in the long term.
Send Jake your thoughts on cognitive dissonance to technicianonline.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment