personal revelation

Well the first part isn't about my "personal revelation" essay... I just got back juries, and I'm glad it went well despite my reed's deadness and how my jaw wouldn't stay still. If only I had a second time to play it, so I could make it better.

So for those of you who haven't taken PSY 161, we had to write an essay where we apply material we learned in class to our lives. And here's part of mine. I wrote about cognitive dissonance This below, is part of my essay, which I hope Dr Elliot finds funny. :P

In addition to cognitive dissonance after decision-making, cognitive dissonance also manifests in procrastination. I am trying to work on this “personal revelations” essay, but I am distracted by a game from www.addictinggames.com. I know I should be working on this essay, but the games are just too tempting. I feel a sense of inconsistency in my mind; my desire to get my essay finished does not match with my behavior as playing games will not get me closer to my goal. To reduce this dissonance, I tell myself that getting distracted now will allow me to focus more later on in the day. By adding cognitions, I reduce the dissonance because I have a reason to play games now instead of writing this. For this particular assignment, I may also alter the importance of the discrepancy. Usually, I try to perfect my work, but since this essay is graded on a pass/fail basis, I may start viewing this essay as less important. I think that playing the game is more important so I can relax, take my mind away from things, and not stress out about school, rather than staring at this word document stressing out about how I am to fill up two pages. Changing the importance of this assignment reduces the stress I may have on getting this done. (Believe me, I do work very hard in PSY 161 though, contrary to what this essay may illustrate.) Occasionally, I change my behavior in midst of my distraction and actually start writing. Changing my behavior also reduces the dissonance I was experiencing before, as my behavior now will get me towards my goal. Through these years of college, it seems that these methods for reducing cognitive dissonance has worked. Thank goodness that I have not changed my attitude yet.