He was born in Brooklyn New York City on May 8, 1919. While a graduate student at the University of Iowa, Festinger worked with Kurt Lewin, who is known as the 'Father Instead they came up with different ways to rationalize their beliefs (reducing their cognitive dissonance). Social comparison theory also recognizes a distinctive feature of abilities. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley and Sons. MASLOW, ABRAHAM Summary Of The Cognitive Dissonance Theory that the experiment was fun. The appeal for Festinger was thus both with Lewins ideas and with his exquisite articulation of the relation between theory and the empirical world, an interest underlying Festingers attraction to science: You have very strict ground rules in science and your ideas have to check out with the empirical world (Cohen, 1977, p. 133). 4 (2005): 12131214. Leon Festinger. In his The Making of Psychology: Discussions with Creative Contributors. "Festinger, Leon Leon Festinger Foreword. Social comparison theory posited that people evaluate their abilities and opinions by comparing them with those of others when it is not feasible to test them directly. Following Lewins lead, he conceived of the new methodology as a kind of experimental theatre, with cover stories, accomplices, and deception to control for confounding factors and to create a situation that was perceived as psychologically meaningful to the subject. The upward drive promotes competition and may interfere with the emergence of social uniformity. Leon Festinger (Psychologist Biography) | Practical Psychology Refer to each styles convention regarding the best way to format page numbers and retrieval dates. Of Prophecy and Privacy. Contemporary Psychology: A Journal of Reviews 2, no. One central idea for Festinger at this time was that group members acquired similar beliefs and opinions because of social pressures toward uniformity or fitting in. Bruner, J. He was also active in professional organizations including the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In composing his theory, Festinger noted a major distinction between comparisons of abilities and opinions. Comparative PsychologyHolland H. Waters and Bradford N. Bunnell Omissions? Most online reference entries and articles do not have page numbers. One was that the level of cognitive dissonance would decrease as the incentive to comply with the conflict situation was increased. To unlock this lesson you must be a Study.com Member. Festinger reasoned that these efforts were designed to further reduce dissonance. Although Festinger later reflected that homeostatic notions and theories may well be related to a Zeitgeist or philosophy underlying assumptions in human beings, whereas he intended cognitive dissonance as an explanation of a broad range of psychological phenomena (Cohen, 1977, p. 141), one is nonetheless struck first by the longevity of the concept of cognitive dissonance and second by its resonance with two moments of heightened political and cultural strain in the mid-twentieth- and early-twenty-first-century United States. Festinger, L. (1942a). Festinger, L. (1954). Leon Festinger. https://www.apa.org/monitor/julaug02/eminent, 40+ Famous Psychologists (Images + Biographies), Cognitive Dissonance (Definition + Examples), Social Comparison Theory Leon Festinger (Definition + Examples). 1 (1964): 122. Festingers original theory was based on insight. "Deustch, 1999, p. 11 He "became a symbol of the tough-minded, theory-oriented, pure experimental scientist," while Ron Lippitt, a fellow faculty member at Lewins Research Center for Group Dynamics with whom Festinger often clashed, "became a symbol of the fuzzy-minded, do-gooder, practitioner of applied social psychology. Building collaborative networks among psychologists and graduate students went beyond the United States as Festinger created and directed the Committee of Transnational Social Psychology, and participated in its Summer Schools at which young scholars received training and at which were held scientific colloquia. WebLeon Festinger was an American social psychologist. Chapanis, N. P., and A. Chapanis. It has inspired works of fiction and stimulated research in other disciplines, including religious studies, political science, economics, sociology, legal theory, and philosophy of science. Festinger was recognized in 1959 with the American Psychological Associations Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award for his theory and research on social behavior as arising from a thinking organism continually acting to bring order into his world (Boring, Cronbach, Crutchfield, et al., 1959, p. 784). Meet 5 of the Worlds Computer Programming Prodigies, 7 of the Best-Performing Cryptocurrencies and their Founders. Comparison leads to pressures toward uniformity (i.e., similarity), but the tendency to compare will cease if others are too different in dimensions that are related to the ability or opinion at issue. In his informal communication theory, he proposed that people are susceptible to social pressures when they are attracted to a group. Changing the perceptions around one's beliefs can also change behavior. Asch's Conformity Experiment | What Was Asch's Line Study? Gale Encyclopedia of Psychology. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 1(1), 88-94. When they become aware of inconsistencies, it triggers an unpleasant psychological state of arousal, which then motivates them to reduce the inconsistency. It involves the likelihood that peoples paths will cross. Try refreshing the page, or contact customer support. People living in nearby areas, who felt the shock but experienced no ill-effects, began spreading rumors that even worse disasters would come upon their villages. Leon Festinger: Biography & Cognitive Dissonance Theory New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1989. Festinger, L. (1947b). As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Close proximity or propinquity was thus found to be key to small group and/or friendship formation. At the University of Minnesota, Festinger developed social comparison theory, his second major contribution to social psychology. WebThe Seekers were the subject of the book When Prophecy Fails by Leon Festinger, in which Laughead was given the pseudonym Dr. Armstrong and Martin the name Marian Keech. Some attitudinal consequences of forced decisions. Leon Festinger, (born May 8, 1919, Brooklyn, New York, U.S.died February 11, 1989, New York City), American cognitive psychologist, best known for his theory of cognitive dissonance, according to which inconsistency between thoughts, or between thoughts and actions, leads to discomfort (dissonance), While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Experimentation in Social Psychology. In The Handbook of Social Psychology: Second Edition, edited by Gardner Lindzey and Elliot Aronson. Dissonance could be reduced by changing attitudes, altering perceptions and evaluations, or changing ones own behavior. The study documented a textbook phenomenon: friendships were more likely to occur the closer the people were physically (even by just a few yards). One example of this is the Study Buddy application which lets students know when their classmates are studying. Asch, S. Cacophonophobia. Contemporary Psychology: A Journal of Reviews, 3, no. "Festinger, Leon Festinger married Mary Oliver Ballou, a pianist, in 1942, and together they had three children: Richard, Kurt, and Catherine. Festingers initial interest in social psychology was sparked by accident. Some of the arguments that have been raised against it are: In social comparison theory, Festinger suggested that people compare themselves to similar others but he did not state the basis of that similarity. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 1999. Milite, George A. It was all going to end in a great flood the morning on December 21, 1956. Festinger, L. (1950b). This attention to what transpires in-between inputs and outputs also revealed Lewins influence in attention to a psychological representation of reality in individual consciousness, relations of one person to another or group and the environment (Zukier, 1989, p. xiii). In this publication, Festinger used a set of formal propositions to explain the antecedent conditions and the consequences of comparing ones own attitudes and abilities to those of others. In the study, undergraduate students of Introductory Psychology at Stanford University were asked to take part of a series of experiments. Let's talk about his famous cognitive dissonance experiment. ." In addition to challenging the dominance of behaviorism, Festinger spearheaded the use of scientific experimentation in social psychology. He stayed there until the end of World War II. They paid volunteers either one dollar or twenty dollars to lie about a boring task being fun. A. 'border="1" width="20" height="20"><\/a>')
. (1954). His work in social psychology focused on the impact of the social environment on the formation and change of attitudes, on processes of social comparison by which individuals evaluate their attitudes and abilities, and on the manner in which cognitive inconsistencies cause changes in attitudes and behaviors. Similarity in attitudes was also critical: attitudes of residents tended to converge, but residents who held deviant attitudes were likely to be social isolates. Leon Festinger Is there curvature adaptation not attributable to purely intravisual phenomena. Festinger, L., & Hutte, H. A. His most popular works are listed below: Leon Festinger married pianist Mary Oliver Ballou in 1943. Festinger earned his masters degree in child behavior in 1940 and his PhD in child behavior in 1942. Encyclopedia.com. Festinger also made important contributions to the study of group behaviour, self-evaluation, and attitude change. Informal social communication. Renowned social psychologist, Leon Festinger, and his research team (1954) became interested in this case and decided to infiltrate and study the group to see Festinger, L. (1962). Encyclopedia.com. Festinger, L. (1943b). ALLPORT, GORDON WILLARD Abnormal Psychology: Homework Help Resource, Intro to Psychology Syllabus Resource & Lesson Plans, ILTS Social Science - Psychology (248) Prep, Human Growth and Development: Tutoring Solution, Human Growth and Development: Homework Help Resource, UExcel Social Psychology: Study Guide & Test Prep, Introduction to Educational Psychology: Certificate Program, Educational Psychology: Tutoring Solution, Research Methods in Psychology: Help and Review, Introduction to Psychology: Homework Help Resource, Create an account to start this course today. New York: Taplinger, 1977. Jeremy Varon: Bringing the War Home: The Weather Underground, the Red Army Faction, and Revolutionary Violence in the Sixties and Seventies. American Historical Review 110, no. Biographical Memoirs, 64, 98-110. College students were asked to perform a series of repetitive menial tasks for a specified period of time. Half the group was offered a $1 bill; the rest were offered a $20 bill. Therefore, that information is unavailable for most Encyclopedia.com content. Margolis, S. T. Cognitive Dissonance: A Bibliography of Its First Decade. Psychological Reports 24 (1969): 923935. The first was Informal Social Communication, published in Psychological Review in 1950. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996. https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/festinger-leon, "Festinger, Leon Festinger, L. (1961). In fact, Festingers rush to complete his doctoral studies in three years was motivated, he said, to avoid the war, claiming to be one of the original draft dodgers (Patnoe, 1988, p. 253). In Extending Psychological Frontiers: Selected Works of Leon Festinger, edited by Stanley Schachter and Michael Gazzaniga. Gale Encyclopedia of Psychology. Cognitive dissonance soon became an important and much-discussed theory. The analysis of sociograms using matrix algebra. The poorly paid volunteers experienced cognitive dissonance, and later started to believe the task was more interesting than they initially thought it was. This is usually accomplished by offering surveys on topics such as health, relationships, and personality characteristics. Leon Festinger and Cognitive Dissonance - Exploring your mind Festinger, L. (1952). In addition, physiological measures suggested that the patients actually experienced less pain. Festinger, L. (1964). Informal social communication theory was about the power of the group over the person. Laboratory Experiments. In Research Methods in the Behavioral Sciences, edited by Leon Festinger and Daniel Katz. Interaction of perceptually monitored and unmonitored efferent commands for smooth pursuit eye movements. Aronson, Elliot, and J. M. Carlsmith. "Deustch, 1999, p. 11, Perhaps one of the greatest impacts of Festingers studies lies in their "depict[ion] of social behavior as the responses of a thinking organism continually acting to bring order into his world, rather than as the blind impulses of a creature of emotion and habit," as cited in his Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award.American, 1959, p. 784 Behaviorism, which had dominated psychology until that time, characterized man as a creature of habit conditioned by stimulus-response reinforcement processes. A man with a conviction is a hard man to change. Show him facts or figures and he questions your sources. Later Research Interests . Time after time, Festinger brackets together his love of science and fascination of games, especially chess. Therefore, be sure to refer to those guidelines when editing your bibliography or works cited list. Fifty years after its first appearance, citation counts of works in the psychological database exceeded fifteen hundred. Festinger became ill with liver and lung cancer in 1988. Maslow was a prominent personality theorist and one of, Allport, Gordon Willard He then turned his attention to early human history, producing a book, The Human Legacy (1983), in which he analyzed human problem solving and adaptation. Leon Festinger (8 May 1919 11 February 1989) was an American social psychologist, perhaps best known for cognitive dissonance and social comparison