This chapter so far was very hard to read, I had to read it several times before I was able to understand what it was about. While reading it I had to look up the meaning of Cognitive Dissonance which refers to a situation involving conflicting attitudes, beliefs or behaviors. The definition didn’t help much but from what I interpret it to mean is for example a person smoking that is the behavior and they know it causes cancer that is the cognitive.
This quote I have chosen is a basic definition on how Festinger represents and interoperates cognitive dissonance. "The psychological opposition of irreconcilable ideas (cognitions) held simultaneously by one individual, created a motivating force that would lead, under proper conditions, to the adjustment of one's belief to fit one's behavior—instead of changing one's behavior to fit one's belief (the sequence conventionally assumed)."
The Santo story is classic Festinger, it states that a mother mind had twisted her daughter condition. In order to be able to deal with the fact that her daughter will never have a normal life she then rationalizes it by believing it happened because she was a saint. This quote from the book where Mrs. Santos says "I know who I am and I know who my daughter is. Audrey, she has a direct email line…show more content… “ Slater interactions with Mrs. Santos a woman that fits the characteristics studied by Festinger tries to understand if in reality she was interacting with a person reacting to cognitive dissonance. I think Laura Slater writing in this chapter tells us how individuals are willing to adjust their own beliefs for those that better fit or justify one's
