Cognitive Dissonance Paper Donnie Robertson is a man that has always worked diligently to provide for his family, and was a well-respected man in his community. The following is a narrative on how this dedicated and honest father, husband, and friend made resolutions based on the circumstances in his life that would encroach on his values, beliefs, attitudes, and morals. The areas of social, cultural, and spiritual impacts on his conduct will be discussed, along with his personal ethics. Furthermore, a reciprocal relationship between his attitudes and behavior will be addressed. Finally, it will be illustrated how Donnie applies cognitive dissonance theory to justify his actions.
Describe Situation Donnie Robertson started working at one of the top automobile industries in his area right after college. He married his high school love, and over a twelve year period had three children. Everything in his life was perfect until economic issues caused the company to shut its doors. Although many in the community lost their jobs to, most came from wealthy families and did the face the strains of the loss as Donnie and his family did. Donnie was able to draw unemployment for a while but during this time his wife passed away from an aneurysm. What little he was getting from unemployment was not enough to cover the medical and funeral bills. After several months of trying to pay, everything off he ran out of unemployment, and he could not find work because he did not have the area of education or work experiences the companies were looking for. Although he could have turned to government help, he knew how people in his community viewed those that received well-fare and feared he would bring embarrassment to his children. Donnie and his family had been long time members of the church, and five years prior to his situation Donnie had become a deacon of the church. Since he had access to the church’s financials he began taking small amounts of currency from offerings to support his children. However, it was not enough to keep him from losing his home. Desperate and fearful he would not only lose his house but also his children he started selling drugs to help hold his family together.
Analyze Social, Cultural, and Spiritual Influences on Behavior and Ethics

Describe Reciprocal Relationship between Behavior and Attitudes
An attitude is a reaction, either favorable or unfavorable, toward something or someone; an attitude is usually part of a person’s beliefs and rooted deep within them. Attitude can be expressed through emotions and behavior, but unfortunately the attitude and behavior do not always go hand in hand (Myers, 2010). An individual’s intended behavior could often reflect their attitudes, but all too often the environment can alter intentions and cause a person to behave in a way that goes against his or her own beliefs (Myers, 2010). In this case, Donnie knows it is wrong to sell drugs and steal – his attitude toward those things are that they are terrible to do and in the perfect world, he would never even consider them. When Donnie’s wife suddenly dies and he cannot find a job to support his family, he begins to sell drugs on the streets; this eventually leads to him stealing from his church to feed his children. Donnie’s behaviors go against all of his attitudes toward stealing and drug use. As time goes by, Donnie’s attitude begins to change. He still realizes that these ‘jobs’ are wrong, but he starts to believe that it is okay because he is just supporting his family. A person’s behavior can alter that person’s attitude because he or she begins to justify what is being done (Myers, 2010). In society, we all have a role to play, and it is defined by the norms within society and describes how we should behave; in this scenario, Donnie was unable to fulfil his role as a father by society’s expectations and he did the only thing he could to take care of his children. Attitudes and behavior have a give-and-take relationship. Attitude can be reflected in some behavior and in intended behavior, and behaving a specific way can change that attitude. The environmental influences on these two aspects make it easy for them to change and an individual can adapt behaviors or attitudes based on what is occuring in that person’s life.

Cognitive Dissonance Theory
“Cognitive dissonance is the tension that arises when one is simultaneously aware of two inconsistent cognitions” (Myers, 2010, p.143). It was by applying the cognitive dissonance theory that Donnie was able to steal from the church, and deal drugs when his core beliefs were that both activities were not only illegal, but also morally wrong.
Donnie was suffering from the grief of losing his beloved wife, and the fear of the possibility of losing his children, and home because of his inability to find employment to provide support for them. He did not want ask for help, as he had never relied on anyone else to take care of his family, and did not want to start now for fear of how others would see him as an unfit father. The unemployment running out was approaching and he could not find work anywhere, now his circumstances were getting more desperate. He had to do something to have money coming in to his home.
When he started taking the money from his church his justification was the fact that the church gives out the money to those in need. Well, Donnie thought, I am one of those in need just do not have to go through the embarrassment of asking. His thinking then turned to the fact he was a deacon gave him rights to the money because all he has done for the church. The stolen money from the church helped very little with his financial troubles, so he knew he had to do something else.
He had heard how drug dealers made large amounts of money, and some dealers maintained respectability by donating to community charities. People around the community were aware the individuals were dealing drugs, but no arrests ever took place. The more he thought about this, and since the employment in which he was skilled was scarce to none in his area, and the idea of using the drug-dealing option to support his family formed. After all, he was a good man, had worked all his life, faithful to his community and church until circumstances changed everything, which was not his fault. He would not hurt anyone in dealing the drugs because he would deal only to adults who were able to make choices, not to minors, and do this until he found employment. “Cognitive dissonance theory assumes that to reduce discomfort, we justify our actions to ourselves” (Myers, 2010, p. 140). As suggested by Myers (2010) once an individual makes a decision then the decisions grow their own self-justifying legs of support, so as example, Donnie made his decision to turn to illegal means to gain money to support his family, and the course of action was set. Conclusion This paper has put forth a scenario in which cognitive dissonance caused Donnie, a responsible, law-abiding family man to go against his beliefs entering into criminality to support his family. The narratives describe how Donnie’s attitudes changed about stealing, going against his beliefs about drug dealing by his using justification for feeding his family. Donnie worked all his life, and was deacon of the church he stole money, so his behaviors were not in line with his former attitudes and beliefs. In conclusion, when environment changes a person may make a decision that can lead the individual believing the decision made is the right one, no matter if it goes against personal legal or moral beliefs.

References

Myers, D. G. (2010). Social psychology (10th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.