Cognitive Dissonance Theory &

Pastoral Counseling

Introduction:

There have always been many debates from the world of psychology that Pastoral Counselors attempt to be psychologists and perhaps for some that is true. The Association of Pastoral Counselors believes that the psychology was taken from the precepts of Christianity and Pastoral Counseling as true pastoral Counseling is based on God’s and Christ’s precepts and a condition of the heart. An example of this is the Gestalt theory that states that people’ lives are like and onion. This is true in part because at the core of the onion, which is, the center is the beginning or the root. Christianity maintains that if God is not at the center (core, heart) of all things hurts will take place, These hurts if not forgiven or healed will grow creating several layers of bitterness when reoccurring events or stimuli occur in our lives. Every time this happens a layer is built. Scripture reveals that the wages of sin is death. Many from this deduce that it is instantaneous, but in actuality usually takes time. When unresolved hurts are not dealt with layers of hurt grow which does cause stress and anxiety in most of us. If this continues these layers of hurts can be manifested in the physical realm as sickness, then disease, and finally death. When God deals with the hurt the layers shortly disappear and healing occurs.

Below is an excerpt from Festinger, L. concept of cognitive dissonance theory and it is our desire that the concepts used in Pastoral Counseling are not confused in any way by the public. The terms that are used in Pastoral Counseling are often the same but not have some different meanings but have different outcomes as the source of the work should be the Holy Spirit and not our individual concepts.

Overview:

According to cognitive dissonance theory, there is a tendency for individuals to seek consistency among their cognition’s (i.e., beliefs, opinions). When there is an inconsistency between attitudes or behaviors (dissonance), something must change to eliminate the dissonance. In the case of a discrepancy between attitudes and behavior, it is most likely that the attitude will change to accommodate the behavior.

Two factors affect the strength of the dissonance: the number of dissonant beliefs, and the importance attached to each belief. There are three ways to eliminate dissonance: (1) reduce the importance of the dissonant beliefs, (2) add more consonant beliefs that outweigh the dissonant beliefs, or (3) change the dissonant beliefs so that they are no longer inconsistent.

Dissonance occurs most often in situations where an individual must choose between two incompatible beliefs or actions. The greatest dissonance is created when the two alternatives are equally attractive. Furthermore, attitude change is more likely in the direction of less incentive since this results in lower dissonance. In this respect, dissonance theory is contradictory to most behavioral theories, which would predict greater attitude change with increased incentive (i.e., reinforcement).

Scope/Application:

Dissonance theory applies to all situations involving attitude formation and change. It is especially relevant to decision-making and problem solving.

Example:

Consider someone who buys an expensive car but discovers that it is not comfortable on long drives. Dissonance exists between their beliefs that they have bought a good car and that a good car should be comfortable. Dissonance could be eliminated by deciding that it does not matter since the car is mainly used for short trips (reducing the importance of the dissonant belief) or focusing on the cars strengths such as safety, appearance, handling (thereby adding more consonant beliefs). Getting rid of the car could also eliminate the dissonance, but this behavior is a lot harder to achieve than changing beliefs.

Principles:

1. Dissonance results when an individual must choose between attitudes and behaviors that are contradictory.

2. Reducing the importance of the conflicting beliefs, acquiring new beliefs that change the balance, or removing the conflicting attitude or behavior can eliminate dissonance.

Pastoral Counseling:

In Pastoral Counseling, Cognitive Dissonance Theory deals with first, the cognitive. It is how we as human beings learn. Some of us are visual learners, while others are auditory or kinesthetic learners in the physical realm. On the spiritual side, we know that God created, man in His own image, which is spirit. We are a spirit being that dwells in a body that has a soul. When we are in spirit we are able to learn far faster and retain more because it is the Spirit of God talking to the spirit that dwells inside the person. As a result, communication, learning, and relationships vastly improve as the receiver of the information gets exactly what is needed. When this happens, cases of ADD and ADHD decrease. Often times, true Pastoral Counseling is prophetic in nature as the message comes from God to the receiver which they will understand as it is the Holy Spirit who is at the core of the communication instead of the flesh.

Cognitive Restructuring is learning to walk in the Spirit and being disciplined enough to speak when the Spirit of God is leading us. When this is accomplished, everything changes, healing takes place, a new method of communication is ensues, and relationships with others vastly improve. Dissonance is the beliefs that we create that may be based on truth or not. Many of us create beliefs that are not true because it fits our needs. It is difficult for anyone, believer or not to live with two opposing beliefs for an extended period of time. A person will either drop one or the other. The problem with all of this is our beliefs often become religion and they are to the person using these, often times complicated beliefs. What happens is that we as humans seek others that have similar beliefs and instead of working together as one body, we create a new religion. In God’s way of doing things there seems to be on the one side Godliness and on the other side, the opposite, religion, mans beliefs of how things should be. There were two trees in the Garden of Eden, the tree of Life and the tree of Knowledge and we as humans choose in our lives which fruit we eat. The problem with knowledge is that we have to know everything to make a good decision. Few have the clarity when making decisions to remember the past and at the same time understand that in making a decision a particular way will bring about events in the future, good or bad.

This is why Christians are admonished to not only walk in the Spirit but to speak the oracles of God when we communicate with each other. When man or religion makes decisions on his own, events and situations will occur. We often do not intend for these events to occur even though scripture is clear that if we do things our way, maintaining these beliefs, the end result that we do not desire will occur (the wages of sin, or doing it our way, is death).

Therefore psychology is about doing what we want to do as individuals or groups and attempting to understand the consequences of our decisions. On the other hand, Godliness is about giving up our will and desires and leaning to do what God wants us to do as He knows what is best for us. This takes a level of trust and learning to have a direct relationship with God. It is our beliefs that often interfere with having a good relationship with God, and each other. Our beliefs not only become a wall that appear to protect us, but often times we create multiple walls that keep others out. These walls while we may believe those are protecting us, also become prisons that keep us in.

Conclusion:

It is our sincere desire that no gets the idea that we as Pastoral Counselors are attempting to be psychologists. We do believe and have come to the conclusion however that if God is not at the center of all things, events, situations, and life in general will be a disaster. Many of us came to God while we were in crisis and have determined that we do not want to go back to crisis as a way of life, neither for ourselves, our families, or anyone else that we have met. We do believe that if our nation would learn to look to God for all things and in all of our ways, life would be better and problems would be dealt with. Not with a heavy hand, but in love and acceptance of others. We were all given two great commands to follow: Love God, and love your neighbor as yourself. If we would learn to do this, outcomes would change, and perhaps we would have a future we could all look forward to. The question is "are willing to give up our beliefs enough to give God a chance to sort it all out?"

References:

Brehm, J. & Cohen, A. (1962). Explorations in Cognitive Dissonance. New York: Wiley.

Festinger, L. (1957). A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

Festinger, L. & Carlsmith, J.M. (1959). Cognitive Consquences of Forced Compliance. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 58, 203-210.
[available at psychclassics.yorku.ca/Festinger/}

Wickland, R. & Brehm, J. (1976). Perspectives on Cognitive Dissonance. NY: Halsted Press