Cognitive dissonance is a term for the state of discomfort felt when two or more modes of thought contradict each other. The clashing cognitions may include ideas, beliefs, or the knowledge that ...

This creates a mental state known as cognitive dissonance, when “an individual’s cognitions — beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors—are at odds” (Egan et al., 2007, p. 978). Cognitive dissonance is an ...

And what can we as counsellors do about this? We can find a possible answer in psychology. A psychologist called Leon Festinger coined the phrase “cognitive dissonance” in the 1950s after observing an ...