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Cognitive dissonance is one of the most frequently cited theories in social psychology (Cooper, 2007) and has been studied in many communication contexts. Although there are many situations in which people need to repeatedly reduce dissonance concerning the same focal belief or behavior, the vast majority of dissonance studies have focused on single instances of dissonance (McGrath, 2017). This dissertation addresses the question of how beliefs and affect change in response to sequentially induced cognitive dissonance. Belief change is frequently studied as a mode of dissonance reduction (Vaidis & Bran, 2018). Information integration theory states that belief change is a function of the scale value (valence) and weight of each piece of information in a message, and that belief change in response to multiple pieces of information is a weighted sum of the valence of the pieces of information (Anderson, 1971; Anderson & Farkas, 1973). Using the sequential information integration model (SIIM; Chung & Fink, 2016; Chung, Fink, Waks, Meffert, & Xie, 2012), this 2 (statement type: justification vs. vote recall) x 2 (evaluation order: evaluation/affect vs. affect/evaluation) within- and between-subjects online experiment tested the effect of sequential induction of dissonance, via repeated exposure to incongruent information, on evaluations of candidates in a hypothetical congressional election. This study, which included 227 participants based in the U.S., replicated key findings from previous studies on belief trajectories, lending further support to the SIIM and illustrating the strength of decision justification as a mechanism for resisting belief change over time. It also found that people respond to negatively valenced messages, compared to positively valenced messages, with greater psychological discomfort and less positive affect even when both types of messages are counterattitudinal. Finally, this research found that people may continue to experience psychological discomfort until finding an effective way to reduce their dissonance. This dissertation replicates, in part, previous SIIM studies and offers insight into the question of how beliefs and affect change in response to sequentially induced cognitive dissonance. / Media & Communication

Researchers have categorized emotion regulation strategies generally as adaptive or maladaptive, depending on impacts of the strategy on psychophysiological, cognitive, and emotional outcomes. A strategy that is widely considered to be maladaptive is expressive suppression, which refers to inhibiting one’s facial expression, to appear neutral. Another emotion regulation strategy that is commonly used but infrequently studied is expressive dissonance, which refers to showing the opposite of how one feels. There is limited research on expressive dissonance, but the longstanding facial feedback hypothesis suggests that facial expressions can further enhance or lower one’s mood; if this is the case, then smiling, even when feeling anxious, may be more adaptive than showing no emotion at all. The objective of my thesis was to examine whether using expressive dissonance was more adaptive than expressive suppression, for regulating negative emotions. To determine adaptiveness, I examined the effect of these two strategies on both intrapersonal factors (i.e., impacts of the strategy on one’s own psychophysiology, memory accuracy, and affect) and interpersonal factors (i.e., impacts of the strategy on social qualities like friendliness and likeability). In the first study, I tested the intrapersonal impacts of expressive suppression and expressive dissonance, compared to a control condition, while women participants (n = 144) viewed negatively arousing images. In the second study, I expanded on the first study by examining intrapersonal and interpersonal qualities (e.g., friendliness, likeability, warmth), in an ecologically valid context (i.e., a conversation with an unacquainted opposite gender confederate). Across both studies, I found no effect of strategy on intrapersonal factors; however, there were effects on interpersonal factors in Study 2. Participants engaging in expressive dissonance were rated more positively, and people in the expressive suppression condition were rated more negatively on interpersonal qualities, relative to the control condition. Taken together, our findings suggest that neither strategy impacted the participant intrapersonally, but both strategies influenced the observer’s impression of the participant. Based on the findings, I encourage a shift from conceptualizing strategies as overall maladaptive or adaptive, to considering specific strategies as helpful or unhelpful based on the regulation’s goal.

This study sought to explore the existence of a relationship between age and/or military affiliation (active, veteran, or family member) and awareness of local community mental health programs available for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder. The study separated age from military affiliation to better distinguish between influences on awareness level. Considerations that remain critical regarding post-traumatic stress disorder were described and used to guide a comprehensive review of the literature to find directions to fulfill the goal of this study. A survey was conducted and 586 active military, veterans, and their family members responded to an instrument that contained 40 items. This study was constrained to three items from the survey; age, military affiliation, self-rated awareness of treatment for PTSD. Multiple analysis techniques found no significant (p < .05) correlation between either age and awareness or military affiliation and awareness. Further analysis found a significant (p = .003) correlation between veterans and awareness, as well as between family members of veterans (p = .017) and awareness. Veterans and their family members indicated a greater awareness of local community mental health programs available for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder than did active troops and/or their family members. The significance of this finding presents new opportunities to study and improve both the marketing and the delivery of mental health treatment for PTSD to the active military population. Multiple opportunities for future research are discussed.

Changes in religious and spiritual trends over the past few decades are contradicting previously held assumptions in academia pertaining to personal religious and spiritual definitions, identities and how these religious and spiritual identities are affected by higher educational attainment. In addition, there is limited research on how students may resolve cognitive dissonance if it develops due to discrepancies between their college experiences and their personal spiritual or religious convictions. The intent of this thesis is to explore the effects of college experience and higher educational attainment on students' religious and spiritual identities; to explore the growing trend to identify as 'spiritual, but not religious;' and to explore whether any changes in their religious and spiritual identity are as a result of adjustments spurred by cognitive dissonance. This study helps fill in gaps in current literature about the effects of higher education on religious and spiritual identity and their resolutions of cognitive dissonance.

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The purpose of this research is to explore the processes and strategies through which members of a group or organization use their organizational identity to make salient a normatively dissonant identity. Using both the functionalist perspectives of social identity theory and the existing narrative literature on identity formation in organizations, a conceptual process model of identity formation is created that integrates the identification process with the interaction of multiple identities, including the identity as members of an organization, a normatively dissonant identity, and other salient preexisting identities such as race and gender. This research also examined part of this conceptual model empirically, using members of a national running organization for Black women, Black Girls Run!, using a mixed-methods design including interviews and surveys of participants. Distance running, as a form of physical activity, is not a normative identity for Black women in the United States. Findings from Study 1 showed that members developed a running identity that informed their running behavior. Study 2 highlighted the process through which members used their identity as members of the organization to negotiate through their dissonance and become runners using modeling strategies. Findings from this study contribute to both sport management and organizational literature by empirically demonstrating the effects of and the processes through which an organizational identity might create a pathway for marginalized groups to adapt previously dissonant identities. It highlights the importance of organizational identities in the formation of deeper connections with physical activity, which has been shown to be an essential element of health maintenance and a conduit for sustainable active behaviors. / Tourism and Sport

For pieces that do not lend themselves to an analysis of form based completely on tonal harmony and thematic material, an analysis based on rhythm and meter can enrich the reading of a piece and prove to be a more successful endeavor for the analyst. This thesis will provide such a form analysis of Mother Earth: A Fanfare (2003) and Symphony No. 8 (2008) by David Maslanka, paying special attention to the rhythmic and metrical events in addition to shifts in theme, texture, and harmony. Chapter 1, “Introduction,” addresses information about the composer, the need for research, and challenges that the music poses to the analyst. Chapter 2, “Methodology,” outlines analytical techniques used in the study, which are largely based on a method of metrical dissonance categorization designed by Harald Krebs. Chapters 3 and 4, “Mother Earth: A Fanfare (2003)” and “Symphony No. 8 (2008),” provide a form analysis of the two pieces, focusing on the behavior of meter and rhythm in each work. Chapter 5 offers conclusions that draw together the two analyses and suggest avenues for further research.

Lorsqu’un professeur de français incite un élève à produire un brouillon, il cherche en premier lieu à agir sur le comportement du scripteur par la production d’un écrit le menant à opérer une révision de son texte. C’est donc avant tout une action qui est attendue : celle d’un retour sur les écrits se matérialisant sous le trait de ratures. La mise en œuvre d’un brouillon ne s’arrête pas là. Elle touche tout autant les attitudes par une confrontation à un texte qui ne se présente pas sous la forme d’un écrit définitif ou d’une dictée provenant des sources mêmes de l’inspiration, mais comme un travail, une élaboration. Cette étude, à travers la théorie de l’engagement, tente d’approcher les conséquences comportementales et cognitives de la réalisation de brouillons. Pour ce faire, sont analysés via le type de ratures, les brouillons de 253 scripteurs appartenant aux classes de sixième et de troisième. En parallèle, un questionnaire renseigne quant à la manifestation d’effets cognitifs. Les résultats présentent la situation d’engagement, les aspects problématiques soulevés par la rédaction et le brouillon ainsi que les caractéristiques des effets comportementaux et cognitifs en fonction de l’expertise du scripteur. / When a professor of french encourages a student to produce a draft, at first, he looks for to act on the writer’s behavior by producing a writing which leads him to carry out a revision of its text. It is then an action that is expected : the one of a review of the writings which materializes under the stroke of erasures. The purpose of a draft don’t stops here. It concerns as much the writer’s attitudes by facing a text that is not in form of a final writing or a dictation deriving from inspiration’s sources but as a work, as an elaboration. This study, through the commitment theory attempts to cover the behavioral and cognitive consequences linked to the completion of a draft. For that purpose, the analysis based on the kind of the erasures covers the drafts of 253 writers pertaining to the 6th and 3rd classes. Besides, a questionnaire gives information about the appearance of cognitive effects. The results either show the commitment situation, the problematic aspects raised by the redaction and the draft or the behavioral and cognitive effects characteristics depending on the writer’s expertise.