Abstract
M.A. (Psychology)
This investigation is aimed at enhancing the degree of
behavioural compliance in individual clients through the
utilization of cognitive dissonance as an adjunct to a behavioural
prescription.
The literature on behaviour therapy holds that behavioural
prescription is accepted in its own right as an effective procedure
for inducing behavioural compliance. At the same time it is
evident that in certain situations behavioural prescription alone
is not effective in inducing behavioural compliance. The reason
for this is given as the tendency for certain individuals to
respond to a behavioural prescription with defiance, or to use
reactance. Such a tendency is known as the reactance-potential
of the individual. Several variables have been linked
in the literature to reactance-potential, for example, locus of
control. This variable has the potential to be used to predict
reactance-potential, and thus the likelihood of an individual
responding to a behavioural prescription with reactance.
Reactance is seen as a process that can be utilized in the
therapeutic relationship in the service of change. Cognitive
dissonance theory allows for the utilization of reactance in the
psychotherapeutic context so that the response to cognitive
dissonance induction is behavioural compliance.
The experimental hypothesis was based on the theory that cognitive
dissonance induction would direct the individual "s reactance
towards the reduction of the state of cognitive dissonance that
was induced. The goal of the therapeutic intervention was an
increased degree of behavioural compliance in the experimental
group that received cognitive dissonance induction. Therapeutic
instructions were applied to two groups. The control group...