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In this assignment, I would discuss about a current personal event which happened during my spring break. I would reveal a self-perception process in emotional experience and cognitive dissonance, followed by several strategies used to restore my sense of stability as well as maintaining my self-esteem.

As long as I could remember, my self-esteem had been terribly shaken by social psychology exam 2 result released on blackboard on March 15th. I was totally mystified with the grade I received in that I believed I should have earned a better score. With all of the time and effort I had devoted to preparation, I could not think of any reason to explain why I had done so badly. In an instant, I ran into my best friend's arms and burst into tears. According to Schachter’s theory of two-factor theory of emotion, I was subtly cognizant of my undergoing emotional states. Initially, I experienced intense physiological arousals. My body started to get warm. My heart rate increased rapidly. Also, I cried so hard that I found it difficult to breathe. At that moment, my body was aroused by a great deal of mixed emotions such as anger, disappointment, sadness, fear, and despair. I felt ashamed of myself being as a failure. In order to reason out my arousal, I ascertained that the poor result was indeed the one and only situational information that I could greatly relied on to explain my behaviors. I never knew that I would react so dramatically until I understood how much I cared about my self-esteem and how much fear I had it inside for failure. By observing my internal behaviors in response to the poor grade, I could conclude that my occurrence of mixed emotions was the result of acceptance to the poor grade which jeopardized my self-esteem. Hence, the implication of Schachter’s two-factor theory is evident to crystalize my emotional experience.

Without being in denial, I went through a horrifying cognitive dissonance caused by two conflicting cognitions - I have always believed that I was a high achiever but the result of my exam proved contrary. As suggested by Leon Festinger’s theory of cognitive dissonance, I experienced a good deal of discomfort due to the fact that I had to confront the discrepancy between who I thought I was against how I had actually performed in my exam. In order find a way to reduce discomfort, I chose to justify my behavior (believing that I was a high achiever) by changing one of the cognitions - seeing the poor grade as merely a hiccup rather than a failure. In other words, I decided to view it as a motivation in enhancing my resilience rather than as a tragedy. Difficulties are opportunities to better things; they are stepping-stones to greater experience. When one door closes, another always opens; as a natural law it has to, to balance (Canfield, J, 2007). Indeed, it was worth going through some disappointments or failures in order to meet success. At this point, with a growth mindset (Dweck, C, 2006), I begun to view this setback as a opportunity to improve my grades on prospective exams through hard work. Further, I came to convince myself that I should not be excessively upset about it. Surprisingly, I also realized that by making an attempt to find internal justification, I eventually changed my attitude toward the result of my exam. This phenomenon is referred to the concept of counterattitudinal advocacy. Gratefully, by overcoming dissonance with a new cognition and a new attitude, my self-esteem started to stimulate.

Apart from that, I personally utilized another effective strategy - effort justification paradigm, to reduce my dissonance. As I mentioned above, I had invested a significant amount of time and effort in the preparation prior to exam. According to a study conducted by Aronson and Mills, people are more likely to increase their liking for something they have worked hard to attain when a dissonance is surfaced. Similarly, while sustaining my self-esteem, I justified my effort that I had devoted by interpreting the poor grade as an enhancement of resilience rather than as an end itself. By convincing myself that experiencing failure is a momentous element of success, I begun to resolve my dissonance with a more positive outlook. As the quote so wisely suggested by Randy Pausch (2007) “Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted. And experience is often the most valuable thing you have to offer”, I was more inclined to believe this “experience” was inspiring rather than upsetting.

In conclusion, I have learned that when a person’s self-esteem is threatened in a given circumstance, there are a variety of self-enhancement strategies that one can use to protect self-esteem. By understanding myself more in-depth through introspection in terms of emotional experience, cognitive dissonance, and dissonance reduction, I am grateful to acknowledge a range of social psychological concepts applied in my real life.