Reply to this classmate's post.

Cognitive dissonance provides that a person has become aware of the inconsistency between their belief (attitude) and their behavior. How a person respond to a cognitive dissonance may depend on how personal or how high the belief is held. For example, if the person has a personal belief that divorce is wrong and then they become divorced, the response may be to avoid conversations on the topic of divorce or rationalize their decisions. If a person believes that lies are wrong except for "little white lies", then the behavior of telling a lie may be respond with just avoiding telling others about the lie and what their belief about lies.

As a health provider I realized that there was a cognitive dissonance when trying to educate patients about the benefits of losing weight. Whenever I would read research that supported weight loss would improve diabetic control or a specific diet would decrease the risk of serious cardiac disease, my own weight and lack of exercise would make me feel like a hypocrite. At first, I rationalized that my high number of working hours kept me from being healthy and controlling my weight. However, I finally had a "talk" with myself. I asked myself, what would I tell myself if I were my patient. How would I answer the rationalizations that I presented? I told myself that I could make time to walk a few blocks after a bathroom break or do wall push-ups when I had 5 minutes here and there. I would say that I am still in the process of resolving it fully. There are still times I choose not to take that walk, but that occurs less often.