Smce the publication of Festmger's Theory of Cognitive Dissonance (1957), a large number of studies have been conducted to test vanous denvations from the theory, AU of these experiments, however, have had difficulty m makmg a prion predictions about how dissonance wdi be reduced unless they effectively "blocked off" altemative avenues of dissonance reduction In its present form, the theory does not go very far m specifymg which modes of reduction are most hkely to occur m a given situation Further development of dissonance theory requires identification of personahty and other vanables that should be mcluded m the model m order to make more precise predictions about how an mdividual will resolve cognitive discrepancies The role of personahty vanables seems particularly important m view of results mdicatmg that mdividual differences may account for different reactions to comparably dissonant situations (Aronson & Festmger, 1958, Rosen, 1961, Stemer & Rogers, 1963, Stemer & Johnson, 1964 The present paper presents new evidence beanng on personality predispositions and cognitive dissonance Specifically, it reports an experiment showing the relationship between an ego-defensive style, "repression-sensitization," and tie arousal and reduction of failure-mduced dissonance If a person has a strong desire to succeed, then committing himself to take a test on which he knows he will fail should create dissonance Dissonance anses from the discrepancy between voluntarily agreemg to expenence failure and bemg strong-
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