ABSTRACT
Several attempts have been made to improve upon or extend dissonance theory since its inception. These modifications, qualifications, or additions have not been conceived primarily as replacements for the theory, and they were not inspired by a desire to interpret dissonance phenomena in totally different language. Each of them focuses on some particular feature of the theory, such as commitment or the role of the self, and elaborates that feature into a qualification of the theory, or even into a distinct but compatible theoretical formulation. The first of these we will discuss is an elaboration of the idea of “commitment,” by Kiesler.
