ABSTRACT
According to the Oxford English Dictionary a dilemma refers to a difficult situation that normally involves making a choice between options. In psychology, cognitive dissonance refers to a situation involving conflicting attitudes, beliefs or behaviours, and usually occurs when someone is put into a position of performing an action or making a decision that contradicts their values and beliefs. This produces a feeling of discomfort leading to an alteration in one of the attitudes, beliefs or behaviours to reduce the discomfort felt and restore some sense of balance. Deletions refer to a communication pattern in which the speaker is paying attention to certain parts of their experience and excluding others; they may make a general statement about something being a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ thing without providing the detail as to why they believe this. Distortions refer to things that are represented in a way that reflects the speaker’s view of the world.
