ABSTRACT

This chapter includes several theoretical ideas that purport to account for phenomena we have thus far examined. These ideas, unlike those of the previous chapter, are not derivations from or additions to dissonance theory, but instead, are attempted alternative accounts for “dissonance phenomena” in terms unrelated to the theory. A vast array of alternative viewpoints of dissonance-like phenomena may be found in the volume of Abelson, Aronson, McGuire, New-comb, Rosenberg, and Tannenbaum (1968), but this chapter is considerably more focused. We shall discuss just those viewpoints that offer a relatively thoroughgoing attempt to account for several dissonance phenomena by means of alternative schemes. The most pervasive of these notions is a theory of self-perception advanced by Bem (1965), which is discussed first.