Research Summary

Cognitive Dissonance Theory: The cognitive dissonance theory is stated to be one of the most important theories in the history of social psychology. It has roots in the cybernetic tradition and the sociopsychological tradition. The theory is centered around the idea that each communicator has a set of cognitive elements like attitudes, perceptions, knowledge and behaviors. These elements respond to each other to create different types of relationships including null, consistent and inconsistent. These relationships determine dissonance within a person or between people. Dissonance happens when element don't react with each other in a predictable way. One example of this is people believing that being overweight is unhealthy but continuing to eat poorly. There are two assumptions to this theory the first being that dissonance creates emotional tension or stress that creates a desire to change. The second assumption is that the more dissonance that a person has the more likely they are to wait to change it. Some ways that dissonance can be reduced are through changing actions, introducing variables that change opinions, reducing the importance of dissonant elements and finding information that backs the dissonant information.


Groupthink Theory: The Groupthink Theory is a product of Irving Janis. It is part of the sociocultural tradition. It is centered around the effectiveness of group conversation and decision making. Groupthink happens when there is a high level of cohesion in a group. The cohesion creates a strong mutual identification, which binds the group together. The strength of this bond leads groups to become interdependent. The more interdependence there is within the group the more likely it is that there will be pressure on member to maintain cohesiveness. This can be beneficial as it can increase interpersonal relationships amongst the group. However it can also be detrimental because it can lead to decreased self-worth and can inhibit individual decision making. Some way to combat groupthink are encouraging everyone to be a critical thinker and express their feelings during the process, allowing every member to consider their opinion prior to the leader disclosing their stance on the issue, dividing into smaller groups to discuss the issue and spending enough time on each subject to think of the different possibilities and complications


Writing a Children's Book: I also spent a lot of time researching how to write children's books. I found a lot of information about length and pacing of children's books. Most of the sources I found said that children's books should be between 50 to 2500 words. I also found a lot of information on the importance of the stories introduction and having a low amount of modifier words. I also spent a lot of time looking at children's books that teach lessons and principles. I think the most beneficial tip I found was the tip to share your work with others. I had a lot of people review my work in an effort to clarify the story and the communication concepts.





Sources:

Cognitive Dissonance Theory:
Theories of Human Communication by: Stephen W. Littlejohn, Karen A. Foss
https://www.utwente.nl/cw/theorieenoverzicht/Levels%20of%20theories/micro/Cognitive_Dissonance_theory/
http://communicationtheory.org/cognitive-dissonance-theory/

Groupthink Theory:
http://communicationtheory.org/groupthink/
Theories of Human Communication by: Stephen W. Littlejohn, Karen A. Foss
https://www.utwente.nl/cw/theorieenoverzicht/Theory%20Clusters/Organizational%20Communication/groupthink/

Writing a Children's Book:
http://www.writing-world.com/children/backes1.shtml
http://writeforkids.org/2014/05/start-here-writing-for-children-step-one/
http://www.patmora.com/tips/