Cognitive Dissonance
Individuals sometimes experience a contradiction between their actions and their beliefs-between what they are doing and what they believe they should be doing. These contradictions can cause a kind of mental discomfort known as cognitive dissonance. People experiencing cognitive dissonance often do not want to change the way they are acting, so they resolve the contradictory situation in another way, they change their interpretation of the situation in a way that minimizes the contradiction between what they are doing and what they believe they should be doing.
Using the example discussed by the professor, explain what cognitive dissonance is and how people often deal with it.