So, there's this concept in physiology called cognitive
dissonance and basically if you start with the
understanding that people prefer that their thinking, beliefs
and understandings all be consistent and in sync.
So, for instance if I believe that the sky is blue generally then when
I look at this sky I expect it to be blue and so in.
Since, you know instances where there's been a, a storm
or some other sort of unique change in the light.
Then, you notice that the sky looks different.
It's green from a thunderstorm.
Or the, a sunset as created unique reds and blues and purples.
And, so it's something that you take note of,
and look at and try to explain for yourself.
or you could you know, have the belief
that, well if somebody has cancer, then they would want to be treated for cancer.
But, there are some people who actually feel, for whatever reason, or whatever
circumstances that acutally treating the cancer is not what they want to have done.
So, how do we as providers understand that.
And put that together.
So, what happens is that people become uncomfortable,
or even insensitive sometimes, to this inconsistency, and
when these cognitive dissonances are created, people
want to do things to fix it, right?
So to do something to reestablish your understanding, and
to reestablish what feels normal or natural to you.
So the reason to develop affective ILOs is to help our learners grow, develop,
and possibly even mature, and create these normative behaviors or skills.
And many of us are familiar
with this idea of sort of compassionate care, in which I sort of alluded to.
A few minutes ago.
And so, the other purpose of the affective ILOs, then,
is to help our learners develop habits of mind or
patterns of reasoning to work through sort of some of
these cognitive dissonances or sort of difficult or uncomfortable things.
Right?
So, when we talk about rebouncing the the dissonance I'm actually going to challenge
our dissonance a little bit.
With some thoughts about, you know, the
notion between thinking things, versus the behavior.
And so, while I may have thoughts about what
is, or isn't appropriate in someone's life, or things that
I may, or may not do in my own life,
the issue is that I can't necessarily change those thoughts.
Or I may.
hold very tight to my values, but I should not behave
in a way that is different from somebody elses values.
Meaning that I should have respect for the fact that someone else may think entirely
different then I do but that that the way I behave toward them is respectful.
And so, we have to be very careful though, that
we're trying to figure out who's truth we're talking about.
Because some of them may have some socio-political dimensions, right?
We may have some westernized notions of how people should undergo care.
We may have, you know, religious beliefs about how people should undergo care.
So for instance in the United States, one example that we often use as a
teaching example are Jehovah's Witnesses who are Individuals
who do not want to use blood products.
And so how do we as providers sort of work through that dynamic of, you know,
even if you are hemorrhaging and may lose your life because of
the hemorrhage, we will not give you blood products to save your life.