Exploring Cognitive Dissonance on a Ski Mountaineering Traverse: A Personal Narrative of an Expedition to ISHINCA (5530 m) in PERU
Carnegie School of Education, Leeds Beckett University, Leeds LS6 3QS, UK
Sports 2019, 7(12), 249; https://doi.org/10.3390/sports7120249
Received: 27 March 2019 / Revised: 21 November 2019 / Accepted: 27 November 2019 / Published: 11 December 2019
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Health and Wellbeing in an Outdoor and Adventure Sports Context)
Through a personal narrative account, this paper explores the nature of the author’s cognitive dissonance experienced during a traverse of a high-altitude ski mountaineering objective (Nevado Ishinca 5530 m) in Peru’s Cordillera Blanca. The author experienced psychological discomfort in the ascent and a role of self in determining a continued commitment with the ski mountaineering challenge. Distraction, trivialization, act rationalization and finally attitude change were all used in attempt to reduce negative levels of cognitive dissonance. The lack of consonant cognitions to support abandoning the climb, the notion of free choice, the role of self-concept and self-esteem values motivated continued commitment until the negative levels of arousal subsided. Through a challenging mountaineering experience, I developed a greater self-awareness of the role of commitment to an objective which could be applied to other life events and experiences.
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Keywords:
cognitive dissonance; strategies of dissonance reduction; characteristics of dissonance arousal and modes of reduction; consonant cognitions; attitude and behaviour change; autophenomenology
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MDPI and ACS Style
Hart, M. Exploring Cognitive Dissonance on a Ski Mountaineering Traverse: A Personal Narrative of an Expedition to ISHINCA (5530 m) in PERU. Sports 2019, 7, 249. https://doi.org/10.3390/sports7120249
AMA Style
Hart M. Exploring Cognitive Dissonance on a Ski Mountaineering Traverse: A Personal Narrative of an Expedition to ISHINCA (5530 m) in PERU. Sports. 2019; 7(12):249. https://doi.org/10.3390/sports7120249
Chicago/Turabian StyleHart, Melissa. 2019. "Exploring Cognitive Dissonance on a Ski Mountaineering Traverse: A Personal Narrative of an Expedition to ISHINCA (5530 m) in PERU" Sports 7, no. 12: 249. https://doi.org/10.3390/sports7120249
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