Cognitive balance recovery
Cognitive balance recovery is the process of restoring harmony between conflicting thoughts, beliefs, emotions, or actions. It involves resolving cognitive dissonance – a psychological state where an individual experiences discomfort due to inconsistency between their values, attitudes, or behaviors. Recovery of cognitive balance aims to align these elements, fostering mental clarity, emotional stability, and effective decision-making.
In translation studies, cognitive balance recovery specifically pertains to managing the conflict between linguistic and cultural constraints of the target language while striving to fulfill the dual goals of translation: preserving the source structure and meeting the functional intent of the text.
More than 40 years ago, Leon Festinger published A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance (1957). Festinger's theory of cognitive dissonance has been one of the most influential theories in social psychology (Jones, 1985). It has generated hundreds and hundreds of studies, from which much has been learned about the determinants of attitudes and beliefs, the internalization of values, the consequences of decisions, the effects of disagreement among persons, and other important psychological processes.
Cognitive dissonance theory was both innovative and provocative. Arguably, the least appreciated feature of dissonance theory was also its most innovative. Festinger used the term “cognitive” to precede dissonance, arguing that all types of thoughts, behaviors, and perceptions were represented in people’s thinking by way of their cognitive representations. Social psychological theories of attitudes and attitude change generally involve people comparing their attitudes to the attitudes of others, or comparing the basis for certain attitudes with information that a communicator might offer. With Festinger’s use of the concept of cognitive representations, attitudes, behaviors, social mores, and communications – that is, virtually any phenomenon that people can perceive – all are grist for the mill of cognitive dissonance.
Cognitive balance recovery includes getting rid of: anxiety, embarrassment, regret, sadness, shame, and stress.
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