Answer:
Suppose Juan is in a long-term, romantic relationship but chooses to flirt with someone else. He experiences dissonance because he sees himself as loving and trustworthy, and his flirtatious behavior is incongruent with that self-perception. According to dissonance theory he could reduce his dissonance by convincing himself that the flirting was harmless , whereas according to self-affirmation theory he could reduce his dissonance by thinking about how proud he is to be a pre-med student .
Step-by-step explanation:
The theory of cognitive dissonance is based on the premise that one strives to maintain coherence between one's cognitions (beliefs and opinions). When a person has a belief about something and acts differently than he believes, a situation of dissonance occurs.
Juan sees himself as a reliable and loving boyfriend, but he is flirting with other people. This shows that Juan is not loving and trustworthy as he thinks, but with the theory of dissonance he believes that flirting doesn't hurt his relationship, nor makes him a bad boyfriend.
Self-assertion theory refers to the behavior of people in great need of self-assertion, those who must constantly have their "massaged egos." These people have a need to be in evidence and having their attributes reinforced at all times may be masking the fragility of self-esteem and self-confidence. From this we can conclude that Juan could use the theory of self-assertion to reduce his dissonance by thinking of something that makes him proud of himself as a premedical student.