Final answer:
Cognitive dissonance refers to the psychological discomfort that arises from a conflict between a person's behavior, attitude, or beliefs, such as believing smoking is harmful but continuing to smoke. To resolve this, individuals can change their behavior or beliefs.
Step-by-step explanation:
The term that refers to an incompatibility between behavior and an attitude or between two different attitudes is A) cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance is the psychological discomfort that arises when there is a conflict among a person's behaviors, attitudes, or beliefs that goes against their positive self-perception. This was defined by psychologist Leon Festinger in 1957. An example of cognitive dissonance is someone who believes that smoking is harmful to their health yet continues to smoke, thereby experiencing a conflict between their belief and their behavior.
When individuals face such conflicts, they are motivated to reduce this dissonance. This can be achieved by changing their behavior, adjusting their attitudes, or adding new cognitions to create a consistent belief system. For instance, a person might quit smoking or alter their belief about the dangers of smoking to reduce the dissonance.
Additional phenomena relevant to dissonance involve post-decision dissonance, such as buyer's remorse, where discomfort arises from an important decision made, and the impact of social influences like conformity, compliance, and obedience on attitudes and behaviors.