“Having It All”: Cognitive Polyphasia as Preserving a Complex Reality: The Israeli Case

Authors

Dina Friling Education Department, Ben-Gurion University, Beer Sheva, Israel Kay Academic College of Education, Beer Sheva, Israel

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the concept of Cognitive Polyphasia as it relates to

other terms of Social Representation theory as well as 'Cognitive Dissonance'. It will be

demonstrated through two different sets of Cognitive Polyphasia presented as they

appear in the symbolic world of Israeli Jewish parents whose sons were doing their

mandatory military service in the Israel Defense Force’s combat units. It will be shown

that 'Cognitive Polyphasia' is preserving a situation of "having it all" that stresses the

complexity of the situation as well as the difficulty in choice making. It might also

indicate the complexity of actually experiencing coping with change. Even though the

two different examples demonstrated were situated and used in two different and

specific social settings they share a lot in common. The paper concludes by suggesting

that Cognitive Polyphasia might be common sense's tool for coping with the dynamiccomplex

world.