Never Thought

            I never thought it could happen to my family. Teen pregnancy, how could this be? I do not believe that teenagers can be parents because they lack sufficient responsibility, and financial stability. Teenagers are, for the most part, self-centered and it maybe hard for them to shift their attention to another individual on a twenty-four hour basis. But when confronted with the situation I had to modify my attitude.
             Dissonance is a very powerful way to shift a person's believes or attitude. Dissonance happens when a person is confronted with a situation that they may have strong views upon but act in ways that does not illustrate those views. The concept of dissonance that I want to illustrate in my paper is counter attitudinal advocacy. Counter attitudinal advocacy is when a person states an opinion or attitude on something that runs counter to their private belief or attitude. Counter attitudinal advocacy is a concept that many people demonstrate everyday. An example of such is premarital sex. Many people do not believe in premarital sex but have no problem saying that they would have sex before marriage. Some people may state things that they do not truly believe because they do not want to feel like an outcast or hurt the person's feelings. .
             Teen pregnancy is a concept that I do not agree with. I believe that there is so much information that society gives teens on sex that becoming pregnant is not wise. Well one day, my younger cousin came to me and said she was pregnant. I was extremely shocked because my cousin worked at a clinic, where she is able to get contraceptives and she educated other girls about teen pregnancy and safe sex. My first reaction is how in the world could she have done this to herself and the soon to be father. She just began her freshman year in college and was doing so well. I thought all she worked hard for will be over, and things she wanted to do will not be accomplished.