Beliefs Flashcards
What is a core belief?
A core belief is a belief we have adopted consciously, after careful deliberation.
What is a dispositional belief?
A dispositional belief is a belief we have adopted unconsciously. We might not know that we have this belief. These beliefs are often passed on to us through socialisation.
What is a heuristic?
A heuristic is a mental shortcut that allows us to solve problems and make judgments quickly and efficiently. These rule-of-thumb strategies shorten decision-making time and allow people to function without constantly stopping to think about their next course of action.
Are all beliefs useful heuristics to make sense of the world?
In most settings, beliefs are helpful, but they can sometimes lead to systematic errors in judgement or negative thought patterns. This occurs when the belief does not accurately reflect the world.
What is a bias?
We call a systematic error in judgement a bias. Biases influence your thoughts and behaviours and interfere with the ability to be impartial.
Why are beliefs so hard to change?
Beliefs are persistent, sometimes stubbornly so.
The persistence of beliefs is aided by confirmation bias. We tend to only look at the evidence supporting our current beliefs and ignore information opposing it. Beliefs are slow to change.
Beliefs change in tiny increments, while your brain tries to maintain the logical coherence of your belief system.
Describe the process of belief revision.
To allow for belief revision you must be willing to find, process and internalize the information that does not align with your current beliefs. This involves taking in new information that alters what you think of as truth. When new information that is presented is inconsistent with your old beliefs, this creates an inconsistency within your base of knowledge.
List two strategies for belief revision.
Seeking cognitive dissonance.
Seeking emotional discomfort.
What is the self-determination theory?
The self-determination theory delineates three basic psychological needs for wellbeing:
autonomy (ownership over one’s actions),
competence (feelings of mastery and growth),
and relatedness (a sense of belonging).
What is self-concordance between goals and beliefs?
Self-concordance is the alignment of internal (implicit) values and your external (explicit) goals.
What are the benefits of self-concordance?
When your internal values align with your external goals, you are intrinsically motivated to achieve them.
Stable and consistent beliefs mean that we also are more consistent in our efforts toward goal attainment when beliefs and goals align.
Research shows that when we pursue goals that are aligned with our values, the behaviours to obtain the goal more naturally flow from self-choices and meet our inner needs.
List three strategies for aligning your beliefs and goals.
Identify your beliefs, examine the concordance between your beliefs and goals, challenge your limiting beliefs.
