Thinking critically about your blank results in the formation of your beliefs

Personal Values are “broad desirable goals that motivate people’s actions and serve as guiding principles in their lives". Examples of personal values include donating to charity or spending time with family. Everyone has values, but each person has a different value set. These differences are affected by an individual's culture, personal upbringing, life experiences, and a range of other influences.

Personal values are desirable to an individual and represent what is important to someone. The same value in different people can elicit different behaviours, eg if someone values success one person may work very hard to gain success in their career whereas someone else may take advantage of others to climb the career ladder.

A person can have many values with an individual assigning more importance to some values over others. It has been shown that the values that are most important to you often guide your decision making in all aspects of your life such as career, religion, social circles, self-identity etc.

A personal value is a broad concept and one particular value can be applied to various situations . For example, if an important value to you is loyalty this could be applied to your family, friends or work environment.

Schwartz in 1992 presented 10 motivationally distinct types of values as listed below. These values have been researched in many countries and have been found to be universal in cross-cultural applications.

Schwartz Theory of Basic Values

1. Self-direction eg freedom, creativity
2. Stimulation e.g. exciting life, daring
3. Hedonism e.g. pleasure, self-indulgent
4. Achievement e.g. ambitious, successful
5. Power e.g. wealth, authority
6. Security e.g. social order, family security, cleanliness
7. Conformity e.g. politeness, self-discipline, respect
8. Tradition e.g. respect for traditions, modest, humble, devout
9. Benevolence e.g. loyal, responsible, helpful, forgiving
10. Universalism e.g. equality, wisdom, world of peace, social justice, protecting the environment

Lists of personal values can be indefinite but research has shown a value will generally fit into one of those 10 types. There is no set of ideal values and everyone will have their own list of values with unique importance assigned to each one.

Personal values may and may not correlate with a person’s behaviour. Some values may be practised by an individual and executed in daily life. A personal value may be important to someone, but they are not implementing it in their daily life, and they would like to implement it. And an individual may have a set of personal values that is not in line with their behaviour.

“Core beliefs are defined as fundamental, inflexible, absolute, and generalised beliefs that people hold about themselves, others, the world, and/or the future”. When one has a belief they are accepting that their theory or proposition is true. Beliefs have a degree of uncertainty because many beliefs cannot be observed directly. We use beliefs to help us understand the world around us. A person’s beliefs will guide them in their decision making and response to situations. Beliefs are usually formed in childhood or any other significant formative experience..

• Evidence - logical and rational formation of belief based on evidence that proves causation
• Tradition - family and societal traditions
• Authority - normally developed from a parent but could also be a religious leader, teacher or any other person in authority
• Association - beliefs can be formed through people or groups we associate with
• Revelation - beliefs that are formed through ‘divine intervention” a hunch, inkling or sixth sense

Types of Beliefs – Enabling and Limiting[edit | edit source]

Beliefs can be seen as enabling (positive) or limiting (negative).

Enabling beliefs are ones that are optimistic and show good self-efficacy or the belief in yourself that you can achieve something.

Examples of enabling/ positive beliefs

• I am intelligent
• I am worthy
• I always try my best
• I am hardworking

Negative beliefs are thought as limiting and they often hold one back in life. Limiting beliefs are often seen in absolutes and are often inaccurate and unhelpful. People with limiting beliefs can often be judgmental of oneself or of others.

Examples of limiting/ negative beliefs

• I am weak
• I am boring
• I am stupid
• I always fail
• I am worthless

Beliefs, positive or negative, are not always true and this can lead a person to make poor decisions based on inaccurate beliefs. Research shows that people with inaccurate negative beliefs about themselves can present with symptoms of anxiety and depression.

Beliefs can be categorised into beliefs about one’s self, about others, about the world and the future. These beliefs can either be positive (enabling) or negative (limiting).

1. Self
   • “I am worthy of love and happiness”
   • “I am flawed and unlovable”
2. Others 
   • “Others like me and value my opinion”
   • “People are generally hurtful and disloyal”
3. The World 
   • “The world is my oyster!” 
   • “The world is a dangerous place”
4. The Future
   • “The future is bright, and opportunity awaits”
   • “There is no hope – things will never get better”

It is not always an easy task to identify one’s core beliefs. It can require a great amount of introspection and some people may need the facilitation from a therapist to unlock their core beliefs.

Once limiting beliefs have been identified modification of these beliefs will help to reframe them into enabling beliefs. Reframing beliefs is not a simple task as negative beliefs are often deeply rooted. Again, the need for psychological therapy may be necessary for deeply ingrained beliefs. Wenzel, 2012 describes various strategies that can be applied to modify core beliefs.

What is the thinking process of constructing beliefs known as?

Which of the following is the purpose of critical thinking?

What are four ways we evaluate our beliefs?

Which of the following are tips for ways to become a better critical thinker?