All About the 3 Core Beliefs That Determine How We Make sense of the World Around Us

What Are Core Beliefs?

There are 3 main core beliefs that we use to make sense of the world around us.

Technically these are known as:

• The extra-personal beliefs – beliefs about how the ‘world works’ (the world outside of ourselves).
• The inter-personal beliefs – beliefs about our relationships with other people and the social context (the mechanics of social relationships, social interactions and social settings).
• The intra-personal beliefs – beliefs about ourselves (introspective beliefs).

In order to make these core beliefs easier to measure and comprehend, psychologists have developed three ‘operationalised’ concepts (below).

Core Beliefs as Measurable Constructs

These terms also represent ‘constructs’ that allow us to measure the strength or conviction of the beliefs contained within each concept which are used extensively within the psychological community.

• The Locus of Control – extra-personal beliefs about how the world around us works.
• Social Anxiety (or conformance) – inter-personal beliefs regarding how much we worry about the social rules and regulations governing relationships and social living.
• Self Esteem – intra-personal beliefs measuring how we think about and evaluate ourselves.

Although these three core beliefs refer to different aspects of personal life, they are also inter-related and have an influence on each other.

Core Beliefs Come from Two Main Sources

All of our beliefs, whether they are core beliefs or more transitory, tend to derive from just two principal sources:

• Experiential Beliefs – beliefs which we formulate for ourselves based on our own experiences.
• Socially Acquired Beliefs – beliefs which are given to us to use from the social context (family, friends, social institutions, etc.).

You can read more about these two sources on the links above.

Arrange your FREE initial consultation here.

If you’d like to find out more about core beliefs or recovering from any of your mental health problems then why not arrange a free initial consultation with us.

During this consultation we will discuss your particular issues and the different types of mental health counselling we offer (including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy – CBT) without you having to commit to any counselling going forward.

The consultation lasts around 50 minutes and is a great opportunity to meet with either Paul or Joan and decide if you would like to proceed with any support.