Structures of Belief

1. Structures of Belief Geoff Peruniak, Ph.D., Athabasca University Cannexus 2012 Ottawa, ON. January 24, 2012

2. Introduction Welcome and Introductions G. Peruniak Ph.D., Athabasca University

3. Outline • Assumptions • Key Figures • Model • Exercise • Conclusion G. Peruniak Ph.D., Athabasca University

4. Assumptions of Belief Structures • The study of beliefs can lead to important insights and personal development that improves a person’s quality of life • The study of beliefs from the “inside-out” is a useful complement to methods that emphasize an external or “outside-in” approach • Beliefs are endemic to the human condition. As long as we are alive, we have beliefs even if to deny the existence of beliefs. G. Peruniak Ph.D., Athabasca University

5. Assumptions (cont’d) • Learning/sensing is an interpretive activity mediated by a filter of beliefs • Beliefs act as sensors to the body conscious and the inner self • Beliefs underlie and give rise to emotions and actions. In other words, beliefs precede thoughtful action, not necessarily reflex actions • Streams of consciousness and emotions ride on the structure of beliefs [exercise] G. Peruniak Ph.D., Athabasca University

6. Assumptions (cont’d) • Many beliefs are conscious, many more are taken-for-granted and unconscious, and others may be entirely unconscious • Self-reflection on beliefs is a worthwhile endeavour consistent with personal and professional development • Within each person there is a capacity to reflect on his or her beliefs and to make changes when warranted G. Peruniak Ph.D., Athabasca University

7. Assumptions (cont’d) • Emotions are sensors for beliefs the way human ears are sensors for sound • Beliefs play the crucial role of helping a person decide what actions are most worthy and meritorious. To which reference group does one belong when it comes to deciding what is worthy? G. Peruniak Ph.D., Athabasca University

8. Jack Mezirow(retired) Assumptions: (Philip Candy and C.A. Bowers) • People participate in the creation of their reality • Social reality is shared, sustained, and continually negotiated through communication • The individual’s subjective life is created in a biographically unique way through the process of socialization and other life experiences. The subjective life so created serves as a set of interpretive rules for making sense of life. • It is often taken for granted that the everyday life of the individual’s social world is the natural and even inevitable reality of life. (lack of reflection) • Locus of control remains within the individual him or her-self • An individual’s consciousness and behaviour is constructed with purpose and intention • Human interactions are based on intricate social roles, the rules governing which are often implicit • The individual’s self-concept is constituted through significant interaction with significant others. The individual requires not only social shared knowledge but an understanding of who he or she is in relation to that knowledge G. Peruniak Ph.D., Athabasca University

9. Mezirow Terms (Cont’d) Transformative learning . . . is the process by which we change problematic frames of reference (mindsets, habits of mind, meaning perspectives) – sets of assumption and expectation - to make them more inclusive, discriminating, open, reflective and emotionally able to change. Such frames are better because they are more likely to generate beliefs and opinions that will prove more true or justified to guide action (p. 26). A meaning perspective is better to the extent it provides a framework for action that it is more inclusive, discriminating, permeable, critically reflective, and integrative of experience. G. Peruniak Ph.D., Athabasca University

10. Mezirow(Cont’d) Meaning perspectives • epistemic • sociolinguisitic • psychological • moral-ethical • aesthetic Meaning schemes G. Peruniak Ph.D., Athabasca University

11. PSYCHOLOGICAL MEANING PERSPECTIVE MEANING SCHEME EXERCISE ROUTINE WALKING SWIMMING MEDITATION HIKING What to Wear Where G. Peruniak Ph.D., Athabasca University

12. Phases of Transformation (Mezirow) • A disorienting dilemma • Self examination with feelings of guilt or shame • A critical Assessment of epistemic, socio-cultural or psychic assumptions • Recognition of ones discontent and the process of transformation are shared by others have negotiated a similar change • Exploration of options for new roles, relationships and actions • Planning of a course of action • Acquisition of knowledge and skills for implementing one's plans • Provisional trying of new roles • Building of competence and self-confidence in new roles and relationships • Reintegration into one’s life on the basis of conditions dictated by one’s new perspective G. Peruniak Ph.D., Athabasca University

13. Mezirow(Cont’d) Four Ways of Learning • Adding to an existing m.s. • Adding another m.s. • Transforming a m.s. (social drinking) • Transforming a m.p. G. Peruniak Ph.D., Athabasca University

14. Sol Tax (1907-1995) Teachable Level Beliefs and behaviours at the teachable level we may learn. World View - Structure of the Panajachel World View We may also communicate something of the intermediate, synthesized “world view” which also makes sense to us. World view refers to the superficial empirical phenomena of the beliefs that is reflected in a particular culture. Cultural Structure of Beliefs He used the term “structure” to refer to the layer of belief immediately below the world view. X-Factor Then below this cultural structure is a deeper layer of beliefs that Tax suggested was to be found reflected in the social interactions of the people. “This level will be evident only when all else has become crystal clear to the most knowledgeable and the wisest of observers tormented by newly observed contradictory items of behavior” (p. 286 – Can World Views Mix?) These beliefs are firmly entrenched and relatively unchanging. G. Peruniak Ph.D., Athabasca University

15. Sol Tax (Cont’d) Structure of the Panajachel World View • Reality is spiritual and unitary and is manifested in changing forms. Being is essentially a spiritual, not a material, phenomenon; corporal existence is not so much a stage as a condition which comes and goes in the career of the spirit • The forms interact within a framework of prescribed relationships. The world is controlled by the earth and the sky; beings belong more to the one than the other. Relationships among beings are basically authority relationships and are as much a given as existence itself (e.g., animals and angels have community duties, just as do people). • Given his/her limited perspective, it is unavoidably difficult for a person to know and observe prescribed relationships. People must use knowledge as responsibly as possible. There is a capriciousness and uncertainty in life which one can never eliminate but which one can minimize by expedience. The time and nature of future occurrences often are knowable in advance to those who know how to interpret the signs. • The universe is moral. There is an ultimate justice which insures that those who accept and observe prescribed relationships are rewarded. Each being must sojourn on earth in responsible fulfillment of its spirit’s destiny. There are few absolutes, and behavior must be judged in context. The final weighing or accounting comes only at death. G. Peruniak Ph.D., Athabasca University

16. G. Peruniak Ph.D., Athabasca University

17. Stalking Wolf (1874? – 1967) (from Tom Brown) Physical Self Primal (primitive) Self – the animal within Instinctual– logical mind needs to be set aside and the flow of instinct recognized and correctly interpreted. “If you want to know the spirit of the plant and what it is used for, you must ask it. You must ask with the heart.” Too often the rational mind interferes. Sacred Silence - pathway Intuition and the Inner Voice (Inner Self) “There is no separation in the force of nature, no inner or outer dimension; we are at once part of nature and nature is part of us.” Oneness of experience G. Peruniak Ph.D., Athabasca University

18. Milton Rokeach(1918-1988) . . . the value concept, more than any other, should occupy a central position across all the social sciences – sociology, anthropology, psychology, psychiatry, political science, education, economics, and history. More than any other concept, it is an intervening variable that shows promise of being able to unify the apparently diverse interests of all the sciences concerned with human behaviour (p. 3). [Rokeach, M. (1973). The nature of human values. New York: Free Press.] G. Peruniak Ph.D., Athabasca University

19. Milton Rokeach(cont’d) • Rokeach (1985) lamented the fragmentation of psychology into more specialities because he identified the social challenges of change needing to be informed by a more holistic approach. • Rokeach was grappling with the dilemma that classical personality psychology was telling us that traits did not change much over the lifespan while the state of world politics was telling if we wanted some world peace then changes in personality, particularly the authoritarian trait, were badly needed. G. Peruniak Ph.D., Athabasca University

20. Milton Rokeach(cont’d) Assumptions: • A person has a relatively small number of values • We all possess the same values but to a greater or lesser extent • Values are organized into systems of values • The origin of human values rests in the cultural context and social history of the person as well as in the individual’s personality • Human values affect all phenomena that researchers wish to study (Rokeach, 1973). G. Peruniak Ph.D., Athabasca University

21. Milton Rokeach(cont’d) Three types of values: • descriptive/existential - those capable of being proved • evaluative beliefs • prescriptive of what should be • Values, like all beliefs, have cognitive, affective, and behavioural components G. Peruniak Ph.D., Athabasca University

22. Milton Rokeach(cont’d) • Rokeach saw that the priority of values was a central component to personality • He advocated a critical self-reflectivity on value priorities and beliefs as a means of what he called “self-education” but what we might call personal and professional development. G. Peruniak Ph.D., Athabasca University

23. Milton Rokeach(cont’d) • Value – refers to a single belief around a transcendent theme. • Attitude– an organization of several beliefs around a specific theme. • Terminal values are more core than instrumental values while attitudes are peripheral to both. • Personality as a system of values. • “The reason attitude changes are typically short-lived is that the more central values underlying them have been left intact” G. Peruniak Ph.D., Athabasca University

24. Milton Rokeach(cont’d) Personality can be considered changed if: • A deeply held belief can be identified • If there is a ripple effect from the one deeply held belief to related beliefs • If there are actions associated with the belief • If the behaviour matters to the self • If the belief sets persist over time G. Peruniak Ph.D., Athabasca University

25. Shalom H. Schwartz (Retired) In 1979, when many of Israel's leading researchers were going to work at universities in the United States, Schwartz moved to Israel with his wife and three children. He joined the department of psychology at the Hebrew University, where he is Professor Emeritus of Psychology. Heis retired, but continues his research and promotes his Basic Human Values Theory. Belief Structure – The relations of conflict and compatibility among values Value Priorities or Hierarchies - relative importance of a value to a group or individual G. Peruniak Ph.D., Athabasca University

26. Values Included in the Survey Instrument G. Peruniak Ph.D., Athabasca University

27. G. Peruniak Ph.D., Athabasca University

28. Jerome Frank (1910 –2005) The curative element in psychotherapy lies less in the uniqueness of any treatment form and more in the common factors shared by different psychotherapies. They proposed four such common factors: • an emotionally charged, confiding relationship; • a healing setting; • a rationale or myth that explains the patient’s symptoms and the prescribed ritual for resolving them; and • a ritual or procedure requiring the joint participation of patient and therapist and mutually believed to be a means of restoring the patient’s health Frank, J.D. & Frank, J.B.(1961). Persuasion and Healing: a comparative study of psychotherapy (3rd ed.), Baltimore, Maryland: John Hopkins G. Peruniak Ph.D., Athabasca University

29. Jerome Frank (Cont’d) He defines (l977) what he calls the scientific-humanist belief system, which he says has dominated the American scientific community: [itl“assumes a single reality existing independently of the observer and consisting of objects and events anchored in a space-time continuum which relate to each other according to laws of cause and effect. (The term humanist is used here as defined by the American Humanist Association:"Any account of nature should pass the tests of Scientific evidence... We find insufficient evidence for belief in the existence ofa supernatural ... As nontheists we begin with humans not God, naturenot deity." Humanist Manifesto II, 1973, p. 5.) It can be perceivedcorrectly only by the waking, unintoxicated brain and is to be comprehended by the intellectual analysis of sensory data. According to this view, the ultimate test of the validity of any phenomenon is its ability to meet the criteria of scientific evidence, including replicability and the use of controls. The scientific-humanist world view dismisses as illusory all experiences that cannot meet these criteria.” G. Peruniak Ph.D., Athabasca University

30. Jerome Frank(Cont’d) “. . . I am quite prepared to accept the possible existence of realities or planes of being in addition to the world of sensory phenomena. This view has been well expressed by William James (1920) in a letter: The fixed point with me is the conviction that our "rational" consciousness touches but a portion of the real universe and that our life is fed by the "mystical" region as well. I have no mystical experience of my own but just enough of the germ of mysticism in me to recognize the region from which their voice comes when I hear it. (p. 211) James, H. (1920). (Ed.). Letters of William James (Vol. 2). Boston: Atlantic Monthly Press. G. Peruniak Ph.D., Athabasca University

31. Jerome D. Frank(Cont’d) • ‘. . . the cognitive and moral map supplied by a belief system orders experiences in terms of importance. It thus provides guides as to what to select and attend to out of the welter of experience. Furthermore, by representing an orderly, self-consistent universe, it enables the believers to predict and control physical events and to evaluate the behavior of others as well as their own from an ethical standpoint” • “A major function of all belief systems is to bind the believers to each other. Indeed, a shared belief system is essential for the maintenance of a cohesive group.” • “Finally, a major purpose of all belief systems is to counteract what has been termed "ontological anxiety," the prospect of disappearing into nothingness which all humans must face. All belief systems try to counteract this intolerable feeling by linking individual existence to an absolute, permanently enduring value or a goal transcending not only the individual but society itself.” • “The major shortcoming of the scientific-humanist belief system is that it offers no final answers to the riddles of existence.” G. Peruniak Ph.D., Athabasca University

32. Eric Hoffer (1902 –1983) • people attracted to mass movements, regardless of the theme of the movement – communism, fascism, Christianity, were often plagued by prior feelings of inadequacy, guilt, or self-hatred. By joining a movement dedicated to the improvement of the world, that person could ease the burden of self-hatred. Of course, this does not mean that all persons attracted to a movement are self-haters. • For many who are discontent with their lives, an appeal to self-development can be seen as tainted and evil; as contaminated, unclean and unlucky. They are looking for a rebirth, a sense of pride and power associated with a movement and self-renunciation at least in the initial stages of the movement. G. Peruniak Ph.D., Athabasca University

33. Eric Hoffer (Cont’d) • The discontented need a potent doctrine, a charismatic and infallible leader, a new technique, a boundless faith in the future to power their dreams and actions and be ignorant of the difficulties of their undertaking (i.e., have little political experience). Perhaps that is why the English are less susceptible to mass movements. • “Some kind of widespread enthusiasm or excitement is apparently needed for the realization of vast and rapid change, and it does not seem to matter whether the exhilaration is derived from an expectation of untold riches or is generated by a mass movement” (p. 3 – The True Believer). In the past, religious movements have served this function as well as nationalist movements. G. Peruniak Ph.D., Athabasca University

34. Eric Hoffer (Cont’d) • “The less justified a man [or woman] is in claiming excellence for his [or her] own self, the more ready is he [or she] to claim all excellence for his nation, his race or his holy cause” (p. 14) • “The vanity of the selfless, even those who practice utmost humility, is boundless” (p. 14). • A mass movement offers adherents a refuge from personal inadequacies, anxieties, and meaninglessness. • ‘All that I am doing or possibly can do is chicken feed compared with what is left undone’. ‘Such is the frustration of which broods over gold camps and haunts taut minds in boom times - gold hunters, land-grabbers, and other get-rich-quick artists’ (p. 49). • “Strength of faith manifest itself not in moving mountains but in not seeing mountains to move” (p. 80). G. Peruniak Ph.D., Athabasca University

35. George Kelly (1905 – 1967) Personal Construct Theory It is customary to say that the scientist’s ultimate aim is to predict and control. This is a summary statement that psychologists frequently like to quote in characterizing their own aspirations. Yet, curiously enough, psychologists rarely credit the human subjects in their experiments with having similar aspirations. It is as though the psychologist were saying to himself: I, being a psychologist, and therefore a scientist, am performing this experiment in order to improve the prediction and control of certain human phenomena; but my subject, being merely a human organism, is obviously propelled by inexorable drives welling up within him, or else he is in gluttonous pursuit of sustenance and shelter. (p. 4) G. Peruniak Ph.D., Athabasca University

36. George Kelly (Cont’d) The fundamental postulate: "a person's processes are psychologically channelized by the ways in which he anticipates events.“ “each man contemplates in his own personal way the stream of events upon which he finds himself so swiftly borne.” (p. 3) G. Peruniak Ph.D., Athabasca University

37. Grandma Walroth • “The devil finds work for idle hands” • “Anyone can pull themselves up by their bootstraps” • “The early bird gets the worm” • “If wishes were horses, beggars would ride” • “A stitch in time, saves nine” G. Peruniak Ph.D., Athabasca University

38. Sense of Dis-belief? What About a Sense of Belief? G. Peruniak Ph.D., Athabasca University

39. Challenge of Attunement G. Peruniak Ph.D., Athabasca University

40. Sense of Touch G. Peruniak Ph.D., Athabasca University

41. EXERCISE 1: ModifiedKelly Rep Test G. Peruniak Ph.D., Athabasca University

42. Conclusion G. Peruniak Ph.D., Athabasca University

43. Contact Information • E-mail: geoff@athabascau.ca • Presentation at: http://bit.ly/cannexus2012 • Username: structures • Password: Cannexus G. Peruniak Ph.D., Athabasca University