Transcript Document

Structures of Belief
Geoff Peruniak, Ph.D., Athabasca University
Cannexus 2012
Ottawa, ON.
January 24, 2012
Introduction
Welcome and Introductions
G. Peruniak Ph.D., Athabasca University
Outline
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Assumptions
Key Figures
Model
Exercise
Conclusion
G. Peruniak Ph.D., Athabasca University
Assumptions of Belief Structures
1. The study of beliefs can lead to important
insights and personal development that
improves a person’s quality of life
2. The study of beliefs from the “inside-out” is a
useful complement to methods that emphasize
an external or “outside-in” approach
3. 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
Assumptions (cont’d)
4. Learning/sensing is an interpretive activity
mediated by a filter of beliefs
5. Beliefs act as sensors to the body conscious and
the inner self
6. Beliefs underlie and give rise to emotions and
actions. In other words, beliefs precede
thoughtful action, not necessarily reflex actions
7. Streams of consciousness and emotions ride on
the structure of beliefs [exercise]
G. Peruniak Ph.D., Athabasca University
Assumptions (cont’d)
8. Many beliefs are conscious, many more are
taken-for-granted and unconscious, and
others may be entirely unconscious
9. Self-reflection on beliefs is a worthwhile
endeavour consistent with personal and
professional development
10.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
Assumptions (cont’d)
11.Emotions are sensors for beliefs the way
human ears are sensors for sound
12.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
Jack Mezirow (retired)
Assumptions: (Philip Candy and C.A. Bowers)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
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
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
Mezirow (Cont’d)
Meaning perspectives
• epistemic
• sociolinguisitic
• psychological
• moral-ethical
• aesthetic
Meaning schemes
G. Peruniak Ph.D., Athabasca University
PSYCHOLOGICAL MEANING PERSPECTIVE
MEANING SCHEME
EXERCISE ROUTINE
WALKING SWIMMING
MEDITATION
HIKING
Where
What to
Wear
G. Peruniak Ph.D., Athabasca University
Phases of Transformation (Mezirow)
1. A disorienting dilemma
2. Self examination with feelings of guilt or shame
3. A critical Assessment of epistemic, socio-cultural or psychic
assumptions
4. Recognition of ones discontent and the process of
transformation are shared by others have negotiated a
similar change
5. Exploration of options for new roles, relationships and
actions
6. Planning of a course of action
7. Acquisition of knowledge and skills for implementing one's
plans
8. Provisional trying of new roles
9. Building of competence and self-confidence in new roles and
relationships
Peruniak life
Ph.D., Athabasca
University
10. Reintegration into G.one’s
on the
basis of conditions
Mezirow (Cont’d)
Four Ways of Learning
1. Adding to an existing m.s.
2. Adding another m.s.
3. Transforming a m.s. (social drinking)
4. Transforming a m.p.
G. Peruniak Ph.D., Athabasca University
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
Sol Tax (Cont’d)
Structure of the Panajachel World View
1.
2.
3.
4.
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
G. Peruniak Ph.D., Athabasca University
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
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
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
Milton Rokeach (cont’d)
Assumptions:
1. A person has a relatively small number of values
2. We all possess the same values but to a greater
or lesser extent
3. Values are organized into systems of values
4. The origin of human values rests in the cultural
context and social history of the person as well
as in the individual’s personality
5. Human values affect all phenomena that
researchers wish to study (Rokeach, 1973).
G. Peruniak Ph.D., Athabasca University
Milton Rokeach (cont’d)
Three types of values:
1. descriptive/existential - those capable of
being proved
2. evaluative beliefs
3. prescriptive of what should be
• Values, like all beliefs, have cognitive,
affective, and behavioural components
G. Peruniak Ph.D., Athabasca University
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
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
Milton Rokeach (cont’d)
Personality can be considered changed if:
1. A deeply held belief can be identified
2. If there is a ripple effect from the one deeply
held belief to related beliefs
3. If there are actions associated with the belief
4. If the behaviour matters to the self
5. If the belief sets persist over time
G. Peruniak Ph.D., Athabasca University
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. He is 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
Values Included in the Survey
Instrument
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G. Peruniak Ph.D., Athabasca University
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:
1. an emotionally charged, confiding relationship;
2. a healing setting;
3. a rationale or myth that explains the patient’s symptoms and the
prescribed ritual for resolving them; and
4. 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
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 of
a supernatural ... As nontheists we begin with humans not God, nature
not deity." Humanist Manifesto II, 1973, p. 5.) It can be perceived
correctly 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
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
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
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 selfhaters.
• 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
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
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
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
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
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
Sense of Dis-belief?
What About a Sense of Belief?
G. Peruniak Ph.D., Athabasca University
Challenge of Attunement
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Sense of Touch
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EXERCISE 1: Modified Kelly Rep Test
G. Peruniak Ph.D., Athabasca University
Conclusion
G. Peruniak Ph.D., Athabasca University
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G. Peruniak Ph.D., Athabasca University