Belief. What is this in the psychology of communication, definition, examples from life

Persuasion, in psychology, is the process of presenting arguments that can motivate or change the views of an audience. More than a millennium ago, Aristotle defined rhetoric as a means of discovering “the available means of persuasion.” Aristotle taught that rhetoric, or the art of public speaking, presupposes the ability to observe in each particular case the means of persuasion available.

The process of persuasion is often defined as human communication that is intended to influence others by changing their worldviews, values, or attitudes. This definition was introduced in 1976 by Simons OKeefe.

The basis of communication is belief. Some scholars argue that to communicate is to persuade—that all communication in one form or another is persuasion. Indeed, belief is central to some of humanity's most important functions, underlying politics, religion, and health, while also being present in everyday life, such as marketing and parenting.

In its broadest sense, persuasion is the communication process by which a message induces a change in the beliefs, attitudes, or behavior of an individual or group.

Beliefs are literally the lens through which a person views the world.

Beliefs can:

influence perception;
determine what is good, what is bad, true, real;
distort the point of view in a positive or negative direction;
guide or limit the actions a person takes;
influence relationships;
lower or increase the level of happiness.

Each person has within and operates within a complex set of beliefs that define him and the world in which he lives. Beliefs are the way we process the flow of information coming through our 5 major senses at every moment of every day.

Definition

In the Middle Ages, in European universities, persuasion (rhetoric) was one of the main liberal arts that any educated person had to master. From the times of Imperial Rome until the Reformation, rhetoric was elevated to a fine art by preachers who used the spoken word to inspire any number of actions, such as virtuous behavior or religious pilgrimages. In the modern era, persuasion is most visible in the form of advertising.

Belief in Psychology

Political scientists and psychologists who study the process of persuasion in the field of communication studies trace the history of this discipline back to the ancient Greeks.

The heated debate between Plato and the Sophists regarding the merits and place of persuasion in society is very much alive today. Plato hated what many consider to be the dark and dubious part of the faith—greatly exaggerated statements. The Sophists, on the other hand, accepted this side of the faith, arguing for its practical basis and ubiquitous presence in everyday life.

A generation after Plato and the Sophists, Aristotle saw the merits of both schools of thought and saw rhetoric as a tool for understanding the power of persuasion. Aristotle's description of artistic proofs (ethos, logos, and pathos) defined much of the research on persuasion for a millennium after him, and these proofs are still used today. Aristotle's influence on persuasion and, indeed, on communication studies is very great.

Persuasion is also defined in psychology as a skill that requires a lot of practice to master. Understanding people's psychology helps you deliver information more effectively and have a greater impact in your personal and professional lives.

Studying this concept is essential to understanding human communication, and modern research continues to bring new ideas and concepts.

Some theorists emphasize the similarities between education and persuasion. They believe that persuasion is very similar to learning new information through informative communication.

A person's response to persuasive communication depends partly on the message and largely on how the person perceives or interprets it. Words in newspaper advertisements may be more persuasive if they are printed in red rather than black.

How to work through limiting beliefs

Our brain is very plastic and easily builds new neural connections to replace old ones. This can be compared to a promotion in a store when they offer to exchange old equipment for new ones at a discount. This is how you and I will replace our previous negative beliefs with new positive ones. Over time, your brain will get used to these formulations, and you will feel how the surrounding reality begins to adapt to your new views.

Let’s continue the example we have already taken about finances, namely: “To earn many times more, I need to work many times more.” This is a limiting attitude, and we will need to replace it with a new, positive one. For example: “My level of earnings does not depend on how much time I spend at work.”

Remember that a new setup will take some getting used to. It's like shoes you just bought that are a little too narrow for your feet. They will have to be worn in and worn as often as possible. Write a positive belief on a piece of paper and hang it in a visible place so that every time your eyes are drawn to a new, unusual phrase for you.

Return to this belief every day, pronounce it as an affirmation, that is, as a positive statement for the right psychological attitude.

This way you can work with any limiting settings. Let me give you a few examples:

“There is not enough money for everyone” is replaced with “The world is abundant, it has an infinite amount of resources, and I can earn as much as I want.”
“Any of my undertakings ends in failure” - “I confidently start any business, take my mistakes calmly and forgive myself for them. Mistakes are normal, they help you grow.”
“I’m afraid to get into a relationship because I don’t want to be abandoned” - “I feel easy and comfortable in relationships. I love myself, I know how to take care of myself, and I happily allow others to love me and take care of me.”
“After the white stripe there is always a black one, and if everything is good now, it will soon become bad” - “I enjoy life here and now. I gratefully accept any changes, as they always lead me to the better.”

Underlying theories

The following theories are considered fundamental in psychology in the area of relationships and faith:

The theory of cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance is a term for a state of discomfort that occurs when two or more ways of thinking contradict each other. People like their thoughts and attitudes to have meaning, and they actively try to avoid the discomfort associated with cognitive incoherence. The theory of cognitive dissonance helps explain this phenomenon. Dissonance occurs when one thought contradicts or challenges another. According to the creator of the theory, Leon Festinger (1957), one of the most striking examples of dissonance is a smoker. Someone who smokes may recognize that smoking causes cancer but still choose to continue smoking. The thought and acceptance that smoking causes cancer contradicts or challenges the thought and action of smoking, thereby creating dissonance.
Theory of Reasoned Action. Belief in this case is associated with behavior. The concept was proposed by an American psychologist of the 20th century. I. Aizen. The theories of planned behavior help persuade people in a variety of fields, such as politics, health, religion, and interpersonal communication, to fine-tune messages that aim to influence someone's intentions.
Elaboration probability model. It was developed by D. Cacioppo and R. E. Petty in 1980. It is a theory of persuasion that suggests that there are 2 different ways to convince people of something, depending on how passionate they are about the topic. When people are highly motivated and have time to think about a decision, such as choosing a laptop in a store, comparing it with others, evaluating it, persuasion occurs along a central pathway in which the pros and cons of the choice are carefully weighed. However, when people are in a hurry or the decision is less important to them, they tend to be more easily persuaded in the peripheral way, that is, by features. For example, regardless of the quality, a person decided to buy a red laptop because he liked the color.
Narrative paradigm. Walter Fisher (1984) proposed this paradigm as a means of viewing human communication through a narrative lens. Fisher argued that people living across cultures, time, and space use the inherent power of storytelling to communicate, persuade, and help understand the complexities of existence. The paradigm states that all meaningful communication occurs through storytelling or reporting of events. People participate as storytellers and observers of narratives. This theory also states that stories are more persuasive than persuasive arguments.

Self-perception, attitude towards yourself

Answers to the questions - who am I and why do I live? The answers to these simple but profound questions must be consistent with all internal attitudes. These are the basic and basic definitions that characterize a person. For yourself inside, for your own strong or weak position in life, you definitely must give answers to these questions. Am I an animal or just a body ruled by instincts? Am I divine, bright and strong in nature with energy with great potential? Maybe this is the matrix I don't really live?

What is a sense of life?

A normal, mature person should answer the following questions about life without hesitation: Is life a complete punishment or is it pain and suffering? Life and perfection for true noble purposes - to bring life and love to the Universe? Is my life a gift from Fate, a unique opportunity for development, creation and struggle? NO!

Correct answer: Everyone has the same value and meaning in life - true love for another person and the endless desire of the universe for perfection and beauty

What is happiness?

Naturally, every person should know the answers to the questions: what is Happiness? What is commonly called a happy person, satisfied with his life. What happiness consists of, its visual representation and the basics of a happy life.

Happiness is the coloring of a person’s emotional state at a given moment in time, characterized as the middle line of emotional memories and the sum of vivid positive and negative emotions recorded in deep memory. These are just our memories!

Having clear life guidelines is the road to my Happiness, here is the action plan, here are my main criteria. Here is my insurance and here are my preserved pieces of happy moments. Here's my next goal. I am my persistence - like a character trait!

Classification

In psychology, neutral beliefs, resourceful and limiting, are considered. The first represent a set of scientific concepts accessible to people. Resource includes the capabilities on which beliefs are created. The last group includes negative resources.

The entire procedure of persuasion consists of 4 types of influence:

Informing. Before a person is encouraged to act, he must be convinced why he should act. This is necessary because no one will start doing something without realizing why it should be done. Polish psychologist T. Tomaszewski derived a formula based on this. It reflects a simple idea: in order to motivate a person to the desired activity, he should be informed about the goals and the likelihood of achieving it. Informing in the process of persuasion is carried out in various ways, the main one is a story that follows an inductive and deductive path.
Explanation. This is a persuasive influence in which all the arguments “for” and “against” the subject of persuasion are used.
Proof. This is a technique for establishing the truth of a statement using facts, arguments and various related judgments. Evidence is usually based on scientific data and social practice.
Efficiency. This is the basis of persuasion, in which numerous techniques of the persuasion system are used. Techniques are selected depending on the circumstances and personality traits of the person being convinced.

Test your subconscious attitudes

To check your settings recorded in the subconscious, ask yourself questions, say to yourself or out loud, the beginning of the installation, for example:

For me the World is......
I live for......
The meaning of my life is….
For me, Happiness is...
People around me...
Love is…

Listen to yourself, write down your answers, analyze your answers and attitudes. An important point is that this must be done in writing. Answers must be sincere! Listen to yourself, your subconscious, what thoughts will follow the beginning of the phrase. What definition of the World will your subconscious give? YOUR amazing inner world will unfold before you! Do an analysis, read the correctness of the settings, if the settings and definitions are incorrect, you need to work on them. Remove the negative, replace with the positive.

Characteristics and properties

Beliefs are in psychology what a person considers to be an axiom, regardless of whether he has any evidence of objective truth. Many beliefs develop and are passed on through generations. Parents, teachers, mentors, colleagues - they all pass on their beliefs, and each person has the opportunity to accept them or not. Over time, they may become their own beliefs or be rejected.

Every individual also develops beliefs based on personal experiences and feelings. Moreover, a person develops them through his repeated actions. If he is constantly late, he begins to believe that he is bad at managing his time, although in fact changing his alarm clock to a better one or getting into the habit of going to bed on time will help him change this label.

Beliefs are defined as the concepts that things a person thinks are true. If people think certain principles are true, they believe them. If people think that certain principles are unlikely to be true, they will not believe them.

In their most basic form, beliefs have no value. For example, if someone believes that the sky is blue, this belief can be evaluated either positively (if the person likes the color blue and thinks that the sky will be worse in red) or this belief can be evaluated negatively (if the person dislikes the color blue and he thinks a red sky would be better). Thus, there is a subtle difference between views and beliefs.

People have 3 main types of beliefs that often form the basis of relationships.

Beliefs about yourself

Persistent beliefs about ourselves are what drive or suppress motivation. They can be limiting (I can’t, I’m bad at it, I just don’t have the skill) or they can be empowering (I can, I do).

Beliefs about ourselves grow from childhood, and are strongly related to the environment. People who grow up in a close-knit family that regularly supports them are likely to grow up with a sense of self-confidence, although this is not the rule.

How different people absorb or reject these environmentally conditioned ideas also depends on their personality. People with a natural questioning mind and curiosity about the world will not blindly accept the beliefs of others. Likewise, people with a strong sense of self will not think about themselves what they are told about them. Instead, they will develop their own self-image by analyzing their strengths and weaknesses.

Beliefs take root in character, and a person begins to filter everything through them. Speech, body language, expression of emotions - all of this, one way or another, is driven by these beliefs. Over time, they can turn into shortcuts.

Beliefs about others

Strong beliefs are usually instilled by mentors and parents. Sometimes beliefs are instilled through personal experience. For example, if a person is once treated poorly by a police officer, they may develop the belief that all police are unjust. More extreme experiences can even cause phobias. Such beliefs determine a person's attitude and behavior towards others.

Beliefs about life and the world

The range of feelings from: “life is terrible”, “everything is hopeless” to: “the world is full of opportunities” - refers to beliefs that develop in relation to the outside world. A person formulates such ideas, starting from the immediate world (home, street, work) right up to humanity as a whole. At the same time, the opinion about a group of people and events depends on one’s own situation and context.

People with high socioeconomic status may think that people with low socioeconomic status do not work hard enough. The second group may think that the first group had everything served to them on a platter. While there is a chance that these thoughts are objectively true, in most cases they are not. Man develops these prejudices about the world because of an innate need to justify his place in it.

While beliefs about others and the world give rise to stereotypes and can lead to xenophobia, racism and sexism, beliefs about oneself determine a person's self-image. Together, they set boundaries about who they feel comfortable talking to, acting with, helping, or asking for help with. The gap between a person's ideas about others and about himself creates a person's attitude and, as a result, shapes his ideas about the world as a whole.

It all depends on the direction in which these beliefs lead a person.

List of beliefs from different areas of life

Let's look at a list of beliefs that may be preventing you from enjoying life and achieving your goals.

About money

Money is evil.
All rich people are thieves and bad people.
If there is a lot of money, there will be no time for family.
Money is earned only through hard work.
The price for money is the pain of work.
To make good money, you need to spend a lot of time and effort on work.
Having a lot of money is dangerous.
Big money brings big problems.
Taking money for your services is wrong.
Spiritual people don't think about money.
It's a shame to spend money on yourself.
I consider myself unworthy of big money.
Money is dirt.
You can’t have a lot of money, they can take it away.

You can read more about money settings here.

About relationships

Relationships are a cage.
All men cheat.
Love only causes problems.
Life without a man is impossible.
I'm fine alone.
A woman is incomplete without a family.
I must obey my man in everything.
The appearance of a family and children is the end of a free life.
The woman in the family bears everything on herself.
Nobody needs self-sufficient, smart, self-confident women.
There are no real men left.
Nowadays you rarely see a happy family.
Men do nothing but eat and sleep.
Men don't care about women's feelings.

About friendship

There is no such thing as female friendship.
Friendship between a man and a woman does not exist.
There are no real friends.
Friends are with you only in joy.
Being a good friend means sacrificing yourself.
A true friend is found in trouble.
Friendship only happens in childhood.
Adults do not know how to make friends, because they think only about their own benefit.
In this life, everyone is for themselves, no one will help you.
Friends shouldn't be offended.
It's dangerous to be friends with women.
It's difficult to make friends as an adult.

About health

I'm constantly sick.
My health depends only on doctors.
Everyone gets sick at my age.
They don't live long in our area.
I don’t have enough money for treatment; a good doctor is expensive.
If I don't take this medicine, I'll get sick.
A strong wind blew, and the sheets fell again.
My work will take me to my grave.
With my lifestyle it is impossible to stay healthy.
There is a flu at work, I will definitely get infected.
All doctors only need money, otherwise they will not cure.
I have a weak immune system.

About work and career

To get a job, you need connections or money.
There are no good bosses.
You can’t be “the smartest” in a team; no one likes that.
It’s better to consistently earn 30 thousand in the office than to step into the unknown.
For many years now I have not been able to get a good job.
Nobody needs my experience.
There are plenty of more successful and knowledgeable people around.
You cannot admit your mistakes, otherwise you will be deprived of your bonus or fired.
Work is not a wolf; it will not run away into the forest.
The boss will never praise you.
The work is never interesting.
Working for yourself is too risky.

About hobbies

You can't make much money from a hobby.
Hobbies are a waste of time and money.
You can't make money from creativity - it's just a hobby.
I cannot create - this is the lot of the chosen few.
Work is for money, but hobby is for the soul.
Nobody needs my hobbies.
A hobby cannot be turned into a job or business.
An adult does not need hobbies.
Hobbies have no practical use, so there is no need to engage in them.
First you need to get a normal specialty, and then you can engage in a hobby.
Hobbies don't bring any results.

About rest

Only the lazy rest.
To rest, you first need to work hard.
I have no time to rest.
Vacations are not for everyone.
If you're going to relax, then do it in style.
Rest must be earned.
Idleness is not rest.
While you are relaxing, others are busy doing useful things.
The best rest is a change of activity.
Time for business, time for fun.
When I rest, I waste time.

Functions and role

Beliefs are an important basis for attitudes and behavior, but they can be extremely difficult to change. Often people will fiercely hold onto their beliefs even in the light of contradictory evidence. This phenomenon is known in psychology as persistence of beliefs.

Persistence typically occurs because people base their beliefs on information that they find logical, convincing, or in some way attractive. Therefore, even when beliefs appear to be refuted by new evidence, the basis of what a person believes may still exist.

Beliefs influence a person's life in every way. Because from the moment of birth they form the perception of the world. And perception is human reality. This is why it is crucial to notice your own beliefs and recognize their content so that you can consciously understand how they influence reality. Only when an individual becomes aware of his beliefs can he change them.

For example, a person believes that he has severe anxiety, and it prevents him from doing what he wants. Under the influence of this belief, perception will influence life because this belief literally changes the perception of the world. And as the perception of reality changes, the individual’s behavior in this reality also changes.

Because a person believes that they have severe anxiety, they will see, hear, feel, taste, and smell things that confirm this belief. Faith changes his perception of the world so that he sees a world full of anxiety and stress.

Conviction is an element of a worldview in psychology that influences life, forcing a person to create and perceive his reality and the world in such a way that this belief seems true, absolute.

Another example: a person considers himself a failure. He will perceive the world as a source of bad luck, and will constantly remember the ways in which he failed. And because of this they will continue to fail.

Thus, the function of beliefs is that beliefs influence an individual's life by changing his perception of reality, which in turn leads to changes in behavior and can even cause biological changes in the body.

Understanding how beliefs are formed and how they underlie subsequent attitudes and behavior is important because it can help to understand social phenomena:

prejudice and discrimination;
helping and aggressive behavior;
impression formation;
submission to authority;
interpersonal attraction;
group decision making.

Beliefs are the main type of social knowledge in psychology.

Relationships with other people in society and society

Mandatory attitudes that already exist within you are your attitude towards your environment. How to behave with your surroundings? Do people around me wish me harm and should I strike first? And of course you are right! There are completely different people, there are worthy ones and there are scoundrels. With whom to communicate and link your destiny? Is your attitude towards society that there is nothing good in society or vice versa? From these answers a person’s worldview is built. These answers and attitudes determine a person’s personal qualities and life principles. This determines whether a person is deceitful or honest, responsible or irresponsible, brave or cowardly, strong in spirit and will or spineless and weak.

Sources of Beliefs

Sources of beliefs are presented in the table:

Proof	The logical and rational formation of beliefs based on evidence that supports a causal relationship.
Traditions	Family and social traditions.
Power	Beliefs are usually passed down from parents, but can also come from a religious leader, teacher, or any other person in authority.
Associations	Beliefs can be formed through the people or groups with which a person is associated.
Revelations	Beliefs that are formed through “divine intervention,” hunches, or a “sixth” sense.

Goals and objectives

Intelligence and culture developed as a way to accelerate human development - not on the physical, but on the mental level. Cultural evolution occurs much faster than biological evolution. Belief systems evolved as part of this development to ensure human survival.

Beyond this ultimate goal of achieving survival, there are also subgoals of belief systems in various aspects of life.

Beliefs about effective decision making, negotiation, and business conduct exist to help achieve a certain status in the social hierarchy.
Beliefs about how to cope with things like uncertainty and anxiety exist to help maintain mental health.
Beliefs about sexuality and dating behavior are intended to ensure that a person's genes are passed on to the next generation.

In other words, subgoals of belief systems exist to ensure that a person is able to satisfy certain needs, to develop self-esteem.

Conscious and subconscious beliefs

Conscious beliefs are written in a person’s head and most often they can be characterized as declared. Subconscious beliefs are more truthful, they are implemented in a person’s life, and work at the level of his qualities, emotions, reactions and habits. To change the quality of life, it is IMPORTANT to CHANGE habits and attitudes - subconscious ones. They are the ones who determine 98% of all your actions, life, destiny, social status, happiness.

You have probably often met people who consciously know and understand everything and how to live correctly, and what is right to believe, and what needs to be done to be happy, successful, joyful, strong, rich, kind, brave. However, they cannot realize anything in their lives, remaining externally and internally poor and weak.

There is a difference in beliefs; some beliefs are recorded in the subconscious, while completely different ones are realized in the conscious mind. The contradiction between conscious and real behavior gives rise to many contradictions in a person. This behavior is called declared behavior. Closely related to a person's beliefs are various habits.

Methods

There are certain methods or appeals to persuasion: appeal to reason, emotions, character.

The first method is an appeal to reason. The appeal to reason method uses logical argument, with all persuasion focused on logic and the scientific method. This method is best for people who need proof of something and who do not accept arguments based more on faith than facts. If you try to convince a group of scientists to follow the belief that the Earth revolves around the Moon, you need to have a lot of evidence to support it, otherwise they cannot be convinced of the argument.
The second method is to appeal to emotions. The appeal to emotion is not based on evidence, but on the emotions that a person experiences. This can often be a more effective approach for the general population because people can often be governed by their emotions more than their reason. Persuasion uses seduction, tradition, or even pity to get people to agree. For example: “You will never be satisfied in life unless you take advantage of this opportunity.”
Appeals to ethical standards , a person's character, relate to the ethical reasons why an audience should believe or be influenced by arguments. For example: “Doctors all over the world recommend this type of treatment.”

The constant conflict of society is that the beliefs and values of an individual determine his personal attitude and behavior in relation to the world, but the moral values of society and the ethical rules in force accordingly limit the actions of the individual.

A person usually chooses to behave in accordance with the morals and ethics of the society in which he lives. Even if personal values conflict with the values of society, a person will still follow social rules because he is afraid of the consequences.

Beliefs are not written into an individual's DNA. They are absorbed, developed and grown from the moment of birth. They reach their current level due to their environment, experiences, events and decisions in life. A person with increased self-awareness may decide to change beliefs and values and replace them with a new system that empowers and supports goals and vision for life.

An individual's beliefs in psychology are the ideas that he believes to be true. Many of these beliefs constitute personal values that determine attitudes, that is, how a person treats others, himself, and how he approaches any situation. All three components ultimately determine behavior or the way a person acts.

Author: Belyaeva Anna

How to identify your negative attitudes

You have probably already discovered some of your limiting beliefs thanks to the list above. I propose to go further and “get” even more useless husk from your subconscious.

We will do an exercise with you called an “explanatory note.” It will require a sheet of paper, a pen and 30 minutes of time.

Execution order:

Consider one area of your life in which you cannot achieve what you want. For example, finance.
Write the phrase in the center of the sheet: “Why I DON’T WANT to earn 3 times more.” Yes, yes, you don’t want to. Limiting beliefs are limits that you set for yourself. We will remove them.
Now, within the allotted time (you can set an alarm), write everything to justify yourself. For example: “Then my relatives and friends will constantly ask for loans,” “To earn 3 times more, you need to spend 3 times more time, I simply won’t have time to do anything else in my life, my family will suffer,” etc. .

This technique can be used for a wide variety of areas and issues. For example: “Why I don’t want to get married” (for women who supposedly cannot get married in any way). The answers may surprise you. Someone will find that they are afraid of responsibility, someone is convinced that all men are the same, that they cheat and control, and they don’t want to experience all this. And so on.

Now you have a whole list of everything that limits you and does not allow you to achieve what you want. Look carefully at your notes and ask the following questions for each statement: “Who told me this?”, “Why do I think this?” and the like.

In most cases, your mind will not even be able to rationally explain the nature of your negative conclusions. And if something comes to your mind, they say, this happened to all my girlfriends/friends, this is statistics, then rest assured that this is pure self-deception.