Perception is the Genuine Reality
Some people face difficulties in life courageously and see the mistakes, difficulties, and/ or failures as a change for growth. On the other hand, others, people like me, may consider these difficulties or mistakes as an ending of the world. What is the core of this difference and how we can change it?
People are not disturbed by the events, but by the views, they take on them.
Epictetus
Bohart and Tallman (1999) put a great emphasis on this issue about the belief systems of a person. Belief systems are the key components of our perceptions and worldviews. Belief systems have an effect on and are affected by emotions, cognitions, and behaviors as well. Therefore, we can say that we need to consider the person, ourselves, as a whole to understand the effect of belief systems.
In their book, Bohart and Tallman (1999) stated two main belief systems: incremental beliefs and entity beliefs. People who have an incremental belief system may set learning goals, consider mistakes as a change for growth. Thus, this person may not be discouraged from the failures, but eager to learn from them. Knowing about it might be very useful when you have a kid or you are working with students.
The second belief system is called entity beliefs. People who are entity believers think that people are smart or not. Thus, if there is a mistake and/ or failure with the person, it is because this person is slow, not intelligent, and not smart. Entity believers set performance goals for themselves and they consider success as a “natural ability”. Therefore, people who cannot succeed at something simply do not have the ability to do it. So, there is no meaning to try, to work, or study to accomplish a task!
These are the implicit belief which people do/ think or act in an unconscious manner. So, even thinking about it, we may put ourselves in a nonvaluable form. People who have an incremental belief system show adaptive mastery behavior. This helps them to get up after failures and move on their life. They can simply adapt to changing demands and changing situations. On the other hand, entity believers who helplessness response when they face with failures. This is simply “poor me” attitude. They believe that intelligence and IQ are fixed entities that they cannot change. So, why even bother to try it?
Recognizing the Patterns in Your Life
The good news is: Belief systems can be modified! Also, people may have different belief systems for different components of their personalities. For example, you can be an entity believer about your intelligence but you can be an incremental believer about your drawing skills! Thus, even the belief systems are not fixed and there can be differences in one person.
For the modification, you need to be aware of this belief system at first, for sure. These belief systems affect our language use as well. For example, people who are entity believers are more prone to use the words stupid, idiot, and retarded. Furthermore, entity believers have mostly polarized thinking: good or bad, strong or weak, smart, or idiot. They do not believe in change so they are looking for consistency. They cannot consider the alternatives and they consider their traits as fixed entities.
Perceptions may be Deceptions
In their book, Bohart and Tallman (1999) explained how the perceived ability of the person affect the actual performance on a certain task. Independent from the belief system, if a person has high perceived ability, this person is more likely to show mastery behavior! So, if you believe that you can achieve a task, it is most likely for you to accomplish that task and be successful. I think this is the most amazing part of the belief system. In simple terms, believing yourself is the key component!
To increase your performance, to learn from the mistakes, and be more grateful in life; consider the alternatives, do not use polarized thinking, and believe in yourself.
“Believe in your infinite potential. Your only limitations are those you set upon yourself.”
Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart
Reference
Bohart, A. C. & Tallman, K. (1999). How client make therapy work: the process of active self-healing
