>[!abstract] >Beliefs are inferences made by an observer about underlying states of expectancy ([[Rokeach, 1972|Rokeach, 1972, pp. 2]]). ## Types of beliefs [[Rokeach, 1972|Rokeach (1972, pp. 6–12)]] categorized beliefs into five classes: - **Type A: Primitive beliefs, 100% consensus.** Those are psychologically incontrovertible because they are universally axiomatic. They are our shared basic truths about reality: this is a table, this is my mother, etc. Their violation comes at a significant disruption to self-constancy and self-identity, which can in turn disturb the trust in other primitive beliefs. - **Type B: Primitive beliefs, 0% consensus.** Those are also core beliefs but they do not require to be shared. For example: phobias, or the child's belief (acquired through experience) the he or she is unlovable or that the world is fundamentally hostile, or the belief in some spiritual entity no matter what others believe. - **Type C: Authority beliefs.** Those are nonprimitive beliefs that are accepted as true because they are taught by a perceived legitimate authority (e.g., parents, religious leaders, teachers, cultural norms). As a child develops, he or she will expand the source of authority beliefs beyond just his or her parents, and find out that other reference persons (teachers, clergy, etc.) may hold different beliefs. This forces the child to select which authority to believe depending on the subject matter (for example, he or she might stop believing in Santa Claus because he or she trusts his classmates more than his or her parents at some point). Type C beliefs can usually be inferred based on what a person trusts as a source of authority (e.g., a right-leaning or left-leaning journal or politician, the Church, etc.). - **Type D: Derived beliefs**. These are the beliefs logically derived from other beliefs. They function like **inferences** or **conclusions** drawn from more basic premises. Like Type C beliefs, they are controvertible in the sense that the belief holder is susceptible to updating their belief if the authority does it too, or if they start trusting a different authority altogether. - **Type E: Inconsequential beliefs.** Those are arbitrary matters of taste. They may be intensely held nonetheless, but they have few or no connections with other beliefs, so they can be updated with few or no implications to self-constancy, self-esteem, and self-identity. For example: being a "maximalist", believing tea is superior to coffee, etc. >[!quote] >In summary, a person's total belief system includes inconsequential beliefs [Type E], derived beliefs [Type D], pre-ideological beliefs about specific authority [Type C], and pre-ideological primitive beliefs, socially shared [Type A] or unshared [Type B], about the nature of the physical world, society, and the self. All such beliefs are assumed to be formed and developed very early in the life of a child. They are undoubtedly first learned in the context of interactions with parents. As the child grows older, he learns that there are certain beliefs that virtually all others believe, other beliefs that are true for him even though no one else believes them, other important beliefs about which men differ, and other beliefs that are arbitrary matters of taste. Taken together, the total belief system may be seen as an organization of beliefs varying in depth, formed as a result of living in nature and in society, designed to help a person maintain, insofar as possible, a sense of ego and group identity, stable and continuous over time — an identity that is a part of, and simultaneously apart from, a stable physical and social environment ([[Rokeach, 1972|Rokeach, 1972, pp. 11–12]]). ## Components of beliefs Each belief is conceived to have three components [[Rokeach, 1972|Rokeach (1972, pp. 113–114)]]: 1. A *cognitive* component that represents a person's knowledge, held with varying degrees of certitude, about what is true or false, good or bad, desirable and undesirable. 2. An *affective* component which drives individuals to get aroused when others take a positive or negative position with respect to the belief (e.g., when its validity is seriously questioned). 3. A *behavioral* component whereby the belief predisposes its owner to respond with some action when a threshold is activated (i.e., our beliefs predispose us to behave in a certain way when given a choice between options). ## Categories of beliefs [[Ackermann, 1972|Ackermann (1972)]] identified four categories of beliefs: - Behavioral - Unconscious - Conscious - Rational >[!references] >- [Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching](https://www.eduhk.hk/apfslt/v10_issue1/funda/funda3.htm) >[!related] >- **North** (upstream): — >- **West** (similar): [[Justified true belief]] >- **East** (different): [[Agnosticism]] >- **South** (downstream): [[Cognitive bias]]