Personal beliefs, values, attitudes and behaviour

What is a belief?

In order to understand what a personal value is, it is important to first define what a belief is.

• a belief is an idea that a person holds as being true
• a person can base a belief upon provable absolutes (e.g mathematical principles), probabilities or matters of faith.

A belief can come from different sources, including:

• a person’s own experiences or experiments
• the acceptance of cultural and societal norms (e.g. religion)
• what other people say (e.g. education or mentoring).

A potential belief sits with the person until they accept it as truth, and adopt it as part of their individual belief system.

The extent to which each person evaluates and seeks sound reasons or evidence for these potential beliefs is very individual.

Once a person accepts a belief as truth and is willing to defend it, it can then be said to form part of their belief system.

What is a personal value?

Values are stable long-lasting beliefs about what is important to a person. They become standards by which people order their lives and guide how people make choices.

A belief will evolve into a value when the person’s commitment to it develops and they see it as being important.

It is possible to categorise beliefs into different types of values - examples of this include values that relate to happiness, wealth, career success or family. 

As values are a subset of beliefs, it follows that a person must be able to articulate their values in order to make clear rational, responsible and consistent decisions.

What is an attitude?

Attitudes are the mental dispositions people adopt towards others and the circumstances before decision-making that result in behaviour. People primarily form their attitudes from underlying values and beliefs.

However, factors which may not have been internalised as beliefs and values can still influence a person’s attitudes at the point of decision-making. Typical influences include the desire to please, political correctness, expediency, peer pressure, and psychological stressors.

A lack of self-awareness or critical insight, or the presence of ambivalence or uncertainty about values can all lead to a less rational attitude to choice, and ultimately undesirable behaviour.

The diagram below outlines the relationships between the sources of a belief and the belief; and the belief and values to a person’s attitudes and behaviours.