Shy No Longer

Module 9

Core Beliefs
Core Beliefs

2

Identifying themes from thought diaries

2

Identifying Core Beliefs

3

Challenging Your Core Beliefs

4

Behavioural Experiments

5Core Beliefs Worksheet

6

Following Through7

Module Summary

8

About the Modules

9

The information provided in this document is for information purposes only. Please refer to the fulldisclaimer and copyright statement available at http://www.cci.health.wa.gov.au regarding the informationon this website before making use of such information.

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Core Beliefs
By now you are probably becoming used to the process of challenging your thinking in a range of situations.
You know how to identify the thoughts that are causing you distress and how to challenge them and replacethem with more balanced thoughts. However, you might notice that there are times when it is harder tobelieve the new balanced thought and the old unhelpful thoughts seem to be very powerful. You might
notice that this happens in certain kinds of situations.
A possible explanation for this ‘difficulty in letting go’ of an unhelpful thought is that there may be a strong
core belief at the root of that unhelpful thought. Core beliefs are the very essence of how we see ourselves,
other people, the world, and the future. Sometimes, these core beliefs become ‘activated’ in certain
situations. Here’s an example:
Fred is generally able to challenge his unhelpful thinking about social situations. However he has
noticed that he has a great deal of trouble challenging his thinking when it comes to situations
where he is the center of attention and is forced to speak, such as at his class presentations. Heis troubled by feelings of intense anxiety, and he experiences symptoms of panic just thinking
about the situation. Even after working through his thought diary, he has a tendency to believe
the negative statements and continue to feel bad. In these situations, he has recognised that hehas extremely high standards for his social performance. In fact, when he really looks hard at histhinking, he can see that often the underlying self-statement is, “I must look smart and funny allthe time”, and “Everyone must like me.”Core beliefs, such as the one from the above example, develop over time, usually from childhood andthrough the experience of significant life events or particular life circumstances. Core beliefs are stronglyheld, rigid, and inflexible beliefs that are maintained by the tendency to focus on information that supports
the belief and ignoring evidence that contradicts it. For example, Fred focuses on any feedback from hispeers that isn’t positive and then uses this to confirm that yet again he is unintelligent and boring. Even
neutral statements from his peers are often interpreted as negative. Over the years, this narrow focus gives
strength to the belief and Fred no longer thinks to question it. It is just totally and absolutely accepted. It is
not surprising, then, that these types of beliefs are the hardest to shake.

Identifying Themes from Thought Diaries
So, how can you start identifying your core beliefs? The first step is to look over your Thought Diaries tosee if your ‘hot’ thoughts have any common themes. You might notice that there are certain patterns toyour thoughts – similar themes that occur in the B columns. Look closely at these to identify the patterns.
You may become aware of one or two common themes found in the things you say about yourself andother people. The columns below might help you to find common types of themes.

About myself…

About others…

About the future…

Eg “I am a failure”

Eg “People think I’m stupid”
Eg “People are critical”

Eg “This will never get better”

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Other themes..

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Identifying a Core Belief
The process of identifying a schema is not a great deal different from what you have already being doing.
Essentially, the idea is to extend the B column out to reveal the bottom-line of what you might be thinking.
This is illustrated using an example from Fred’s thought diary below:

Thought Diary (example)
A

Activating Event

B Beliefs

This may be either: An actual event or asituation, a thought, a mental picture orrecollection.

While I was talking to theclass several of them wereyawning

1.

List all statements that link A to C. Ask yourself: “What wasI thinking?” “What was I saying to myself?” “What was going
through my head at the time?”
2. Find the most distressing (hot) thought and underline it
3. Rate how much you believe this thought between 0 to 100.

Whenever I talk to a group of people, they
always respond negatively“What does that mean?”That people don’t want to listen to meCConsequences
1.

Write down words describing how you
feel. Rate the intensity of those feelings
and underline the one that is mostassociated with the activating event.

Anxious (70)Irritated“What does that mean?”That I have nothing important to say“What does that mean?”That they won’t like me“What does that say about me?”

“I’m stupid and boring” (core belief)

As you can see it takes a bit of work to get down to the actual core of what you believe. Use questions
similar to the Thought Discovery Questions discussed in Module 4, such as:•“If that’s true, what does that mean?“•“What’s bad about that?”•“What does that say about me?”This process is like sifting through the layers of self-talk to get at what is at the bottom layer. Now, you areready to challenge your core beliefs. Even though these beliefs are strongly held, it is important that they arechallenged, just like any unhelpful thoughts. Once you have fully identified what you are telling yourself, youcan begin to see if your core beliefs hold up against all that you have experienced. This process ofchallenging your core beliefs may not be an easy one. If you find the process too difficult or distressing, doconsider seeing a mental health professional and discussing this with them.

Turn to the next page for a discussion on how to challenge your core beliefs.

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Shy No LongerChallenging Your Core Beliefs
To evaluate and challenge your core beliefs, ask yourself “What experiences do I have that show that thisbelief is not completely true all the time?” Use the space below to list as many experiences, and be asspecific, as possible. Remember to write down everything even when you’re not sure if they are relevant.
Core belief to be challangedExperiences that show that this belief is not COMPLETELY true ALL the time:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
When you have considered all the experiences you have written down, develop an alternative, balanced core
belief. Remember that these experiences show that your unhelpful core belief is not completely true all thetime. What would be an appropriate balanced and helpful core belief? Write this down.
Balanced core belief:

In the example of Fred, some of the experiences that go against his core belief (“I’m stupid and boring”)
might be:1. While I have been studying, I have been getting high grades in many of my courses.
2. I meet with a few friends about once a month for a coffee and we often talk for hours. They ask me
a lot of questions about what I’m doing and how I’m going and tell me each time they’ve enjoyedcatching up with me.
3. I’ve had a few people in my classes over the past couple of years email me to ask me questions
about some of the topics, like the one I presented on. They’ve even asked to meet up with me totalk more about it.
Fred’s balanced core belief might be: “Although I’m not perfect, I do have knowledge and experiences thatpeople find valuable or interesting.”

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Behavioural Experiments

You could also try doing a behavioural experiment to challenge those hard-to-budge unhelpful core beliefs. The
purpose of doing an experiment is to find out how true your core beliefs are. Here’s how you could conduct anexperiment.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Write down the core belief you want to test
Think of a few tasks you could do to test your core belief
Write down what you would expect would happen if your core belief were true.
Carry out the tasks
Record what actually happened when you carried out the tasks
Compare the actual results with your prediction and write down what you might have learned fromthe experiment. Then, write down a new balanced belief that fits with your conclusion.

Let’s use the example of Fred to illustrate this process for you. Use the blank behavioural experiment recordprovided below, and a Core Beliefs Worksheet on the next page, to challenge your unhelpful core beliefs.
Core belief to be tested: “I’m stupid and boring”
Task/s:
Prediction:* Phone up 3 of my friends and* The conversation will be short
ask how they’re goingor they won’t want to know
about how I’m going*Make a comment to oneclassmate after each class (3)about that day’s topic

What actually happened:* Joe said he was busy. Nat asked
me 4 questions about my studies.
David and I talked about mytravel plans.

* They will all ignore me or
make a quick comment andleave* One nodded then walked off,
one asked me a few questions
about the course, one said weshould start a study group.
Conclusion: From this experiment I realised that I am not stupid and boring. When people talk to me
they often ask me more questions about what I think about thingsso my core belief is not always true.
Balanced core belief: Although I’m not perfect, I do have knowledge and experiences that people findvaluable or interesting.
Core belief to be tested:
Tasks:

Prediction:

What actually happened:

Conclusion:
Balanced core belief:

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Core Beliefs Worksheet
Core belief to be challanged

Experiences that show that this belief is not COMPLETELY true ALL the time:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Balanced core belief:Core belief to be tested:
Tasks:

Prediction:

What actually happened:

Conclusion:
Balanced core belief:forCentrelinical
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Following ThroughYou might find it useful to write your balanced core beliefs onto cards that you can carry around with you as areminder when this type of thinking is triggered. Remember, unhelpful core beliefs are approached just thesame as any other type of unhelpful thinking – they just take some extra work on your part. Once you’ve
gathered evidence against your unhelpful core beliefs, conducted a behavioural experiment to test them, andhave developed balanced core beliefs, follow through on them.
Balanced core beliefs require careful nurturing and ‘tender loving care.’ Affirm yourself by using positive selfstatements, remind yourself of all the evidence against the unhelpful core belief. Also, act against yourunhelpful core belief. If you have previously avoided doing certain things because of your unhelpful core belief,
now is the time to act against it, and stop avoiding those things. Ask yourself, “If I really believed my balanced
belief, what are the things I would do?” Then, go out and do them. The more you do these things, the more
you will come to believe your balanced beliefs. Over time, these new core beliefs will be integrated into yourbelief system.

Turtle Tip

You may need toreview yourbalanced core belief
to increase its“believability”. Thismight be bysearching for moreevidence or using
behaviouralexperiments.

Note: In your own reading about core beliefs, you might come across the term ‘self-schemas.’ This term andcore beliefs mean the same thing.

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Module Summary••••••••••Sometimes, it may be difficult to believe balanced thoughts in certain situations
because there may be a strong core belief operating in that particular situation
Core beliefs are the very essence of how we see ourselves, other people, theworld, and the future. They are strongly-held, rigid, and inflexible beliefs that aremaintained by the tendency to focus on information that supports the belief andignoring evidence that contradicts it. Such beliefs are often unquestioned – they
are just totally and absolutely acceptedCore beliefs can be identified by looking over your thought diaries to see if your‘hot’ thoughts have any common themes
You can get to the core of what you believe by asking yourself “What does thatmean?” after an unhelpful thought or a ‘hot’ thought
To evaluate and challenge your unhelpful core beliefs, ask yourself, “Whatexperiences do I have that show that this belief is not completely true all thetime?”
Core beliefs can also be challenged by conducting a behavioural experiment,
which aims to find how true your core beliefs really arePlan a few tasks to test your belief, write down what you expect will happen,
carry out the tasks, record what actually happened and compare this with yourprediction
Develop an alternative, balanced core belief to replace the unhelpful core belief
Remind yourself of your balanced core belief by writing it on a card and carry it
around with you and affirm yourself with positive self-statements
Follow through on your balanced core belief by putting it into action

In the next module we will
look at how to start going
into social situations thatyou been anxious about.

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About The Modules
BACKGROUNDThis module was created in 2003 by Patrick Kingsep at the Centre for Clinical Interventions, under thesupervision of the Centre’s Founding Director, Paula Nathan.
The concepts and strategies in these modules have been developed from evidence-based psychologicalpractice, primarily Cognitive-Behaviour Therapy (CBT). CBT for social anxiety is based on the approach thatanxiety is a result of problematic cognitions (thoughts) and behaviours.

REFERENCES

These are some of the professional references used to create the modules in this information package.
Clark, D. M., & Wells, A. (1995). A cognitive model of social phobia. In R. G. Heimberg, M. R. Liebowitz, D.
A. Hope, & F. R. Schneier (Eds.), Social phobia: Diagnosis, assessment and treatment (pp. 69–93). New
York: Guilford Press.
Heimberg, R. G. & Becker, R. E. (2002). Cognitive-behavioral group therapy for social phobia. New York: Guilford
Press.
Rapee, R. M., & Heimberg, R. G. (1997). A cognitive-behavioral model of anxiety in social phobia. Behaviour Research andTherapy, 35, 741–756.

“SHY NO LONGER”
This module forms part of:Kingsep, P., & Nathan, P. (2003). Shy No Longer. Perth, Western Australia: Centre for Clinical Interventions.

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