Judith S. Beck, PhD, President

Core beliefs are a person’s most fundamental understanding of themselves, their worlds and other people, and their futures. Individuals without mental health conditions generally hold fairly realistic, flexible beliefs about themselves that are not overly positive or overly negative. “I’m reasonably competent;” “I’m reasonably loveable;” “I’m reasonably worthwhile.” When they have an adverse experience, a latent negative belief may become activated. For example, when someone gets passed over for a promotion at work, they may temporarily believe, “I’m not good enough.” But within a few hours, weeks or months, they typically revert to the more accurate and reasonable view they had formerly held, as they understand the adverse circumstance differently (“I was passed over because I’m not as experienced as the person who got promoted”) and/or recognize their successes (“My boss praised me. That must mean I’m doing a good job”).

How Do Negative Core Beliefs Develop?

If these same individuals are challenged by a mental health condition, though, some of their latent negative beliefs can become powerfully activated. And if they have a personality disorder or a chronic mental illness, they may hold very intense and pervasive negative beliefs for much of their lives, even in the face of a great deal of contradictory evidence. Why does that happen? The process often begins in childhood, as young people seek to make sense of their negative experiences. (Genetics may play a role, also). It’s not just being subject to adverse events, though, that leads to the development, maintenance, or strengthening of a negative core belief. It’s how the child interprets the event and the meaning the child ascribes to the negative experience.

Child on a couch with their mom looking sad.

Some negative events are clearly very deleterious for children, such as being subject to physical, sexual, or emotional harm. Other types of harm may be less blatant but still damaging: enduring a great deal of parental criticism, being bullied at school, or having a learning disability. Over time, these children may conclude that these types of situations mean something fundamentally and pervasively negative about themselves (e.g., “I am incompetent;” “I am vulnerable;” “I am unlovable;” “I am bad”).

This thinking pattern leads to the development of a cognitive schema, a hypothesized mental structure in the mind that organizes information.  

Processes That Maintain or Strengthen Negative Beliefs

Three processes are involved in the maintenance or strengthening of negative beliefs:

  • One is that individuals often become hypervigilant for signs that their core belief is true—and they may conclude that not only adverse events, but even some neutral or positive experiences support the negative view they have of themselves.
  • Two, they may develop maladaptive coping strategies, i.e. patterns of unhelpful behaviors that they believe can help them avoid the activation of their painful negative beliefs. For example, if they believe they’re incompetent, they may avoid activities that they perceive are difficult. If they believe they’re unlovable, they may avoid social interaction. If they believe they’re bad, they may overcompensate by trying to be very good at all times.
  • The third process involves how individuals process positive events that seem to contradict their core beliefs. They may discount positive evidence. For example, if they have a core belief of incompetence, they may explain away why they got good grades: “I just got lucky on that test,“ or, “The teacher was just being nice to me.” Or they may fail to recognize that positive experiences offer evidence that their belief is false. For example, a child who believes “I’m unlovable,” may not register when people smile at them or speak kindly to them. These processes can start in childhood but may be initiated at any point at which they develop a mental health condition.

How CBT Helps With Negative Core Beliefs

Individuals typically develop negative core beliefs as they make sense of their painful or negative experiences. CBT offers clients the opportunity to identify when their negative core beliefs have been activated and respond effectively to them, recognize their positive qualities, integrate positive experiences to contradict their negative beliefs and increase the strength of their positive beliefs, and develop more helpful coping strategies. For clinicians, helping clients understand how their negative core beliefs developed and were maintained over time is critical to helping them develop a more realistic and balanced view of themselves, their worlds and other people, and their futures.

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