How does belief systems affect society

What features warrant calling this stored body of concepts a belief system? Belief systems are the stories we tell ourselves to define our personal sense of Reality. Perceived Reality is constructed by means of systems of signs, being affected and being changed by means of Belief systems. A subject cannot understand a sign without talking about a system that is learned socially and that allows him to make sense of perception. In the same way, the classification of signs in closed typologies can be deceptive, since the status of the sign depends strongly on the form in which the sign is used within the Belief system.

A signifier can nevertheless be iconic in a belief context and be symbolic in another context. From this we can see that people are capable of constructing all manner of individual beliefs by which they tell stories about how the world works. As humans, we tend to use all these belief systems in varying degrees to cope with events in our lives.

Ultimately we need the world to make sense. Moreover, these signs are not rational. The species Homo sapiens developed so-called belief systems. These sets of beliefs are reinforced by culture, theology, and experience and training as to how society works cultural values, stereotypes, political viewpoints, etc. Beliefs are often considered as convictions or as religious beliefs, but as scientists there are also philosophical beliefs relating to the sphere of daily life.

If a stimulus is received, it may be interpreted through the belief system to be whatever the belief system might lead the recipient to rationalize. A belief system need have no basis in reality so long as it consistently provides adequate explanations. It takes us to define a human being like Homo religious. Belief systems have the following properties, and through them social significance.

Some characteristics of belief systems are:. Personal commitment is one of most observable and interesting features of an ideology. If it were not for the fact of personal commitment, belief systems could not have strong social consequences, and the study of social systems would not be so interesting.

Belief systems have an existence that is independent of their committed believers. The believers do not wholly contain the belief system; in fact, they are unlikely to be aware of more than a small part of it and, knowingly or unknowingly, they must take the rest of the belief system on faith. Psychological mechanisms such as cognitive congruence may help explain individual commitment, but they do not necessarily explain the connectedness of a belief system in human society.

The boundaries of a belief system are generally, although not always, undefined. Collections of beliefs do not generally have neat boundaries. The elements concepts, propositions, rules, etc. That is, the elements of one system might be quite different from those of a second in the same content domain. And a third system may be different from each. Individual differences of this kind do not generally characterize ordinary knowledge systems, except insofar as one might want to represent differences in capability or complexity.

Belief systems may also vary in complexity, but the most distinctive variation is conceptual variation at a roughly comparable level of complexity. For cognitive science, the point of this discussion is that nonconsensuality should somehow be exploited if belief systems are to be interesting in their own right as opposed to knowledge systems. Belief systems often appear to have clear boundaries when the separation is really between social groups.

Belief systems are in part concerned with the existence or nonexistence of certain conceptual entities. God, motherland, witches, and assassination conspiracies are examples of such entities. This feature of belief systems is essentially a special case of the nonconsensuality feature. To insist that some entity exists implies an awareness of others who believe it does not exist. Moreover, these entities are usually central organizing categories in the belief system, and as such, they may play an unusual role which is not typically to be found in the concepts of straightforward knowledge systems.

Belief systems often include representations of alternative worlds , typically the world as it is and the world as it should be. Revolutionary or Utopian belief systems especially have this character. The world must be changed in order to achieve an idealized state, and discussions of such change must elaborate how present reality operates deficiently, and what political, economic, social etc. Belief systems rely heavily on evaluative and affective components.

These polarities, which exert a strong organizing influence on other concepts within the system, may have a very dense network of connections rare in ordinary knowledge systems. Belief systems are likely to include a substantial amount of episodic material from either personal experience or for cultural belief systems from folklore or for political doctrines from propaganda. This is especially true if personal episodic material is important in the system.

Consider, for example, a parental belief system about the irresponsibility and ingratitude of the modem generation of youth. For these episodes to be intelligible, it would be necessary for the system to contain information about these particular children, about their habits, their development, their friends, where the family lived at the time, and so on.

Beliefs can be held with varying degrees of certitude. The believer can be passionately committed to a point of view, or at the other extreme could regard a state of affairs as more probable than not.

This dimension of variation is absent from knowledge systems. One would not say that one knew a fact strongly. A distinction should be made between the certitude attaching to a single belief and the strength of attachment to a large system of beliefs. The following elements are listed in the order that would be logically required for the understanding a belief system.

This does not imply priority in value or in a causal or historical sense. Values Implicitly or explicitly, belief systems define what is good or valuable. In addition, religious practice can increase physical and mental health, longevity, and education attainment.

Often times, religious or spiritual beliefs influence their political decisions as well. It is also possible that these deep-rooted beliefs and values are so strong that any differences in opinion or perspective cannot be resolved.

The principles and standards upon which we lead our lives. They are influenced by our beliefs, our background, education, and our individual and wider social networks. Some of our personal ideas can originate from prejudice, myths and assumptions. We were not born with values but acquire them throughout our lives. Things such as personal experiences, genes and environment, personal reflections, the kinds of cultural influences we are subjected to and a lot of other aspects play roles and affect our worldview.

The five broad personality traits described by the theory are extraversion also often spelled extroversion , agreeableness, openness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism. Trait theories of personality have long attempted to pin down exactly how many personality traits exist.

Begin typing your search term above and press enter to search. Press ESC to cancel. Skip to content Home Sociology How does belief systems affect society? Our values and beliefs affect the quality of our work and all our relationships because what you believe is what you experience. The beliefs that we hold are an important part of our identity. They may be religious, cultural or moral. Beliefs are precious because they reflect who we are and how we live our lives.

Cultural factors influence economic behaviour, political participation, social solidarity and value formation and evolution, which are closely linked to how and why public policies are developed in different ways in different countries. The process of Westernization comes when non-Western societies come under Western influence or adopt Western culture in different areas such as industry, technology, law, politics, economics, lifestyle, diet, clothing, language, alphabet, religion, philosophy, and values.

Values of Western culture have, throughout history, been derived from political thought, widespread employment of rational argument favouring freethought, assimilation of human rights, the need for equality, and democracy.

Lesson Summary The philosophy of the nature of the self asks: Are we separate from each other and from the universe? In Western thought, people tend to answer affirmatively and think of the self as an entity separate from others.