How Your Thoughts Shape Your Behaviors
Learn how your beliefs and cognitive schemes make you who you are
Psychology is the science that studies behavior.
Behaviors can range from running and playing a video game to sleeping and thinking. We don’t behave instinctively; our thoughts and emotions play an important role in determining whether an action occurs.
For example, thinking, “People will judge me,” can lead to staying home.
In this case, the belief “People will judge me” could be so strong that our brains think going out means danger. We don’t want people to judge us, so staying home and being invisible is better.
Psychologists have been studying how thoughts impact behaviors for a long time.
Three concepts are key:
The cognitive triad: thoughts, behaviors, emotions.
Cognitive processes.
Cognitive schemes.
This is how our thoughts can make us behave in ways that disrupt our lives.
Note: As a psychologist, I love communicating the science of behaviors. However, changing them is complex; depending on your case, you may need to ask a professional for help.
1. The Cognitive Triad: Thoughts, Behaviors, Emotions
Aaron Beck proposed the cognitive triad to explain disorders.
This consists of thoughts (cognition), behaviors, and emotions, all of which are independent systems. He suggested modifying one of them would lead to modifying the other systems.
Example
Thought: I am useless.
Behavior: Quit sports.
Emotion: Sadness.
For Beck, changing the thought “I am useless” for a better one like “It’s hard, but I can try” will modify the behavior (do sports) and change the emotion from sadness to enjoyment.
Easy to say, hard to make, though.
Exercise
What thoughts are preventing your desired behavior? Write them down on a sticky note, notebook, etc.
2. How To Access Our Thoughts?
For Beck, we can access cognitive processes by looking at:
The automatic thoughts.
Core beliefs.
Intermediate beliefs.
The first ones are explicit and close to a situation (for example, all your thoughts after an anxiety crisis are automatic thoughts). Intermediate beliefs, on the other hand, are rules (I must …) and attitudes. Finally, core beliefs are the most basic representations of us and others (I am this, the world is that).
Example
Automatic thought: I feel like I’m going to die.
Intermediate belief: Love means everything in life.
Core belief: I am vulnerable; the world is hostile.
Exercise
Identify three automatic thoughts, two intermediate beliefs (rules, attitudes), and one core belief.
3. Cognitive Schemes
Cognitive schemes guide our behaviors.
They are functional structures about experiences and knowledge representations. These structures help guide us in searching, codifying, organizing, and retrieving information. These processes guide our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors by interpreting reality.
Cognitive schemes are key in explaining why we behave as we do.
Example
People who grew up in environments with disconnection and rejection can create different cognitive schemas like:
Abandonment: belief that people can’t give support.
Distrust: belief that people will hurt them.
Imperfection and shame: the belief that nobody likes them.
Social isolation: the belief that they are different and not part of the community.
How do you think people would behave with these cognitive schemes?
Of course, their thoughts (beliefs, schemes, etc.) will shape how they perceive and interpret the world. A person with a cognitive scheme of distrust would try to isolate others or prevent themselves from engaging in certain behaviors.
For example, thoughts like “People will judge me” could prevent you from writing and sharing your work.
We need to be respectful of others' thoughts. Why? Because we don’t know what they faced to feel the way they do, and your solution may not work with them either. So, the best thing we can do is listen emphatically.
Summary
Thoughts, behaviors, and emotions are connected.
This post focused on the first two components: the cognitive (thought) and the action (behavior). In a nutshell:
Cognitive triad: thoughts, behaviors, and emotions. Beck proposed that modifying one of them can modify the other system.
Cognitive processes: they are made by automatic thoughts, intermediate beliefs, and core beliefs.
Cognitive schemes: functional cognitive structures that guide us by reality interpretation.
I hope this post helps you understand how cognitive processes can affect your life.
Note X2: As a psychologist, I love communicating the science of behaviors. However, changing them is complex; depending on your case, you may need to ask a professional for help.
The brain is fascinating.
It’s the origin of everything we experience—our emotions, perceptions, consciousness, and behaviors. Every thought and action is driven by complex biological algorithms that evolved over millennia, shaping our nervous systems into finely tuned machines.
Ultimately, our brains are what make us human.
The more we understand it, the closer we understand ourselves and other life beings.
Until the next time,
Axel