Trace one conviction back to the people it came from

Pick a strongly held belief and map whose voice first carried it to you, before deciding whether to keep it as your own.

Pourquoi ça marche

Kegan’s group describes the Socializing self as identified with its relationships to people and to ideas such as religious, political, or philosophical ideologies, and describes parents at this way of knowing holding values prescribed culturally or by authorities. When a belief carries membership, questioning it feels like questioning whether you belong. Tracing where it came from separates “what I believe” from “who I belong to,” so the belief can be examined without the belonging being on trial — and keeping it, now for your own reasons, is one possible result.

Comment faire

1. Write down one conviction you hold firmly — about faith, politics, family, money, or work.
2. Under it, list the people and communities through whom it first reached you, and roughly when.
3. Ask: if I came to see this differently, whom would I fear disappointing, and what would I fear about my place with them?
4. Separately, list your own present reasons for and against it. Decide whether you hold it, revise it, or keep it open — keeping it is a real outcome.

Données probantes

Kegan’s group (NCSALL, 2001) defines the Socializing self as “made up by” its relationship to people and to ideologies, and contrasts parents who held culturally prescribed values with Self-Authoring parents who could assess a program’s values against a parenting philosophy of their own. The tracing exercise is a reflective application of that contrast. (mechanistic)

Untested as an intervention. For beliefs bound up with faith or family, questioning can carry real relational costs, so the pace should be yours.

Sources

• Kegan, R., Broderick, M., Drago-Severson, E., Helsing, D., Popp, N., & Portnow, K. (2001). Toward a New Pluralism in ABE/ESOL Classrooms: Teaching to Multiple “Cultures of Mind.” Executive Summary, NCSALL Reports #19a. Harvard Graduate School of Education / National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy.

Erreur fréquente

Assuming the goal is to drop inherited beliefs. Tracing a conviction home often ends in keeping it; what changes is that you now hold it for reasons of your own, which is what makes it sturdier when someone challenges it.