identitynoun
eye-DEN-tih-tee
The qualities, beliefs, personality traits, and social roles that define a person or group. Identity is both personal — the sense of who one is — and social — the categories through which others recognize and classify us. It shapes what we believe and why.
"Her identity as a first-generation immigrant shaped her beliefs about opportunity, fairness, and what America owed its newcomers."
self-conceptnoun
SELF-kon-sept
The mental image or understanding a person has of themselves — their traits, roles, values, and abilities. The self-concept is not fixed; it develops through experience, relationships, and reflection, and it strongly influences what beliefs a person is willing to hold.
"When new evidence threatened his self-concept as a rational, open-minded thinker, he rejected it — his identity was more important than the data."
authenticitynoun
aw-then-TIS-ih-tee
The quality of being genuine — acting in accordance with one's own values, beliefs, and character rather than conforming to external expectations. Authenticity is highly valued in modern culture, though philosophers debate whether a stable, pre-social "true self" actually exists.
"She left her corporate career in search of authenticity — a life in which her daily actions reflected what she actually valued, not what she thought she was supposed to want."
core valuesnoun phrase
kor VAL-yooz
The fundamental beliefs and principles that guide a person's decisions and behavior — the commitments so deep that to abandon them would feel like betraying oneself. Core values are more durable than preferences and more resistant to social pressure.
"When the promotion required him to fire loyal employees, he turned it down — his core value of loyalty was not negotiable."
narrative identitynoun phrase
NAR-uh-tiv eye-DEN-tih-tee
The view, associated with philosopher Paul Ricoeur, that personal identity is constituted by the story we tell about ourselves — a continuous narrative that integrates past experience, present choices, and future aspirations into a coherent self.
"Therapy often works by helping people revise their narrative identity — reframing past events so that the story they tell about themselves enables rather than limits them."
identity-protective cognitionnoun phrase
eye-DEN-tih-tee pruh-TEK-tiv KOG-nih-shun
The tendency to process information in ways that protect one's social identity and group membership — accepting evidence that confirms the group's views and rejecting evidence that threatens them. It explains why intelligence sometimes makes motivated reasoning worse, not better.
"Identity-protective cognition means that educating people about climate science may backfire if accepting the evidence feels like a betrayal of their political tribe."
moral identitynoun phrase
MOR-ul eye-DEN-tih-tee
The degree to which being a moral person — being caring, honest, fair — is central to a person's self-concept. People with strong moral identity are more likely to act ethically because violating moral standards would threaten their sense of who they are.
"Her strong moral identity meant that acting dishonestly was not just wrong in the abstract — it felt like a betrayal of the person she understood herself to be."
social identitynoun phrase
SOH-shul eye-DEN-tih-tee
The part of a person's self-concept derived from their membership in social groups — nation, religion, race, profession, class. Social identity theory, developed by Henri Tajfel, showed that group membership profoundly shapes beliefs, loyalties, and prejudices.
"Social identity theory shows that people derive genuine self-esteem from belonging to groups they consider superior — which is why we are so motivated to defend our teams."
self-affirmationnoun
SELF-af-ur-MAY-shun
The psychological process of reflecting on one's most important values, reducing defensiveness and opening a person to challenging information. Research shows that self-affirmation can reduce motivated reasoning and make people more receptive to evidence that conflicts with their beliefs.
"In the study, participants who wrote about their most important values before reading the health report were significantly more willing to accept findings that challenged their lifestyle."
integritynoun
in-TEG-rih-tee
The quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; the state of being undivided — acting in alignment with one's stated values. Integrity requires consistency between what a person believes, what they say, and what they do.
"Integrity is not about being perfect — it is about being honest when you fall short, and returning to your values when you drift from them."
self-determinationnoun
SELF-dih-tur-mih-NAY-shun
The capacity to make choices about one's own life based on one's own values and goals, rather than external compulsion. Self-determination theory in psychology identifies autonomy, competence, and relatedness as the three basic psychological needs underlying wellbeing.
"Self-determination theory suggests that the most durable motivations come from within — from values a person has genuinely internalized, not from external reward or punishment."
consciencenoun
KON-shens
The inner sense of right and wrong that guides moral judgment and produces guilt when violated. Conscience integrates values, empathy, and reasoning into a felt moral sense — and is shaped by upbringing, culture, and reflection.
"He followed orders he knew were wrong and spent the rest of his life haunted by conscience — proof that moral intuitions are harder to silence than commands."
existentialismnoun
eg-zis-TEN-shul-iz-um
A philosophical movement holding that individuals create their own meaning and identity through choices and actions, in the absence of any predetermined human nature or divine purpose. Associated with Sartre, Camus, and Beauvoir, existentialism insists that existence precedes essence.
"Sartre's existentialism argues that you are not born with a fixed identity — you create yourself through the choices you make and must own them fully."
essentialismnoun
ih-SEN-shul-iz-um
The view that categories of people — defined by gender, race, nationality, or religion — have fixed, inherent characteristics that define them. Essentialism is contested: critics argue it ignores diversity within groups and naturalizes social constructions.
"Essentialism about gender claims that women are naturally more nurturing — a claim that ignores the enormous cultural variation in gender roles across societies."
agencynoun
AY-jen-see
The capacity to act independently and make free choices. In social theory, agency is contrasted with structure — the social forces that constrain individual action. The balance between agency and structure is a central question in understanding how beliefs form and change.
"Her research examined how much agency individuals have in shaping their own beliefs, given the powerful social forces — family, culture, media — that surround them from birth."
intersectionalitynoun
in-tur-sek-shun-AL-ih-tee
The concept, developed by Kimberlé Crenshaw, that a person's social identities — race, gender, class, sexuality — overlap and interact to create unique experiences of privilege or disadvantage. Intersectionality shapes both what beliefs we hold and how our beliefs are received by others.
"Intersectionality explains why a Black woman's experience of gender discrimination cannot be understood by simply adding race to women's experiences and gender to Black people's experiences."
characternoun
KAR-ik-ter
The constellation of stable dispositions — honesty, courage, generosity, justice — that define how a person typically behaves over time. Aristotle argued that character is formed by habituation: we become courageous by practicing courageous actions.
"Character is revealed not in moments of ease but in moments of pressure — when everything is at stake and doing the right thing is genuinely costly."
virtuenoun
VUR-choo
A positive character trait that enables its possessor to act well and live flourishingly. Aristotle's virtue ethics identifies virtues as the mean between extremes — courage is the mean between cowardice and recklessness — and argues they constitute the good life.
"Virtue is not an impulse but a stable disposition — the courageous person does not merely act bravely once but has trained themselves to respond to fear with steady resolve."
self-knowledgenoun
SELF-nol-ij
Accurate understanding of one's own character, motivations, biases, and values. The Delphic maxim "know thyself" has been central to philosophy since Socrates; modern psychology reveals how systematically poor most people's self-knowledge actually is.
"The hardest part of changing one's beliefs is the self-knowledge required to see why one holds them — which motives and fears have shaped what feels like pure reason."
autonomynoun
aw-TON-uh-mee
The capacity and right to govern oneself according to one's own values and principles, without undue external coercion. For Kant, moral autonomy — acting from one's own rational principles rather than external pressure — is the foundation of human dignity.
"Respecting autonomy means allowing people to make choices you disagree with — because the capacity for self-direction is what gives human life its distinctive worth."
reflectionnoun
rih-FLEK-shun
The process of carefully and honestly examining one's own thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and actions — stepping back from immediate experience to consider it critically. Reflection is considered essential to intellectual growth and to living an examined life.
"Socrates argued that the unexamined life is not worth living — that reflection is not a luxury but a condition for living with integrity."
growth mindsetnoun phrase
grohth MYN-set
Carol Dweck's term for the belief that abilities, intelligence, and character can be developed through effort and learning — as opposed to a fixed mindset, which treats these as inborn and unchangeable. A growth mindset toward beliefs allows a person to change their mind without threat to identity.
"A growth mindset about beliefs means seeing being wrong as a learning opportunity, not a humiliation — which makes intellectual change possible."
cognitive flexibilitynoun phrase
KOG-nih-tiv flek-sih-BIL-ih-tee
The mental ability to switch between different concepts, consider multiple perspectives, and adapt one's thinking in response to new information. Cognitive flexibility is associated with creativity, resilience, and open-mindedness about beliefs.
"Cognitive flexibility allowed her to hold her own convictions firmly while genuinely entertaining the possibility that she might be wrong."
examined lifenoun phrase
ig-ZAMD lyf
Socrates' concept of a life in which one regularly examines one's beliefs, values, and assumptions — subjecting them to rational scrutiny rather than accepting them unreflectively. The Socratic tradition holds that this kind of self-examination is necessary for living well.
"The examined life is not comfortable — it requires confronting assumptions you would rather leave unquestioned and values you might prefer not to inspect too closely."