Testing Client Beliefs Using Surveys

We’re pleased to share an exercise called Survey – Testing Your Beliefs. Surveys can help clients to broaden their understanding of how others think and feel.

Using surveys to gain new perspectives

In cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), surveys are a form of behavioral experiment that involves gathering information or opinions from others. Unlike active experiments, which require clients to engage in new behaviors, surveys are observational. They provide clients with data on how others view or respond to specific topics. Surveys are particularly helpful in situations where:

• The client’s beliefs are related to how others view them (e.g., “People will think I’m weird if I blush during a conversation”).

• The client avoids gathering information directly due to shame or fear of judgment (e.g. “People would think I’m greedy and disgusting if I eat too much”).

• Testing a belief through active experimentation is impractical or uncertain (e.g. “I’m not acceptable enough to have a partner”).

How surveys work in therapy

The Survey – Testing Your Beliefs exercise guides clients through the steps of creating and conducting surveys. Clients start by identifying a belief they want to test, and then design a survey with questions that allow them to gather others’ views on the topic. By predicting expected answers and reviewing actual survey responses, clients gain insights that can help to inform or reframe their beliefs.

Who can benefit from this resource?

This resource is suited to clients who are struggling with unhelpful beliefs that may benefit from real-world data and other people’s perspectives. Survey – Testing Your Beliefs provides a structured approach to help clients explore their beliefs by gathering opinions and insights from others. Through surveying, clients can challenge unhelpful assumptions, normalize experiences, and gain perspective, all while gathering information to examine about their beliefs.

Read here

How can it be used?

This exercise guides clients through each stage of the survey process:

• Belief identification

• Survey design

• Question development

• Prediction and reflection

Survey results can provide invaluable insights that reinforce cognitive change by offering concrete, real-world evidence about others’ perspectives. This process can promote change or movement in therapy, especially for clients who may find active experiments too daunting at first.