What is most important to you? What is not so important? What are your
priorities? What really ticks you off? What is worth defending and protecting? How do you choose among conflicting goals? Answering these questions begins to identify your values. Checking
the list against the decisions you make and the actions you take reveals much
about what you truly hold to be important. Our values establish what
goals are more important and what goals are less
important to us. Values provide us stability and guidance
as we encounter obstacles, distractions, opportunities, ambiguity,
ambivalence,
conflict, and temptations throughout our lives. What are your values?
Definitions
- What you find most important,
- Intrinsic worth,
- Your standards for judgment and appraisal.
Related Terms
Several English language words describe merit, worth, or importance,
including: convictions,
ideals,
ideology,
merit,
morality,
principles, standards, and worth.
After interviewing 24 courageous and thoughtful men and women of conscience
from around the world, author Rush Kidder concluded that eight values are widely,
almost universally, accepted. These common values are:
- love (compassion)—Caring
for others, helping others,
- truthfulness—honesty, keeping your promises,
communicating clearly and accurately, veracity, being
trustworthy,
- fairness—following the
Golden Rule, equality,
symmetry,
- freedom—freedom of expression, freedom from
oppression, freedom of action when combined with
personal responsibility,
- unity—community, inclusiveness, cooperation,
valuing our interdependencies,
- tolerance—acknowledging the dignity of all,
respecting the rights of others, refusing to
hate, being open to other points of view,
- responsibility—care for yourself, care
for others, care for the future, and
- respect
for life—do not kill.
In a separate study Christopher Peterson and Katherine Dahlsgaard identified
six virtues endorsed across the thinking of many philosophers, religious
leaders, statesmen, and other ancient and modern luminaries from around the
world. These virtues are: Wisdom and knowledge, courage, love and humanity,
justice, temperance, and spirituality and transcendence.
Martin Seligman uses
these as the basis for identifying signature strengths.
For Plato, all virtues were a product of the cardinal virtues of:
courage, wisdom,
temperance, and justice.Abraham Maslow identified 16 subtle (easily displaced, vulnerable, fragile,
delicate, intricate)
values common to self-actualizing people he called Being-Values, or
B-Values. These are: wholeness, perfection, completion, justice, aliveness, richness, simplicity,
beauty, goodness, uniqueness, effortlessness, playfulness,
truth, honesty,
reality, and self-sufficiency.
Jonathan Haidt provides further insights. His
research shows
that we are born with an inherent sense of five foundations for morality. These
are: 1) Care for others, do not harm them, 2) Be fair and
reciprocate, follow the
golden rule, 3) Be loyal to those in your group, cooperate and help group
members succeed, 4) Respect authority, 5) Purity and
sanctity, practice self control and avoid toxins and filthy behaviors. As we
grow toward maturity
people universally continue to value the first two of these: care and be fair.
However, an important divergence occurs with the last three values. People who
are high in the personality trait of “openness to experience”—often
characterized as liberal thinkers—reject the last three values. Other people—those who are politically conservative and low in the openness trait—continue to value loyalty, authority, and purity. Both viewpoints are
valid and necessary. The conservative viewpoint recognizes the importance of
organizing into groups, and those groups require some authority structure and self restraint
to make them effective. At the same time, the liberals recognize the value of
diversity, the need to challenge authority to effect positive change and
overcome oppression, and the importance of personal
autonomy. We need the stability of
institutions and traditions, along with the chaos of change that moves us toward
justice for all.
Neuroscientist and Philosopher
Sam Harris
believes that choices that improve human well being and help human communities
florish are the better choices, and these can often be objectively identified.
Perhaps you believe these values provide an excellent standard for judging
right and wrong, good and bad, important from trivial. Perhaps you believe something else.
Knowing yourself requires a careful examination
of your own values and beliefs. What are they? How did they originate? What are
they based on? Why do you hold these beliefs? Are they based on reliable
evidence? Are your actions consistent with your
beliefs? How do your beliefs align with
your values? How have they evolved over your lifetime? How do they help you live
a gratifying life?
Study the theory of knowledge and use it to
carefully choose your own values and
beliefs.
Candidate values
To begin to create a list of your own values, consider the terms and phrases in the following alphabetical list. Modify,
clarify, or add to the list as you like to make it meaningful to you. Choose the
five to ten terms that describe what is most important to you. Carefully examine
and introduce verbs as appropriate in each values statement to make it
active, precise, and meaningful to you. For example, the value
“Freedom” may become “exercising freedom”, “defending freedom”, “providing freedom",
“expanding freedom”, or some other phrase that more precisely describes your
particular values. Ask close friends if
the list agrees with how they know you. Examine how your
goals, beliefs, and actions align with these values.
Values can become statements of high level goals.
People may say “I believe in freedom” when more precisely they mean “I believe
in the value of freedom” or “Freedom is an important value for me” or “Freedom
is an important goal that I work to achieve”.
Acceptance, Accomplishment, Achievement, Active lifestyle, Advancement and promotion,
Adventure, Aesthetics, Affection (love and caring), Affiliation, Aliveness, Altruism,
Appreciation, Arts,
Aspiration, Assertiveness, Attentiveness, Authenticity, Authority, Autonomy, Avarice,
Awareness.
Balance, Beauty, Benevolence, Betterment,
Bravery, Boldness
Care free, Caring, Caution, Challenge, Chaos, Challenging
problems, Change and variety, Charity, Chastity, Citizenship, Clarity, Cleanliness, Close relationships,
Congruence, Contemplation, Comfort,
Commitment, Community,
Compassion, Competence, Competition,
Completion, Congruence, Confidence, Conflict, Conquest,
Conservation, Consideration, Consistency and order, Contentment, Contribution, Control, Cooperation,
Courage, Country, Courtesy, Craftsmanship, Creativity, Critical thinking, Cruelty, Cultural Identification,
Cunning, Curiosity
Danger, Decisiveness,
Dedication, Democracy, Deference, Dependability, Detachment, Determination, Dignity, Diligence,
Discernment, Discipline, Discretion,
Dominance, Drive, Duty
Ecological awareness, Economic security,
Education, Effectiveness, Efficiency, Effortlessness, Ego, Elegance, Emotional Intelligence,
Empathy, Endurance, Enjoyment, Enthusiasm, Equanimity, Ethnic
identification, Ethical practice, Excellence, Excitement, Exhibition, Expertise
Faith,
Faithfulness, Fairness, Fame, Family, Fast living, Fidelity, Financial gain, Financial Security,
Fitness, Flexibility, Flow, Foresight, Forgiveness, Fortitude, Fortune, Freedom, Free
will, Friendliness, Friendships, Frivolity, Fulfillment, Fun
Generosity, Gentleness, Genuineness, Gluttony, Goodness, Gratification,
Gratitude, Greed, Growth
Happiness, Hate, Having a
family, Health, Hedonism, Helpfulness, Helping society, Heritage, Heroism, Honesty, Honor,
Hope,
Hospitality, Humanity, Human Rights, Humility, Humor
Idealism,
Ignorance, Imagination, Impartiality, Impulse, Independence, Individuality, Indulgence,
Industry,
Influencing others, Ingenuity, Inner harmony,
Innovation, Integration, Integrity, Intellectual Intelligence, Intellectual stature,
Intellectual stimulation, Interpersonal contact, Innovation, Insight, Intuition, Involvement
Job Satisfaction, Job tranquility, Joy, Justice
Kindness, Knowledge
Liberty, Lightheartedness, Leadership, Learning, Legacy, Leisure, Location, Logic,
Love, Loyalty,
Lust
Macho, Magnanimity, Market position, Mastery, Meaning, Meaningful work, Mercy, Merit,
Meritocracy, Moderation, Modesty, Money, Morality
Nature, Nonviolence, Now, Nurturing
Obedience, Openness, Optimism, Order(tranquility, stability, conformity), Originality
Pacifism, Parsimony, Passion, Patience, Patriotism, Peacefulness, Peace of mind, Perfection, Perseverance,
Persistence, Personal development, Personal Freedom, Perspective,
Philanthropy, Physical challenge,
Piety, Playfulness, Pleasure, Positivity, Power and authority,
Prayerfulness, Prestige, Privacy, Progressivism, Prudence, Public
service, Purity, Purposefulness
Quality of what I take part in, Quality relationships,
Quality of Life.
Rationality, Reality, Rebellion,
Reciprocity, Recognition (respect from others, stature),
Reflection,
Relatedness, Relaxation, Reliability, Religion, Reputation,
Resilience,
Respect,
Respect for life, Restraint, Responsibility and accountability,
Revenge, Reverence, Richness, Righteousness, Risk
Taking
Sacrifice, Safety, Security, Self-actualization,
Self-awareness, Self-confidence, Self-control,
Self-discipline, Selfishness,
Self-reliance, Self-respect, Self-sufficiency, Self-worth, Sensitivity, Sensory pleasure, Serenity, Service,
Sharing, Significance,
Simplicity, Sincerity, Sloth, Sobriety, Social skills, Sophistication,
Spirituality, Stability, Status, Stature,
Steadfastness, Strength, Supervising others,
Symmetry
Tactfulness, Teamwork, Temperance, Tenacity, Thankfulness, Thrills, Time freedom, Tolerance,
Tradition, Tranquility,
Transformation, Transcendence,
Trust, Trustworthiness, Truth, Truthfulness,
Tyranny
Understanding, Uniqueness, Unity
Valor, Variety, Vigor, Violence,
Vision
Wealth, Whimsical, Wholeness, Will, Winning,
Wisdom, Wonder, Woo, Work under pressure, Work with others, Working alone,
World Peace
Zest.
References
Shared Values for a Troubled World: Conversations With Men and Women of Conscience , by Rushworth M. Kidder
The real difference between liberals and conservatives, Jonathan
Haidt on TED.com
Values That Various People Have Associated With
Wisdom
Science can answer moral questions, Sam Harris, February 2010,
TED.com
The World
Values Survey website
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