Values Values are beliefs we hold that something is good or desirable

Values are the basis of personal and collective judgments about what is valuable in life. They influence our decision-making on all sorts of issues, primarily social, environmental, and political ones. 

Values

Acquiring Values

Values are established as a result of life experiences and are pretty stable, evolving slowly over time.

True values are not taught and declared, they evolve through the acts and interaction of the living, they are understood at a near tacit level by those who live them.

Credit: Dave Snowden 

Sacred values

Sacred values (protected values) are core beliefs that we hold to be unquestionably true.

These beliefs may be so deep that we do not realize they are beliefs and consider them to be facts.

Sacred beliefs often trigger emotional reactions when they are challenged.

You cannot reason with someone about their sacred beliefs. Sacred beliefs do not require reasons. They just are.

They include human life, justice, and honor.

Naming Values

Values are named in a variety of ways. Often, for example, they are worded like this: “open-minded”, “honest”, “intellectual”.

But in my writing, I apply a simple rule to name a value consistently. I need to be able to express the value in this format “I value [the value].”

So in the example above, I would define the values as “open-mindedness,” “honesty,” and “intellect.” i.e., “I value open-mindedness,” “I value honesty,” “I value intellect.”

Types of Values

Milton Rokeach classified values into two types:

1. Terminal values
2. Instrumental values

Terminal Values

Terminal values are the values that we think are the most important or most desirable.

They refer to desirable end-states, the goals we would like to achieve during our lifetime.

They include happiness, self-respect, and prosperity.

Instrumental Values

Instrumental values are values that we think are acceptable modes of conduct to achieve our terminal values.

They include honesty, sincerity, morality, and ambition.

Importance of Values

Our values are a major motivating factor in our decision-making. We need to understand better how we form our values and how they evolve to help us make wise decisions.

Your beliefs become your thoughts,
Your thoughts become your words,
Your words become your actions,
Your actions become your habits,
Your habits become your values,
Your values become your destiny.

Credit: Mahatma Gandhi

Resources

• Article: Rokeach Value Survey

Posts that link to this post

•  Global Consciousness The capacity and disposition to understand and act upon global issues
•  People Have Some Crazy Opinions Steven Sloman
•  Attitudes A tendency to think, or feel about someone or something in a certain way
•  What Are Morals? Principles of right or wrong behaviour
•  Rethinking Our Beliefs It is not easy to change our beliefs
•  Shared Meaning To understand each other's perspectives well enough to accept them
•  World Values Day 19th October 2023

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