Values

Value: 

 A personal orcultural value isan absoluteor relative ethical value,the assumption of which can be the basis for ethical action. A valuesystem isa set of consistent values andmeasures. A principlevalue isa foundation upon which other values and measures of integrity arebased. Those values which are not physiologically determined andnormally considered objective, such as a desire to avoid physicalpain, seek pleasure, etc., are considered subjective,vary across individuals and cultures and are in many ways alignedwithbelief andbelief systems. Types of valuesinclude ethical/moral value, doctrinal/ideological (religious,political) values, social values,and aesthetic values.It is debated whether some values which are not clearlyphysiologically determined are intrinsic suchas altruism andwhether some such as acquisitiveness should be valuedas vices or virtues.Values have typically been studied in sociology, anthropology, socialpsychology, moralphilosophy,and businessethics.

Values can be defined as broad preferences concerning appropriate courses of action or outcomes. As such, values reflect a person’s sense of right and wrong or what “ought” to be. “Equal rights for all”, "Excellence deserves admiration", and “People should be treated with respect and dignity” are representative of values. Values tend to influence attitudes and behavior. For example, if you value equal rights for all and you go to work for an organization that treats its managers much better than it does its workers, you may form the attitude that the company is an unfair place to work; consequently, you may not produce well or may perhaps leave the company. It is likely that if the company had a more egalitarian policy, your attitude and behaviors would have been more positive.

Personal Value: According to Morris Massey values are formed during three significant periods: 1. Imprint period from birth to 7 years. 2. Modelling period from 8 –13 years. 3. Socialization period from 13 –21 years.

Personal Values provide an internal reference for what is good, beneficial, important, useful, beautiful, desirable, constructive, etc. Values generate behaviour and help solve common human problems for survival by comparative rankings of value, the results of which provide answers to questions of why people do what they do and in what order they choose to do them.

Over time the public expression of personal values, that groups of people find important in their day-to-day lives, lay the foundations of law, custom and tradition. Personal Values in this way exist in relation to cultural values, either in agreement with or divergent from prevailing norms. A culture is a social system that shares a set of common values, in which such values permit social expectations and collective understandings of the good, beautiful, constructive, etc. Without normative personal values, there would be no cultural reference against which to measure the virtue of individual values and so culture identity would disintegrate.

Wyatt Woodsmall points out that “'Criteria' are used to refer to 'the standards on which an evaluation is based'.” Values relate then to what one wants and in what order one wants them, criteria can only refer to the evidences for achieving values and act as a comparative standard that one applies in order to evaluate whether goals have been met / values satisfied.

Values are obtained in many different ways. The most important piece for building values is a person's family. The family is responsible for teaching children what is right and wrong long before there are other influences. As it is said that, a child is a reflection of the parents. As a child starts school, school helps some to shape the values of children. Then there is religion that the family introduces to a child that plays a role in teaching the right and wrong behaviors.