Personal values

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Personal and cultural values

Each individual has a core of underlying values that contribute to our system of beliefs, ideas and/or opinions (see value in semiotics). Integrity in the application of a "value" ensures its continuity and this continuity separates a value from beliefs, opinion and ideas. In this context a value (e.g. Truth or Equality or Greed) is the core from which we operate or react. Societies have values that are shared among many of the participants in that culture. Individuals' values typically are largely but not entirely in agreement with their culture's values.

These values can be grouped into four categories:

• Ethics (good - bad, virtue - vice, moral - immoral - amoral, right - wrong, permissible - impermissible)
• Aesthetics (beautiful, ugly, unbalanced, pleasing)
• Doctrinal (political, ideological, religious or social beliefs and values)
• Innate/Inborn (inborn values such as reproduction and survival, a controversial category)

A personal and cultural value is a relative ethic value, an assumption upon which implementation can be extrapolated. A value system is a set of consistent values and measures. A principle value is a foundation upon which other values and measures of integrity are based. Values are considered subjective, vary across people and cultures and are in many ways aligned with belief and belief systems. Types of values include ethical/moral values, doctrinal/ideological (religious, political) values, social values, and aesthetic values. It is debated whether some values are intrinsic.

Human values

Human values are a set of emotional rules people follow to help make the right decisions in life. When values are used in a professional setting, they are called ethics (Changing Minds, n.d.). Values are used in every day decision making at work and at home. Good values instill a sense of integrity, honesty, and diligence in people. Without good values, people would become corrupt, dishonest, and undependable as people and employees. Companies want to hire employees with a sense of moral value so that they can help improve the company as a whole. Promoting values in every-day life and in the workplace can help promote career success (Heathfield, Susan, n.d.).

Values are an integral part of every culture. Along with beliefs and worldview assumptions, they generate behavior. Being part of a culture that shares a common core set of values creates expectations and predictability without which a culture would disintegrate and its members would lose their personal identity and sense of worth. Values tell people what is good, beneficial, important, useful, beautiful, desirable, appropriate...etc. They answer the question of why people do what they do. Values help people solve common human problems for survival. Over time, they become the roots of traditions that groups of people find important in their day to day lives. Values can be positive or negative; some are destructive. To understand people of other cultures, we must come to understand the values, beliefs and assumptions that motivate their behavior--Stallter (talk) 02:03, 31 December 2009 (UTC).

Sources of Values and Ethics

Several sources of professional values and ethics exist, and each source used is dependent on who is using them. The law is one source of values and ethics used in the workplace because laws were created to protect employees from misconduct by coworkers and management. Without these laws in place, employees would not feel as if they are valued by the company, so a disloyalty would be created (Joseph, Joshua, 2000). A second source of professional values and ethics is moral values based on religious beliefs. Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam all promote peace, trust, honesty, integrity, and love (Career-change, n.d.). A third source of professional values and ethics is the military. The military creates a sense of trust, discipline, respect, and integrity. Many employers find that ex-military employees are hard-working, disciplined, and respectful. Values and ethics may come from many sources, but all the sources have the same end result (Bauer, Christopher, n.d.).

List of possible personal values

Acceptance Accountability Adventure Altruism Agape Altruism Appreciation Assertiveness Autonomy Awareness balance Beauty Care for others Charity Chastity Cleanliness Commitment Compassion Confidence Consciousness Conservatism Continence Co-operation Courage Courtesy Creativity

Critical thinking Curiosity Dependability Detachment Determination Diligence Discipline Education Effort Empathy Endurance Enthusiasm Equality Etiquette Excellence Fairness Faith Fantasy Fidelity Focus Foresight Forgiveness Fortitude Freedom Free will

Friendship Generosity Gentleness Happiness Helpfulness Honesty Honour Hope Hospitality Humility Humanism Humor Idealism Imagination Independence Innocence Integrity Intuition Inventiveness Justice Kindness Knowledge Liberalism Love Loyalty Magnanimity Mercy

Moderation Manners Modesty Morality Nonviolence Nurture Obedience Openness Optimism Patience Peace Perfection Perseverance Piety Potential Prudence Purpose Respect Responsibility Restraint Satisfaction Self-awareness Self-discipline Self-esteem Self-reliance

Self-respect sensitivity Service Sharing Sincerity Socialism Spirituality Sympathy Tact Temperence Tenacity Thoughtfulness Tolerance Tradition Trust Truth Understanding Unpretentiousness Utility Wealth Well-being Wisdom Zeal

See also

• Anthropological theories of value
• Conscience
• Value theory
• Goodness and value theory
• Moral character
• Moral values
• Norm (sociology)
• Progressive logic, that illustrates the value logic of civic morality.
• Social values
• Values
• Value theory
• Virtue

External links

• Famous Quotations on Value and Values