VALUES
Values are individual beliefs that motivate people to act one way or another. They serve as a guide for human behaviour. Generally, people are predisposed to adopt the values that they are raised with. People also tend to believe that those values are “right “because they are the values of their particular culture.
The word value is derived from French word ‘valoir’ which means worth, merit, usefulness or importance of a thing. Values are traits or qualities that are considered valuable. They represent an individual highest priorities and deeply held driving forces. In simple words, values may be defined as a measure of goodness or desirability.
Definition of Values
1. According to H. M. Johnson, “Values are general standards and may be regarded as higher order norms.”
2. Young and Mack write, “Values are assumption, largely unconscious, of what is right and important.”
3. M. Haralambos says, “A value is a belief that something is good and worthwhile. It defines what is worth having and worth striving.”
4. According to Peter Worsley, “Values are general conceptions of “the good”, ideas about the kind of ends that people should pursue throughout their lives and throughout the many different activities in which they engage.”
5. According to R.K. Mukherjee, “Values are socially approved desires and goals that are internalized through the process of conditioning, learning or socialization and that become subjective preferences, standards, and aspirations.”
6. According to Zaleznik and David, “Values are the ideas in the mind of men compared to norms in that they specify how people should behave. Values also attach degrees of goodness to activities and relationships.”
7. According to I. J. Lehner and N.J. Kube, “Values are an integral part of the personal philosophy of life by which we generally mean the system of values by which we live. The philosophy of life includes our aims, ideals, and manner of thinking and the principles by which we guide our behaviour.”
8. According to T. W. Hippie, “Values are conscious or unconscious motivators and justifiers of the actions and judgment.”
Features or Characteristics of Values:
Values are generally tinged with moral flavour and contain a judgmental element involving an individual’s idea of what is right, good, and desirable. The characteristics of values are:
1. Values provide standards of competence and morality.
2. Values are fewer in number than attitudes.
3. Values transcend specific objects, situations, or persons.
4. Values are relatively permanent and resistant to change.
5. Values are most central to the core of a person.
6. Values have two attributes-content and intensity.
a. The content attribute stresses that a particular code of conduct is important.
b. The intensity attribute specifies how important that particular code of conduct is.
7. When we rank an individual’s values in terms of their intensity. We obtain the value system of that person.
8. In the value system, all of us have a hierarchy of values, which is identified by the relative importance we assign to different values, such as freedom, self-respect, honesty, and so on.
Values are therefore understood as a universal standard of morality and competence. They are permanent, unchangeable, and fundamental to a person. An individual's values are ranked by intensity and content. Assigning relative importance to values like freedom, self-respect, and honesty creates a value system.
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