What does VALUE mean to YOU?

Introduction: -

In this article I will be elaborating on the concept of value. I hope that the considerations I have made below are of use. Especially for those who are looking at understanding their own values and to gain a greater insight into the value of others (above and beyond self-identifying values and those deeper than the spoken word). At the end of this article there is a thought exercise, which I hope you will use as a measurement to gauge your values and position them and yourself authentically going forward. This article seeks to ask you questions which are designed to help you identify your value preferences, so you can better deliver your value proposition. I have provided the first couple of examples of these values but have left the rest for you to consider in your own time.

Definitions: -

1.      The importance, worth, or usefulness of something.

2.      The material or monetary worth of a product or service.

3.      Your self-defined principles or standards of behaviour.

4.      An algebraic term, a magnitude, quantity, or number

5.      The variant degree of light or shade of a colour.

6.      Duration of a musical note

7.      The meaning of a symbol (its purpose and significance)

Value Formulations: -                                                                                 

Proscriptive and Prescriptive

How you interact with your value will say a lot about you. It will define how you measure yourself (worth) and how others measure you over time. Understanding your relationship with value is key in defining how you hold yourself and your value to account. First you can start by asking yourself, Proscriptive (exclusionary) or Prescriptive (rule based).

Example: For instance (and rather biblically) I am a fan of ‘thou shalt not kill’. Great example of an exclusion over a rule. You can consider these differentials in terms of severity of your intentions and strength of conviction.

Cultural Values

How do you associate with your culture, the values, and doctrines held deep within your culture (this is separate to religious values)? The variation of geographical value has an interesting impact on how we distinguish ourselves from our friends, neighbours, and rivals. Can you look at your values and pick out which ones are cultural, and which are not.

Example: A great example of this is the cultural value of innocence (if we can consider for these purposes that loss of innocence is triggered at the loss of virginity) and its direct correlation with the age of consent. There are significant differences in the age of consent across the globe and from culture to culture.

Ethical Value (Philosophic Good)

How you ascribe significance to your value can have an influence on how defined or undefined your preferences are applied. When concerning your thought processes, when making decisions and taking actions with specific outcomes in mind. (Ethics is a huge area and will likely form the topic of separate article). Understanding your ethics and the strength of your ethics will establish the bedrock of your value/s.

Example: (insert your example here)

Right and Wrong (Virtue and Vice)

How do our values reflect on our sense of right and wrong to enable us to measure (on a sensitivity scale) how we feel about a course of action or an ideal? It also acts as a spiritual compass for us to keep either on the straight and narrow or to give us that uncomfortable feeling in our stomachs when we veer off course. What value do you place on your capacity to think critically about your moral values and how they direct your actions?

Example: (insert your example here)

Doctrinal/ Ideological (Theological)

How are we changed or evolved through our teachings and our beliefs? Whether religious or secular teachings and philosophies are the concepts which can have the biggest influence on our core values. To what level do we hold these values and how do they manifest and impact on our ethics, virtues, and vices?

Example: (insert your example here)

Intrapersonal Values

We all have that voice (some of us may have more than one) you know, the one in our head. The voice of reason we expect, is not always the true voice of reason we get. Our internal dialogue is not always our most reliable or objectional value standard. Sometimes it is better to trust your guttural value indicators over the friendly or unfriendly voice your heads?

Example: (insert your example here)

Social Values

How many of us are driven by a social value? What is it in society that we value most or value enough for them to dictate our behaviour and principles? This value is separate from the cultural value set because it relates to onward values over the pre-existing value sets.

Example: (insert your example here)

Aesthetic Values (Philosophical)

How much value do you attribute to beauty, the arts and nature? The value of such things are normally based on our emotional values. The bigger question of how our aesthetic values affect our moods and our beliefs can be assessed on deeper level. The sensori-aesthetic of our surroundings and/or our preferences are impactful on our sense perception (imagination and knowing).

Example: (insert your example here)

Relative or Absolute

The relativity of our value can be highly subjective person to person and measured based on a scale between Cultural and Ethical (as outlined above). In the alternative you have an absolute value which is removed from the locus of the individual. Use of the following equivalency could be ‘a tendency in favour of the mind over the heart or the will of an individual’.

Example: (insert your example here)

Intrinsic or Extrinsic

Something which holds an intrinsic value is something which holds a value in and of itself, whereas anything which derives its value from something else is considered instrumental. Furthermore, Intrinsic could be described as an internal value set and instrumental value could be described as having value over an external object or objective.

Example: (insert your example here)

Positive or Negative

Positive ethical values are well known, whereas negative ethical values are lesser known. These concepts are highly polarised. A negative ethic can be identified as is it something to be avoided (feel and perception) whereas a positive value is to be indulged.

Example: (insert your example here)

Protected

The best example of a protected value is the doctrine of a ‘tragic trade-off’. This is when two or more protected values contradict and a conflict is created. Let us say that in the process of defending your family and your home, you are besieged by an armed attacker. The only option available to you in protecting your family is to kill the attacker. In this scenario (assuming you are neither a sociopath nor a psychopath or have overriding tendencies in other emotionally deficient state) you should find yourself in a conflicted state. Torn between you saving lives and taking lives regardless of the motivation.

Example: (insert your example here)

Exceptions: -

Situational – specifics of a situation which create an exception to the pre-determined rule.

Idealised – the opposite of situational, there are no exceptions to the rule.

Realised – this exception allows for conflicts between situational and idealised to be resolved.

Formal – this is generally a codified system of values and is normally hierarchical in nature.

Conflict – this can be either an ideological or physical conflict within a value metric.

The Milton Rokeach Value Survey: -

The task for participants in the survey below is to arrange the 18 terminal values, followed by the 18 instrumental values, into the following order; That being the order that is of most importance to you, as overriding principles in your life (1 being the most paramount of importance and 10 being the lowest).

Terminal Values: -                                                                          Instrumental Values: -

1.       True Friendship                                                                                     1.   Cheerfulness

2.       Mature Love                                                                                         2.   Ambition

3.       Self-Respect                                                                                         3.   Love

4.       Happiness                                                                                             4.   Cleanliness

5.       Inner Harmony                                                                                     5.  Self-Control

6.       Equality                                                                                                 6.  Capability

7.       Freedom                                                                                               7.  Courage

8.       Pleasure                                                                                                8.  Politeness

9.       Social Recognition                                                                                9.  Honesty

10.    Wisdom                                                                                                10. Imagination

11.    Salvation                                                                                               11. Independence

12.    Family Security                                                                                     12. Intellect

13.    National Security                                                                                  13. Mindfulness

14.    A Sense of Accomplishment                                                                 14. Logic

15.    A World of Beauty                                                                                15. Obedience

16.    A World at Peace                                                                                  16. Helpfulness

17.    A Comfortable Life                                                                               17. Responsibility

18.    An Exciting Life                                                                                     18. Forgiveness

The results of this test should be written down and kept in a safe place. After six months, I advise re-taking the test and then comparing the results (if you are interested, you can do this over the space of several years). Knowing that our values, motivations, and morals all change over time and they normally change in times of stress or strain, change in societal norms or cultural shifts – it is important in my view to keep track of these things to measure our growth or development as people.

Closing Questions: -

Now, if you have the stomach, go back through this article, and ask yourself the following five questions at the end of formulation:

1.      Which of the exceptions have you knowingly applied to this value set?

2.      Which of the value set do you feel embodies most of your existing values?

3.      How do these values make you feel?

4.      How will/do you convey your values to others?

5.      What does this value mean to you?

6.      What did you value at aged XX (10, 15 or 20 years ago), which not have reduced in significance for you?

7.      Are your values based in your true self (the real you) or your false self (the mask you present to the world)?