Values and Valuing
by Xavier James.
Persons have
experiences. They grow and learn. Out of experiences may come certain general
guides to behaviour. These guides tend to give direction to life and may be
called values. Our values show what we tend to do with our limited time and
energy.
Since we see values
as growing from a person’s experiences, we would expect that different
experiences would give rise to different values and that any one person’s
values would be modified as his/her experiences accumulate and change. A person
who has an important change in patterns of experience might be expected to
modify his/her values. Values may not be static if one’s relationships to
his/her world are not static. As guides to behaviour, values evolve and mature
as experiences evolve and mature.
Moreover, because
values are a part of living, they operate in very complex circumstances and
usually involve more than simple extremes of right and wrong, good or bad, true
or false. The condition under which behaviour is guided, in which values work,
typically involve conflicting demands, a weighing and a balancing, and finally
an action that reflects a multitude of forces. Thus values seldom function in a
pure and abstract form. Complicated judgments are involved and what is really
valued is reflected in the outcome of life as it is finally lived.
We
therefore see values as constantly being related to the experiences that shape
them and test them. They are not, for any one person, so much hard and
fast verities as they are the results of hammering out a style of
life in a certain set of surroundings. After a sufficient amount of hammering,
certain patterns of evaluating and behaving tend to develop. Certain things are
treated as right or desirable or worthy. These tend to become our values.
We shall be less
concerned with the particular values outcomes of any one person’s experiences
than we will with the process that he/she uses to obtain his/her values.
Because life is different through time and space, we cannot be certain what
experiences any one person will have. We therefore cannot be certain what
values, what style of life, would be most suitable for any person. We do,
however have some ideas about what processes might be most effective for
obtaining values. These ideas grow from the assumption that whatever values one
obtains should work as effectively as possible to relate one to his/her world
in a satisfying and intelligent way.
From this
assumption comes what we call the process of valuing. A look at this process
may make clear how we define a value. Unless something satisfies all seven
criteria noted below, we do not call it a value. In other words, for a value to
result all of the following seven requirements must apply. Collectively, they
describe the process of valuing.
1.Choosing Freely: If something is in fact to guide
one’s life whether or not authority is watching, it must be a result of free
choice. If there is coercion, the result is not likely to stay with one for
long, especially when out of the range of the source of that coercion. Values
must be freely selected if they are to be really valued by the individual.
2.Choosing from
among alternatives: This
definition of values is concerned with things that are chosen by the individual
and obviously, there can be no choice if there are no alternatives from which
to choose. It makes no sense, for example, to say that one values eating. One
really has no choice in the matter. What one may value is certain types of food
or certain forms of eating, but not eating itself. We must all obtain
nourishment to exist. Only when a choice is possible, when there is more than
one alternative, from which to choose, do we say a value can result.
3.Choosing after
thoughtful consideration of the consequences of each alternatives: Impulsive or thoughtless choices do
not lend to values as we define them. For something intelligently and
meaningfully to guide one’s life, it must emerge from a weighing and an
understanding. Only when the consequences of each of the alternatives are
clearly understood can one make intelligent choices. There is an important
cognitive factor here. A value can emerge only with thoughtful consideration of
the range of the alternatives and consequences in a choice.
4.Prizing and
cherishing: When we value
something, it has a positive tone. We prize it, esteem it, hold it dear. We are
happy with our values. A choice, even when we have made it freely and thoughtfully,
may be choice we are happy to make. We prize and cherish the guides to life
that we call values.
5.Affirming: When we have chosen something freely,
after consideration of the alternatives, and when we are proud of our choice,
glad to be associated with it, we are likely to affirm that choice when asked
about it. We are willing to publicly affirm our values. We may even be willing
to champion them. If we are ashamed of a choice, if we would not make our
position known when appropriately asked, we would not be dealing with values
but something else.
6.Acting upon
choices: Where we have
a value, it shows up in aspects of our living. We may do some reading about
things we value. We are likely to form friendships or to be in organizations in
ways that nourish our values. We may spend money on a choice we value. We
budget time or energy for our values. In short, for a value to be present, life
itself must be affected. Nothing can be a value that does not, in fact give
direction to actual living. The person who talks about something but never does
anything about it, is dealing with something else other than a value, i.e. an
interest, an aspiration.
7.Repeating: Where something reaches the stages of
a value, it is very likely to reappear on a number of occasions in the life of
the person who holds it. It shows up in several different situations, at
several times. We would not think of something that appeared once in a life and
never again as a value. Values tend to have a persistency, tend to make a pattern
in a life.
To review this
definition, we see values as based on three processes: Choosing, Prizing and
acting.
Choosing: 1.Freely 2.From alternatives 3.After thoughtful
consideration of the consequences of each alternatives.
Prizing: 4.Cherishing, being happy with the
choice 5.enough to be willing to affirm the choice Publicly to others.
Acting : 6.or doing something with the
choice 7.repeatedly, in some pattern of life.
These
processes collectively define valuing. Results of the valuing processes are
called values. Now we need to pause for a moment and apply the seven criteria
for a value to one of his/her hobbies, Is it prized, freely and
thoughtfully chosen from alternatives, acted upon repeatedly, and publicly
known? If so, one might say that you value that hobby. A value is something we
hold dear.
(Taken from Values
& Teaching by Raths, Harmin, Simon in 1966)
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