Values in Social Sciences, Personality and Socio cultural Systems
Contents
- Introduction
- Definition of Values
- Nature of Values
- Distinction Between Values and Norms
- Human being as a Value-creating and Value-fulfilling Animal
- Hierarchy of Values
- Values as Core of Culture-Personality
- Values and Environment
Introduction
Putting social values into words is difficult. The term value has also been borrowed from everyday language, like most terms used in the social sciences. Additionally, different people use the same word in different contexts when using it in everyday speech. However, when we use a word in a scientific discussion, we should try to make sure that its meaning is as clear-cut and defined as possible. Otherwise, statements would become ambiguous and discussions might become disorganized. It would be challenging to advance understanding, analysis, and knowledge through research work without properly defining key terms.
Definition of Values
Values are essentially conceptions of the desirable that influence selective behavior. Values can be described as the standards by which people or groups judge what is right or wrong, true or false, or whether something ought to be done or not done, among other subjective standards. It influences one's personality and social morality and directs people in how to fit into or perform within particular socio-cultural systems.
Nature of Values
The widely held fundamental presumptions about what is right and significant are known as values. They lay out what the goals of life are and how to get there. The International Encyclopaedia of Social Sciences (ISSS: 1968) states that all "purposive actions fall within the parameters of evaluative action. There are three main types of value that can be found in actions that have a purpose: conative (desire, liking), achiever (success versus frustration), and affective (pleasure versus pain or unpleasantness). For some writers, a value is anything that is important to a human subject, whether it be good or bad. But it doesn't seem right to give the terms such a broad definition that it loses all meaning.
Distinction Between Values and Norms
Assumptions about what is deemed to be right or wrong, desirable or undesirable, are shared by values and norms, which are closely related to one another. The foundation of norms is values. By using criteria for what is "true," "good," and "beautiful," norms are justified and dependent on values.
Values are, in comparison to norms, more broad-based and abstract. Norms are a lot more specific; they refer to predetermined patterns of conduct that are connected to specific circumstances or social positions. Truthfulness, loyalty, and respect for authority figures are examples of widely held values that find expression in (relatively) concrete norms that differ across situations, strata, and professions.
Sometimes the norms themselves are judged. When compared to more fundamental values, behavior that complies with two different norms (each of which may be acceptable) may be judged to be better or worse.
Norms define specific guidelines for what various types of actors should or should not do in particular circumstances. Values, on the other hand, are abstract standards of desirability and as a result, they are largely unaffected by the details of any given circumstance.
Since values are more general than norms, multiple norms may contain the same value. In the family, military, schools, and administrative, political, or religious organizations, for example, the values of respect and obedience to superiors underpin various sets of norms related to drastically different institutions.
On the other hand, it is common for a specific norm to embody several distinct values at once. For instance, the standards that prohibit cheating on an exam are based on a variety of ideals, including those of honesty, success, equality of opportunity, and the pursuit of knowledge.
The distinction between values and norms can also be made on the basis of variations in the degrees of generality and specificity.
The field of value inquiry refers to attitudinal directives such as choice preferences, likes, and dislikes, whereas the field of normative inquiry refers to those attitudinal directives that are made up of obligations and prescriptions. As the preferred way of orienting to a set of categories of human experience, values can also be defined as such. When compared to value categories, norms' characteristics can be best understood. As a result, value orientation offers greater degrees of freedom and more room for deviation because values involve preferences while norms involve prescriptions. Actions, goals, means, ideas, attitudes, qualities, objects, people, and groups are just a few of the socio-cultural aspects of life that can be judged using the standards provided by values.
Dominant values have been found to involve (i) extensiveness, (ii) persistence (duration), (iii) intensity (iv) prestige of value carriers.
Human Being As a Value-creating and Value-fulfilling Animal
As Radhakamal Mukerjee (1960: 10), whose contribution to the study of values is widely acknowledged, notes, people both create and fulfill values. Both the emergence of social groups and institutions as well as the development of personality are impacted by this particular ability. In this sense, people are the ones who determine what is morally right and wrong in society, as well as those who assess how people should behave in day-to-day interactions.
Sometimes a distinction is made between social and personal values. Even so, the individual largely acquires those values from the society, or a particular subset of it, to which he or she belongs. Even though a human infant has the potential to develop into a social being or person, it is hardly such at the time of birth. A social being or a person is formed through the process of socialization. This process of socialization includes and places a high value on internalizing the group's values.
Hierarchy of Values
Each value that a person holds dear is not given equal weight. There is a value hierarchy. The higher value always prevails when there are conflicting claims. So, when exams are approaching, a student would rather study than watch a movie. Undoubtedly, the person is faced with a conflict of values in many circumstances. The hierarchical ordering of values, however, helps to resolve or minimize these conflicts. An individual's personality integration is likely to be seriously threatened in the absence of such a hierarchy of values, and his actions may become disorganized.
Through some degree of coherence among its various values and the widespread agreement regarding their hierarchical ordering, a socio-cultural system is also integrated. Radhakamal Mukerjee (1960: 13) asserts that a network of values exists in relation to different facets of life, including the economic, political, moral, and religious. the principles upheld by all social classes and institutions, including political, economic, and religious ones. , and they interact with one another in a way that influences and overlaps them.
Values as Core of Culture - Personality
Every culture is built around a set of values that serve as its foundation. Though many cultural values are internalized and become a part of an individual's personality, people who are a part of that culture frequently are not aware of them. A normal person, according to Radhakamal Mukerjee (1960: 13), is one who successfully strikes a balance between the various competing values and goals they must contend with in life. Value conflicts are a major source of mental stress and personality imbalance for those who are unable to resolve them. Since a normal society is one that is an integrated whole, he believes that all normal human beings should be "whole" people.
Values and Environment
Values also represent a society's climatic adaptation. The value of actions and things that encourage adjustment is higher. For instance, tribes whose livelihoods depend on hunting and gathering place a high value on both the protection of the forest and their bows and arrows. It is true that various facets of life and endeavors have various kinds of value.
Comments