Values Survey

Values are guides to action. They give you a basis on which to evaluate your beliefs and your behavior. If you have no criteria for judging what’s right and what’s wrong, what’s good and bad for you, how can you make independent judgments? You’d be at the mercy of others who claim they know what’s right and wrong. You won’t know how to evaluate your behavior to see if it’s beneficial or harmful to you. You won’t know how to make reasonable judgments about social and political issues. Without values (or without recognizing clearly what your values are), you’ll flounder in a sea of personal uncertainly and moral chaos, ripe for manipulation or exploitation by others.

What are your values?

What do you value the most? What’s really important to you? What will make you a good person in your own eyes? What do you think is necessary for a better society? What values would make the world a better place?

Let’s say, for example, you recognize that family is an important value to you, you’d feel like a good person if you provided for your family, you think more people should give greater attention to their families and children, and you believe that the world would be a better place if more people did this. Then, if you feel pressured to go out with your buddies when your kid’s first soccer meet is the same night, you have some inner resources to draw on. If you focus on your values, you can ask yourself --what’s really more important to you: the momentary approval of friends or the glow in your child’s eye when she makes that first soccer goal of the game?

Or, let’s say, doing something meaningful with your life is important to you. Think about your current job or your current social activities. Ask yourself - ”Is this job one that’s meaningful to me or that will lead to meaningful work (e.g., a job that will help me get through college)?” Do you find meaning in outside activities (e.g., volunteer work, painting) or are you simply vegging in front of the TV set and not thinking about your long-term goals or acting on your values? Sometimes we need to step back and look at the larger perspective.

How do you know what your values are and which are the most important? Milton Rokeach, a psychologist who studied values, had the participants in his research rank order a list of values in order of importance to them. Joyce Chapman, a psychologist who has written Live Your Dreams, an excellent book on how to figure out who you are and what you want, also suggests a values inventory. Here’s a list of possible values gleaned from their lists and others (including ones that I think are important that they left out!) You may have ones of your own that aren’t on this list:

Chapman suggests picking the five that are most important to you and writing about why you chose them. You might also learn something about yourself by looking at the ones you consider “very unimportant.” This exercise can be as elaborate as you find worthwhile.

Consider why you chose the “very important” values by asking yourself the following questions:

• How do my values affect my life and behaviors right now?
• Am I acting on my values right now?
• How would I have to change to implement these values?
• What behaviors would be different?
• How are these values related to my long-term goals?
• How would I have to change my life style or way of doing things in order to implement my values in the long run?

If you find that there is a big discrepancy between the values you claim you believe in and the reflection of these values in your personal life, then think about whether they actually are your values. Do you really believe in them? If you think you do, why do you think you haven’t been acting on them? One good guideline for deciding whether these values really reflect what you believe is whether you’re really acting on them. If you’re not, then maybe you don’t really value them after all.

Write a few paragraphs about situations where you’ve been confronted with a conflict between your values and the pressure of the situation. What did you do? If you did not act consistently with your values, how could you have acted differently? Recognizing and thinking about how to deal with such conflicts is the first step toward being consistent.

© Copyright 2000, 2010 by Sharon Presley