In this article we will tell you:
- Concept of human values
- 3 types of life values
- Algorithm for generating a human value system
- Factors influencing the formation of personal values
- The meaning of the value system
- A simple technique for determining your own hierarchy of values
A person's fully formed values have a strong influence on his entire life. Moreover, people are different from each other, which means they have different values. Some people put money first, others love, and others health. The list can be endless.
But one thing is absolutely clear: only those who clearly define their goals and choose their priorities correctly have the greatest chance of achieving success. And it is very difficult to do both without a clear understanding of your life values. Or even completely impossible.
Concept of human values
This term is usually used to refer to all things and phenomena that are useful and important. An object is not valuable in itself, but becomes valuable as a result of the internal choice of the individual and the assignment of this property to it. With the development of society, new human values appeared, and the list of concepts and objects for which there is a need expanded.
Everything that helps society solve life’s problems can be classified as values. They can be material and contain all the variety of objects created by human hands. There are valuable meanings and beliefs, without which the formation of an individual, as well as society as a whole, is impossible. All civilizations that have ever existed on earth have had their own set of values.
Developing in the society of adults, young children accept the value system that operates in this society. It shapes character traits, establishes norms of behavior and relationships with other people, and gives life meaning.
A person's values are as changeable as the society in which they exist. Over time, some phenomena and objects lose their significance, and others take their place. People from different generations, as a rule, have different values and, being their bearers, exist next to each other. This can be seen in the example of adult parents and growing children.
Thus, the value system is a set of vital concepts and guidelines necessary for each individual. Although the list of these phenomena changes and is supplemented over time, there are some significant things that have become an integral part of the human individual. Such values include freedom, having your own boundaries and choices, love, faith, health and others.
The importance of life guidelines cannot be overestimated. They determine the meaning of existence of all humanity and the choice of the sphere of activity of an individual, personal and social worldview, and are the inner core of every person.
Classification
In addition to material and spiritual, professor of psychology and pedagogy, Philip Lersch, identified three main types:
Life
These are our passions, hobbies, desires and feelings. To put it simply – an image and lifestyle. For some, quality rest is the most important thing, which is why they try to get pleasure and satisfaction from traveling as often as possible. For some, it is more important to invest in material things, rejoicing in the addition of a collection of stamps or figurines.
Self-importance
This category is more typical for individuals who strive to realize themselves, achieve heights and success, receiving recognition and respect from others. That’s why all resources and free time are directed to work. An example is avid careerists who strive to come to power at any cost and so on.
Semantic
Based on the name, you can understand that they give meaning and significance to actions, desires, and dreams. This is the desire for creativity, the search for something ideal and perfect. Sincere impulses to serve for the benefit of society and help those who need help.
Algorithm for generating a human value system
A person’s personality begins its development from birth. Gradually, she forms her own value system, which becomes stable in conscious adulthood. Although later the values in a person’s life may change. Scientists have derived a certain formula according to which principles are formed.
The whole process can be schematically represented as follows:
- Aspiration > Ideal.
- Aspiration > Goal > Ideal.
- Aspiration > Values > Goal > Ideal.
- Aspiration > Means > Values > Goal > Ideal.
Later, another point is added in the series of concepts - ethics. The scheme takes on a completed form:
Striving > Ethics > Means > Ethics > Values > Ethics > Goal > Ethics > Ideal.
First, an ideal and a desire to achieve it arise in a person’s thoughts. Aspiration speaks of the individual’s serious attitude towards the chosen ideal. If there is no such desire, then the chosen image is not a real ideal.
First of all, a sensory mental image simply appears in a person’s head, which is not yet clearly expressed. It makes you want to move towards your dreams. A person does not yet think about whether his ideal corresponds to the norms and rules accepted in society.
After some time, the ideal becomes not just a dream, but turns into a goal and acquires significance in the eyes of the individual. In order to take concrete steps in the right direction, you must understand certain conditions and rules that lead to achieving what you want. A person accepts values and norms from the external environment, having previously passed them through the internal filter of his consciousness. The final stage will be checking your own abilities and strengths, that is, the availability of means to achieve your goals.
A person is not completely free from the moral norms and principles accepted in the society of which he is a part. The choice of ideals, goals and means of achieving them is constantly monitored, taking into account ethical criteria.
Moral norms and rules are often the result of experienced knowledge of the world and reality. They are fixed in the consciousness of society and are perceived as immutable truths. Some ethical guidelines are being formatted and replaced with more modern ones that correspond to new ideals.
Internal values, which are formed from childhood according to a given algorithm, are of great importance for a person’s life. They determine preferences and choice of goals, personal relationships, professional activities and much more. Having your own ideals helps a person develop and stick to his path in this world.
What is personality development
An alternative view on personal growth technologies
But before talking about the development of an object, it would be quite nice to get some idea of what exactly it is. The same applies to the issue of personal growth. Therefore, first of all, you need to find out what a person’s personality may be.
In many sources, the concept of personality is used to describe the social nature of a person, which arises only at the moment when he is recognized as a subject of social relations and has the opportunity to develop throughout his life. Somehow everything is too complicated and almost incomprehensible.
But since we are talking about construction and its documentation, then for me, for example, it is much easier to imagine and understand that the passport or project of the object under construction represents that very person, and the construction process can already be called the development of personality.
Even if this object has not yet been presented in the physical world, the very fact that the project has been approved or is in the process of development indicates that the object already exists, and therefore has the potential properties and qualities provided for in it.
But if we go even further in our reasoning, it is easy to establish that the existence of a given construction object begins at the moment its image appears in the architect’s head at the level of his thoughts and reasoning.
Mandala - the matrix of human life
And if this analogy is transferred to representatives of living nature, then an even more interesting conclusion emerges. In fact, both the seed of any plant and a person at the moment of his birth (and perhaps even earlier) already have all the information about who and why he should become on this earth.
In other words, a person owns a certain image or matrix of the state that he must achieve throughout his life. The form of this image is passed down from generation to generation and is gradually filled with specific content.
The more this form is filled with acquired experience (specific content), the more obvious personality manifestations become. After all, if, for example, you say “wheat,” then what associations may arise at the moment?
This may well be the plant itself as a whole, or its individual parts, such as an ear of wheat or a single grain. But whatever we think about, it will always be related to the image of wheat that is formed within us.
Spikelet of ripe wheat
At the level of an individual grain, the image of a wheat personality is presented in its potential or embryonic state, which does not have the shape of an ear, but has all the information that it needs to become.
In the case of an ear of wheat, we are faced with the phenomenon of the simultaneous existence of the manifested form of the image and its specific internal content, which allows us to judge the degree of maturity of the grain in this ear.
As a result, the rate of manifestation of programmed characteristics in it depends on the degree of interaction between form and content in an existing image. In other words, the internal volume of an empty form is gradually filled (similar to how honey accumulates in a bee honeycomb) and leads to the emergence of new properties and qualities.
Reasons and driving forces of personal growth
The entire process of grain ripening in a wheat ear is accompanied by a constant exchange of information and energy with the surrounding (same) ears, which is constantly accumulated and inherited from generation to generation.
Therefore, it turns out that the main reason for the emergence of the human personality is the very fact of a person’s birth in the physical world, and the main driving force in his development is the internal attitudes inherited from his parents.
Each of us, throughout our lives, is to one degree or another exposed to the influence of such installations-programs, which cover all areas of our lives and most often extend to issues of ensuring material well-being, procreation, and achieving a certain level in personal self-development and improvement.
Whether we like it or not, the need for the constant development of the human personality is inherent in us by nature itself and is constantly passed on from grandfathers to fathers, and fathers to sons. At the same time, the person himself decides to follow these internal attitudes or choose a position of opposition to them.
Thanks to their first and then subsequent experiences, these attitudes move from the category of pre-installed programs into personal life beliefs, which, in fact, drive the desires and thoughts of a particular person.
Directions for personal development
And if we consider that every person has the absolute right to freedom of choice of path, then the direction of his personal growth will depend on his ability to use this right in his personal interests.
In many ways, the direction of movement in personality development depends on the age at which the person begins his movement along the route of self-development and improvement. After all, if in infancy a person primarily requires dairy food, then in adulthood it is necessary to eat solid food.
Therefore, in the early stages of his development, including infancy, adolescence and adolescence, a person is only approaching the realization of the need for his improvement, which occurs in a passive, one might say background, mode.
Sleeping baby with a bottle of milk
The focus of a person’s attention during this period is aimed at collecting and absorbing any information about himself and the world around him, which allows him to self-identify, find his place in society and do everything possible to form his status in it.
The second part of a person’s life, which can include maturity and old age, is characterized by an analysis of accumulated life experience, summing up the relevant results and striving, so to speak, into the higher spheres of existence.
An intermediate position is occupied by a stage in a person’s life, which is usually called youth. This is exactly the time when you already know what and how to do and, most importantly, you have all the necessary components for this, such as financial means, health and energy resources, position in society, as well as life time to realize your goals.
It is at this age, when basically (in one form or another) almost all issues of a material nature have been resolved, a person begins to think about more subtle and spiritual things related to the meaning of life and the purpose of a person.
But every rule has its exceptions, so in practice, most often such time frames are not observed. That is why one person is called precocious, while another is judged as stuck in his development.
A man climbs the stairs in front of a building
So, no matter what stage of a person’s life path he finds himself at, it is never too early and never too late to address issues of his personal growth and development. Personally, in such cases, I always tell myself that “every vegetable has its time.”
It would seem that the concepts of “personal growth” and “personal development” mean the same thing. But in fact there is some and very significant difference. To feel it, it is enough to imagine in your imagination the mountain road leading to its top.
As a rule, mountain serpentine is a spiral that gradually twists and narrows as it moves towards the top. While moving along a separate turn, a horizontal process of personality development occurs. And when a certain distance (height of ascent) appears between such turns, then they talk about the vertical phenomenon of personal growth.
In this case, the longer the total length of the route, the greater the opportunities for personal development. And the greater the number of repeating turns, the greater personal growth can be achieved.
Most often, one can comprehend the entire path traveled and realize its significance only after reaching the cherished peak, since it is from this point that the route itself and the number of rings in the ascending spiral will be best seen.
Conditions for personal growth
Long road in the mountains
Any road, and especially a mountain one, is fraught with quite a lot of unexpected and completely unpredictable dangers, about which it is best to have some idea at the very beginning of the journey. It’s not for nothing that they say that if you are forewarned, you are forearmed.
The most important and reliable weapon today is any kind of information that can be used to solve your needs and requirements. If, for example, I have something at my disposal that allows me to achieve better results for myself in a unit of time, then my life will only benefit from it.
In fact, if such information allows me to earn more while working less, then the free time in my life actually increases significantly. And the freed up resource can be used to develop your personal qualities, and not to solve material issues.
I once came across a message that back in 1952, Comrade Stalin, in his article on the economic problems of socialism in the Soviet Union, raised the issue of a widespread transition to a five-hour working day, so that citizens could use the rest of the time for personal education, development and recreation.
Man in a hammock with a laptop
Almost seventy years have passed, but no one has paid due attention to resolving this issue. But everything could be completely different now. It could and will definitely be different, since there are already people who openly talk about the possibility of solving this problem in the very near future, as a necessary condition for the comprehensive development of the individual.
If you set a goal, you can find dozens more such factors and conditions, the implementation of which will determine the personal growth of any person. But I won’t dwell on this so as not to abuse the time and attention of my readers.
I’ll just ask you to imagine (as food for further thought) how the life of each of us could change if the opportunity for education anywhere in the world became free and accessible to anyone.
Indeed, in this case, every person on earth will receive the unlimited right to sculpt images (the literal meaning of the word “education”) of their bright future, fill them with their energy, use the results obtained and receive incomparable pleasure from it.
Factors influencing the formation of personal values
The development of a person’s personality begins in childhood, when a child, observing his parents, repeats their behavior, words, and learns their values, norms and rules. The formation of thinking, speech and self-awareness is impossible in isolation from society. Only by interacting with other people does a person create his own system of values and self-awareness. It is very difficult for an adult to change established beliefs and habits. This requires serious work with your inner world. It is important to lay down the right ideals and aspirations at a young age that will help you become happy.
A person’s values are formed as a result of the influence of several factors.
- Family education. Relationships with parents are extremely important for a child's development. It is in the family that a child understands how to behave in society, learns a lot of new things, learns to speak, think, and acquires traditions and values. Interests, behavior, inclinations and habits - all this is formed in the family.
- Educational establishments. The formation of values and norms of behavior also occurs when communicating with peers and other adults in schools, kindergartens and additional education institutions.
- Social rules. The norms and rules of behavior existing in society encourage a person to follow them so as not to cause a negative attitude towards himself.
- Introspection. The methods of modern psychotherapy and the study of one’s own thoughts, emotions and behavior allow a person to get to know himself better, as well as set his own boundaries and prevent the influence of alien values and attitudes on his own mind.
The meaning of the value system
The basis of personality is life values. His character and life depend on what things a person puts first. At the same time, the individual is responsible for his choice and its consequences. People with completely different life principles can come from the same family, as can be seen in the example of the children of Adam and Eve.
A person’s internal attitudes determine the choice of friends, profession, and life partner. People with different life values are unlikely to be able to find a common language and coexist peacefully. There will always be disputes and clashes of opinions. For example, a woman who puts relationships first will not be able to understand a man who only thinks about money.
