Human Values and Motivational Continuum

Human Values

• Are beliefs that are learned and refer to desirable goals (ideals)
• Are abstract and transcend specific actions and situations
• Serve as standards or criteria to guide the selection or evaluation of actions, policies, people, and events
• Are ordered by importance, forming a value system
• The relative importance of multiple values guides action and trade-offs

The Motivational Continuum

• Consists of 4 higher-order values: Self-Transcendence, Conservation, Openness to Chance, and Self-Enhancement
• Values can be categorized as having a Personal or Social focus
• Values can also be categorized as Growing (expressing anxiety-free values) or Protecting (coping with anxiety due to uncertainty and complexity)

Self-Transcendence Values

• Care for others' well-being over self-interests
• Benevolence: caring, dependability (responsibility), and preservation and enhancement of the welfare of people with whom one is in frequent personal contact
• Universalism: tolerance, concern, nature, understanding, appreciation, tolerance, and protection for the welfare of all people and of nature
• Humility: recognizing one's insignificance in the larger scheme of things

Conservation Values

• Humility: recognizing one's insignificance in the larger scheme of things
• Conformity: interpersonal, rules, restraint of actions, inclinations, and impulses that are likely to upset or harm others and violate social expectations or norms
• Tradition: respect, commitment, and acceptance of the customs and ideas that traditional culture or religion provides
• Security: personal, societal, safety, harmony, and stability of society relationships and self

Self-Enhancement Values

• Face: security and power through maintaining one's public image and avoiding humiliation
• Power: dominance, resources, control or dominance over people and resources
• Achievement: personal success through demonstrating competence according to social standards
• Hedonism: pleasure and sensuous gratification for oneself

Openness to Change Values

• Self-Direction: thought, actions, independent thought and action, choosing, creating, and exploring
• Stimulation: excitement, novelty, and challenge in life
• Hedonism: pleasure and sensuous gratification for oneself

Value Tension

• Arises when two different groups have different values or value priorities
• Can occur within one individual, between two individuals or groups with different value systems, or between two individuals or groups with a similar value system

Moral Values

• Are a system of beliefs that emerges out of core values
• Are specific and context-driven rules that govern a person's desire to be good (defining what is good and what is wrong)
• Can be shared by a larger population, but a person's moral code may differ from others' depending on their personal values
• The Theory of Moral Foundations (Haidt) explains why moralities differ, but still share fundamental characteristics
• The Theory of (5+1) Moral Foundations consists of:
  • Care/Harm
  • Fairness/Cheating
  • Loyalty/Betrayal
  • Authority/Subversion
  • Sanctity/Degradation
  • Liberty/Oppression