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2. I think that since today was a Sunday, I pursued these values very well today. Today, I spent time with my family and friends, while I feel that I pursue the other 3 of my top 5 values each and every day as well. I chose family first because my family gave me everything I have, love and support me unconditionally and are the most important people in my life. I put personal development second because my family helped my personal development the most, and you need to develop your self and your personality and values before in order to be a good friend. I put friendship next because everyone needs and love their friends. Friends are another huge part of what made me who I am today and I don’t know what I would do without them. Loyalty is also important for all the relationships in my life to thrive because loyalty creates trust and trust makes healthy relationships which helps people thrive and survive because we are very social beings. Integrity is also extremely important because I strive to always try to stand up for my beliefs and do the right thing. I make mistakes, but I always strive for integrity.

The belief patterns I inherited from my family are that for one, family always comes first because you can’t find unconditional love anywhere else in most cases. They also stressed personal development and integrity because they would always push me to become more independent at a young age and make my own decisions and taught me to have good integrity. The only beliefs that I can think of that are different than what my parents taught me have to do with how society has changed their views generation to generation. For example, my parents think tattoos are wrong, and you should go to church every Sunday. I don’t think tattoos are wrong, I actually want to get one and I don’t think people who have them are “ruining their body”. But I think this because tattoos are now a more normal and accepted thing in society. I don’t go to church on Sundays like my parents taught me to because I believe that being spiritual is just as, if not more powerful than attending religious services that are very easy to tune out from anyways.

I still have yet to pursue independence, expertness, and security. I guess I am doing a good job working towards it by attending college and pursuing my career goals. I still rely on my parents for financial aid so I am not quite very independent, and when I finish graduate school pursue my career path I will have gained expertness and hopefully security. I don’t think anything stands in the way of me being able to pursue these goals because I believe that I can do whatever I want if I set my mind up to it.

 

 

I chose something I agree with from the article. I do believe that there are values that humans do freely choose, but I also believe that there are values that are inherited by genetics as well as they way each individual was raised. The article states, “there is a good deal of evidence that human beings are not primarily driven by genetically determined instincts but are rather free to make their own choices” (Lewis, 7).  They bring up things like self-preservation and sexual drives as being genetic, which I absolutely agree with because they scientific physiology backs this op. But are these things necessarily values? I almost believe that in most societies, the way we live is to suppress our natural human instincts, and suppressing the “undesirable” part of human nature is where human values comes in. People suppress their sexual drives which creates the value of abstinence, people suppress their aggression and anger which creates the value of peace, people suppress their fear of change which creates the values of courage and improvement. Given this, I believe that values lie more on an individual’s upbringing. I was taught that you should wait to have sex until you love someone, and that I should suppress my anger and keep the peace. These have become some of my own values and things I believe in, but they do go against human nature.  Another example that values come from upbringing is that I can compare my values to the values of generations before me. I believe in equality and gay rights, gay marriage, and that racism is wrong. However, white Americans a few generations back would have most likely have thought it was normal to say that non-white and gay citizens are not equal and just taken it as a normal thing that they did not have the same rights. Now, there are exceptions because there were people who felt this was wrong, but some people would not have thought twice. This is very sad, but it’s the way society works. And over time, our societal values have changed and so have most individual’s values.