After reading the article “A Question of Values: Six Ways We Make the Personal Choices”, the Hunter Lewis introduce some main problems: What are values? Does it truly exist? How can we formulate them? In terms of the third question, I agree with the author’s point of view that the six different value systems (authority, logic, experience, emotion, intuition, and science) formulate our values and guide us to know something or decision making (pg.7, Lewis H). However, everyone has his own set of core value systems like me. I have made an assessment called decision making style; I found my style is emphasis on intuitive style. No matter which style I belong to, I still easy to be influenced by others when making some important choice like going abroad to study: choose UK or USA. I choose here because my parents always told me that the American Education System is more advanced than UK.
In order to be myself, I should know my own set of value. In the process of exploring how can I to be myself. I found that people often should ask themselves some questions: Is this something important to you? Is this point of view you want to stand by even if other people against you? How do you feel when someone you know agrees with yours? When and why would cause you to make a decision that conflicts with your value? Etc. I believe these kinds of questions can help individuals to know how these six value systems to affect and formulate our own core values.
Besides, everyone have many personal values, I want to mention that we should find that what value we care the most and should insist it. Through this article, we know there are many factors to formulate our core values. Also, different people have different preference and decision making style, but we cannot ignore that our value statement drives us how to behave in the life. In order to have a satisfying and comfortable living style, I suggest people can use Lewis’s six ways to analyze which way they will focus on more than other factors, know how to make their own value more clear, and think how can we use our values to make an effective decisions in our daily life.
I found your post interesting by how you stated that one should set one’s own set of values in order to be oneself. I thought this was interesting because I feel like values could be personal but at the same time they are, as you said, easily influenced by others. Cultural backgrounds or the people around you are what influence your values the most. In that sense, would that truly mean “being yourself?”
I personally think that the values are based on personal experience, but even that makes me question whether that is what I really want or not. Am I choosing what I really want or am I just avoiding what I hated from past experiences?
I like the way you set questions for yourself when you set/remind yourself your values and I think this is very important for everyone. It is a method we forget often, and I think that is why people are become wishy-washy on deciding what they truly want.
Hi Esther,
Thank you for comment; you have a great and insightful thoughts and questions to my article. I agree with your point that the values are based on personal experience, but I believe our values are also based on our emotions, feelings and information we can get from outside according to this article rather than only based on experience.
As to your question that” am I choosing what I really want or am I just avoiding what I hated from past experiences? “I believe this kind of question is about the differences between attitude and values. From my personal understanding, an attitude often reflects people’s vital behaviors and actions, yet values are represents more of individuals’ mental beliefs and it may not express through their behaviors. For example, a people do something that he believes he is generous but in fact he is not in a generous way because he did not put his inner value into his behavior. This is just my personal opinion, I hope it helps. Also, I still have a question that how to integrate the values into our actions and to form a perfect value system?
Lili
I found your blog post very insightful and agreed with a lot of what you had to say. I thought that some of the questions you asked to find your values were very interesting because if you can answer those questions you can figure out your values. I would have to agree with the comment above about personal values. I think it comes more from experiences of what you have done, and you learn from mistakes you have made, is what helps make your personal values. Although what you said about how cultural backgrounds do effect values, but only to an extent. I do completely agree with you though that if you use Lewis’s six ways you will be able to come up with some great values to live by. I also think that values are some of the most important things for every person to have. Without them we wouldn’t be individuals and it would be hard to distinguish one person from another. I thought your post was very insightful and made me think and relate to what you were saying.