I agree with the statement that human values can be developed through culture and chosen freely because of experiences and beliefs. “not primarily driven by genetically determined instincts but are rather free to make their own choices” (Sorting it Out, 6). There is room for genetics to influence values and personality. Values are important with purpose and with goals in mind. Values are also developed as one matures because they are a combination of one’s personal preferences, education, parental involvement and environmental involvement. For example, I am from Ohio and I play on a sports team for this University. It has been an eye-opening experience to learn about the other girls on my team and see how different their values are from mine because of where they come from and how they were raised. Growing up, my simple midwestern, church-going, small town life is much different than a teammate who grew up in Southern California in a City and a beach social life. My values are quite based on Christianity just because most of my life has been revolved around Church and friends and family who also share the same beliefs. Also, when humans change settings and surround themselves with different people of different values, those prioritized values begin to either strengthen or re-shape into values of surrounding people. Learning from life and forming values, positive and negative, are inescapable. Our values contribute to who we are, whether we are cautious with money or carefree. In America it has been perceived that as a general population values consist of more greedy tendencies in order to improve self-worth. It can be argued that instincts and genetics provide for all of an individual’s values, but the development of a personality depends greatly on past experiences create huge differences in how we approach the next situation (Sorting it Out, 8). We do and decide not to do. Our values are mostly shaped by the way we perceive and handle outcomes the each situation.
Unit 2-Understanding Values-Human values aren’t just instinctual
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I think you made a great point explaining how values are determined and influenced. I agree with you about how our experiences, personalities, genetics and instincts that we have obtained throughout our life, form the values we have acquired. Individual values are constantly changing and expanding, thus ultimately make the world a more cultivated and competent place. I think it is interesting how you and your female teammate, traveling from such different backgrounds, ended up on the same sport team at the UO. I presume that this example shows how much the world can expand and cultivate from the values of other people, to strengthen our inner thoughts and personalities. I also think that example is interesting because it brings people together and makes them understand and accept other persons values, thus making people better and more understanding of their own surroundings. I also agree with you that the development of personality depends greatly on past experiences while creating immense differences on how we travel through life. I enjoyed your post.
Thank you for your well thought out feedback. It never quite occurred to me that the values, which we constantly evaluate and change, make the world a more cultivated and competent place. That seems to perfectly sum up the point to why we even have values in the first place. No one person maintains the same values, that is why it can be easily hypothesized and tested that genetics and biology play a large role in the cultivation of our core values. Indeed, biology has to do with a few main values, however, by experiencing life, sharing and choosing values we can better understand the values of others. Values are the most powerful ingredients in every action of our life. We use values to make decisions; they are the ends to which we act. Without value, life would be impossible because we could not make decisions, act, or develop behavioral traits.