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Artifact #1 – The Nature of Human Values

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  1. family
  2. friends
  3. healthy
  4. loyalty
  5. enjoyment
  6. integrity
  7. leadership
  8. service
  9. independence
  10.  personal development
  11.  community
  12. wisdom
  13. security
  14. personal accomplishment
  15. creativity
  16. location
  17. expertness
  18. wealth
  19. power
  20. prestige

Today, Sunday April 13, is a more difficult day to compare how my actions throughout the day apply to my ranking of these characteristics. Sunday, for me and for many, is a day of rest and therefore many a time I spend the day doing personal chores and activities, which can be related to independence which I ranked number 9 on the list. As for the top 5, due to their high ranking they should always be relevant to my days and therefore I can and will draw conclusions on how they affected decisions I made today.

Number 5, enjoyment, today I did things that may not have been very enjoyable at the time but will bring me joy in the coming days. For example, doing laundry and cleaning the house are not the most fun things to do, but as the week begins and I have more to do I will enjoy not having to worry about those things. Number 4, loyalty, today with some of my extra time I made sure to be true to my word of previous plans I made with friends and make future plans. Loyalty is key to the maintenance of family and friends, my number 1 and 2 on the list. By thinking of how my decisions will affect my friends and family, I am in turn being loyal. My family, number 1, and friends, number 2, are always priorities in my life and I constantly weigh my actions and choices around how they will affect those people. By enjoying what I do and being loyal to those I hold close, I am creating healthy relationships with those around me, my number 3 trait. I take healthy to not only mean physical but emotional health. Each of my top 5 traits are interdependent and rely on each other for the other to be true.

Objectives

  • Become familiar with the basic relationship of human values to psychological and philosophical endeavors.
  • Understand that values are formed from external and internal drives of an individual.
  • Explore one’s own value system.

Reflection

This assignment caused quite a stirring within me. Not only did it make me think about how my actions each day represent and helps mold my own values as a whole but also the type of thinking I was expected to do throughout the term. This class requires us to truly analyze things that we do everyday without much thought. It was not until reading Lewis’ article “A Question of Values” and doing this assignment that I realized how my everyday decisions and past choices dictate my values. My every day decisions should be a representation of my values that help me distinguish “the ‘good’, the ‘just’, and the ‘beautiful’” apart from everything else (Lewis 7). That is not to say that every decision is a true representation of one’s values but they should affect all of one’s big decisions.

By having to evaluate what values I hold most dear from the list provided and then see how my daily choices uphold those values was both enlightening and depressing. I chose family, friends, health, loyalty and enjoyment as my top five values from the list. I can honestly say there is not one day where I truly live up to those values to the best of my ability, and I do not think anyone can. Life is very much a game of give and take. For example, since I hold family in such high regard, on days when I cannot talk on the phone with them, I can still manage to send a quick email in order to let them know how things are going.

Future

There is doubt that some of the values I hold true today will be different in the future and that is purely out of circumstance and experience. What I have taken form this and will continue learn as I grow, is the importance of having values and how to sort “through available value choices in a systematic way” (Lewis 18). By learning and understanding how I came about my own values I will be able to more effectively understand those around me as well.

 

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