Artifact I: Life Values
Artifact: Life Values Assessment
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:
In Lewis’ “A Question of Values”, he states that “without values human behavior would be directionless, chaotic, and ultimately self-destructive” (Lewis 8). He introduces the idea that values are the foundation to the human experience, which enabled me to under stand that human values have a direct relationship to psychological and philosophical endeavors. Every choice we make is processed first through the filter of our value systems.
I value creativity, as seen in these two examples of the furniture that I build (Under the Table Woodworks)
In the values exercise, we ranked twenty common values in order of importance to us. By spending time exploring my own value system by ranking each potential value, and specifically looking at my top five, I was forced to ask myself why I ranked one prospective value over another, I began to understand which internal and external factors influenced my decision.
My top value was family. This picture is of me and my dad during a family vacation to Disneyland.
This introspective look into my own values came up again in Unit 5, where we observed strangers to speculate their values and how their attire and adornments reflected those values. In the end, the exercise again encouraged us to examine how our value system influenced the way we transfer values on to others based on purely superficial criteria.
Moving Forward
This assignment has opened my eyes to the important role my value system plays into my everyday life. Every major decision I make is deeply rooted in how I perceive the world, which is dictated by my value system. I will try to be aware of my value system, understanding the dynamic nature of my values, so I can better anticipate how it will impact the way I respond to different situations and circumstances.