Monday, June 13, 2011

Wheel of Values (research series)

 

The greatest virtues are those which are most useful to other persons.  - Aristotle

Here's an intriguing psych/sociological finding that's caught my attention recently; the initial question is: what values are embedded in our brains by the society we grow up in? It's difficult and perhaps a little unfair to judge an entire social system negatively off the bat, but if we break the system into the human values it advocates among its inhabitants, we can more fairly and accurately evaluate the subjective "goodness" of the system based on these individual values.

After an in-depth analysis spanning a couple of decades and tens of social scientists, a list of 9 universal human values was compiled. Here they are:

Conformity/Tradition: restraint of actions, inclinations, and impulses likely to upset or harm others and violate social expectations or norms.

Security:  safety, harmony, and stability of society, of relationships, and of self (social order, family security, national security, reciprocation of favors, clean, sense of belonging, healthy).

Power: attainment of social status and prestige, and control or dominance over people and resources (authority, wealth, social power, preserving my public image, social recognition).

Achievement: personal success through demonstrating competence according to social standards (ambitious, successful, capable, influential).

Hedonism: pleasure or sensuous gratification for oneself (pleasure, enjoying life).

Stimulation: excitement, novelty, and challenge in life (a varied life, an exciting life, daring).

Self-Direction: independent thought and action such as choosing, creating, exploring (creativity, freedom, choosing own goals, curious, independent).

Universalism: understanding, appreciation, tolerance, and protection for the welfare of all people and for nature. This contrasts with the narrower focus of benevolence values.

Benevolence: preservation and enhancement of the welfare of people with whom one is in frequent personal contact (helpful, loyal, forgiving, honest, responsible, true friendship, mature love).

The resulting pie chart was named the circumplex model of values. In this model, the values (represented by slices of the pie) that are closer to each other share similar structures and go hand in hand, meaning that they are pursued together (i.e. Achievement and Power). Theoretically, our pursuits are concentrated in one contiguous area of the chart, and we cannot scatter our pursuits in opposing areas. In fact, the values opposite each other are incompatible and extremely difficult (if not impossible) to pursue simultaneously (i.e. Achievement and Benevolence). Here is the chart:


Circumplex model of values, Schwartz (1992).

So now, what values does our society encourage? It may be of little surprise that free market capitalistic societies promote the values of Achievement, Power, and Security above others. What is surprising, at least to me, is that the pursuit of these values is incompatible with the pursuit of the values Self-Direction, Universalism, and Benevolence. You can't pursue Power while pursuing Universalism. You can't pursue Self-Direction while pursuing Security. You can't do both. You have to choose.

The foundational tenets of our society (i.e. self-interest, competition, financial success, and materialism) have allowed the generation of great wealth and alleviated certain problems facing humanity - undoubtedly so. However, it is important to remember that these aims conflict with and undermine pursuits long thought by psychologists to be essential to individual and collective well-being. These include helping the world be a better place, having committed, intimate relationships, and feeling worthy and autonomous (Kasser et al., 2007).

References:
Schwartz, S. H. (1992). Universals in the content and structure of values: Theory and empirical tests in 20 countries. 
In M. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology, (Vol. 25) (pp. 1–65). New York: Academic Press.

Kasser, T., Cohn, S., Kanner, A.D., Ryan, R.M. (2007). Some Costs of American Corporate Capitalism:
A Psychological Exploration of Value and Goal Conflicts. Psychological Inquiry, 18 (1), 1-22.

3 comments:

  1. I find your blog really interesting because the path and interests that you have chosen match very closely to my own. I have been looking at neuroscience graduate research programs, and although my background is in science, I'm really not sure where to start. I've been considering approaching labs at local universities to see if I can volunteer to gain experience. If you have any tips please email me. This is my email vmatch82 (at) yahoo.com. Thanks and keep up the great posts.

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  2. The pursuit of security, paradoxically leads to more insecurity. There is no solid definition of 'secure'. It's a forever moving target. One might call this, external security.

    Further down the rabbit hole is the pursuit of freedom. To pursue freedom, which for most includes self-direction, actually provides real or internal security as opposed to the external/superficial security. Internal security, or freedom of the mind, cannot be taken away as illustrated by Viktor Frankl in "Man's Search For Meaning".

    While opponents of this argument may say you need some level of external security, this is true. However, as it currently stands in the West, this is used as excuse to neglect or ignore internal security/freedom via increasing the emotional and intellectual intelligence of people at large.

    In short, military operation instead of education. More balance is necessary for stability. This balance favors not only the poor and middle class, but the wealthy as well. Without a strong foundation, one cannot stand sure at the top of the mountain.

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  3. Vin, thank you for your comment. I've emailed you and you can email here traintohonesty@gmail.com. Would love to discuss.

    Marc, I think that's great insight and I agree. One part I didn't understand was, "via increasing the emotional and intellectual intelligence of people at large." The emotional and intellectual part, can you clarify this? Thanks man.

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