Dr. Perle's article on values.http://www.dynamicchiropractic.com/mpacms/dc/article.php?id=5313

Perle, Stephen M.

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Let’s Talk About ValuesBy Stephen M. Perle, DC, MSWe are in the thick of the hunt for a new president of the United States. It seems as if every politicalcampaign talks about values. But what do they mean by the word values? I was in a meeting with facultyfrom many departments at the University of Bridgeport and someone starting talking about conservativevalues. I asked what he meant and he gave me a vague answer: "Good old-fashioned American values." Thiswas a bit humorous, as he was an immigrant from a Soviet Bloc country. However, no amount ofquestioning resulted in a better description from this professor, except for saying that one of those valueswas honesty. Surely conservatives don’t have an exclusive on honesty and liberals on dishonesty. It wasRichard Nixon and his conservative associates who lied about Watergate, right?I asked if anyone had a good understanding of what is meant by values - conservative or otherwise. Thephilosophy professor in the group said conservatism is a political theory and can be summarized as "lessgovernment is best." However, this did not fit the context of the comment any more than when one of thepolitical candidates talks about values. Then a professor in the business school talked about the RokeachValue Survey.1  Those in marketing try to understand the values of potential customers so they can bettertarget product advertisements. The ads will try to make the product seem as if it fits with the potentialcustomer’s values.Rokeach developed two lists of 18 values.2  The survey is completed by ranking, within each list, the valuesfrom 1 to 18 (most to least important). The entire Rokeach Value Survey can be found on the Web, so Iwon’t reproduce it here.One of the lists has a variety of end-states of existence (terminal values). These are things one would desireout of life - the goals we might set to accomplish throughout our lives. Many of the terminal values fit alongthe continuum of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. The terminal values can be very personal or more global.Some of the personally directed terminal values are having a comfortable life (a prosperous life), an excitinglife (a stimulating, active life), a sense of accomplishment (lasting contribution) or salvation (a saved,- 1 -eternal life). These are all self-directed and thus, lower on Maslow’s hierarchy.The more global terminal values include world peace (free of war and conflict), a world of beauty (beauty ofnature and the arts) and equality (brotherhood, equal opportunity for all). I believe Maslow would expectthat these more global terminal values would be highly rated from a self-actualized person who has mettheir personal needs. They are more altruistic and in that vein, more in line with what generally motivatespeople to enter into health care - the desire to help others with their suffering.The second list of values is made of instrumental values. These are the means by which one achieves theterminal values and, as such, they are all really personal. Some of these values are what in ethics might becalled virtues. Virtues are personality traits that guide one to moral behaviors. They are the characteristics ofa person who is virtuous or has high moral character. A few of these virtues are being honest (sincere,truthful), courageous (standing up for your beliefs), helpful (working for the welfare of others) andintellectual (intelligent, reflective).I have only presented a few of the human values Rokeach researched, but I think it can be seen that thesehave little in common with what politicians talk about when they mention the word values. Enumeratingthem as Rokeach has done probably would mean that a politician could not use them while campaigning.The politician’s intentional ambiguity about the word allows the voter to infer that the politician means thesame thing they do, even if they really do not.Socrates wrote, "The unexamined life is not worth living." One way to examine your life is to get both listsof values (terminal and instrumental) and rank them from 1 to 18. See what you believe is most importantand least important. You might surprise yourself when you have to actually think in these terms of what arethe most important values to you. It also might make choosing which politician to vote for easier when youknow what your values are.References1.  Rokeach Value Survey. Available at www.oregonvos.net/~jflory/205/val_sur.htm. 2.  Rokeach M. The Nature of Human Value. New York: Free Press, 1973. Click here for previous articles by Stephen M. Perle, DC, MS.- 2 -Page printed from: http://www.dynamicchiropractic.com/mpacms/dc/article.php?id=53137&no_paginate=true&p_friendly=true&no_b=true- 3 -

Let's Talk About Values

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Let's Talk About Values

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