Understanding Human Values


Book Description

This volume presents theoretical, methodological, and empirical advances in understanding, and also in the effects of understanding, individual and societal values.




The Psychology of Human Values


Book Description

This original and engaging book advocates an unabashedly empirical approach to understanding human values: abstract ideals that we consider important, such as freedom, equality, achievement, helpfulness, security, tradition, and peace. Our values are relevant to everything we do, helping us choose between careers, schools, romantic partners, places to live, things to buy, who to vote for, and much more. There is enormous public interest in the psychology of values and a growing recognition of the need for a deeper understanding of the ways in which values are embedded in our attitudes and behavior. How do they affect our well-being, our relationships with other people, our prosperity, and our environment? In his examination of these questions, Maio focuses on tests of theories about values, through observations of what people actually think and do. In the past five decades, psychological research has learned a lot about values, and this book describes what we have learned and why it is important. It provides the first overview of psychological research looking at how we mentally represent and use our values, and constitutes important reading for psychology students at all levels, as well as academics in psychology and related social and health sciences.




Human Values and Ethics in the Workplace


Book Description

This book presents a framework for understanding human values and their role in life, work, business and leadership. It offers an explanation for the spectrum of human behaviour, from a self-focused, survivalist mindset that has scant regard for ethics, through to compliance with laws and conventions, and then to the aspiration to live a higher ethical and spiritual life. The book offers a practical guide on how to develop a more ethical way of working and being, both personally and in organisations. Rather than being an additional burden on people or organisations, ethics and values are a liberating force, enabling higher performance, better quality relationships and an expanded sense of purpose and identity.







Information and Human Values


Book Description

This book seeks to advance our understanding of the relationship between information and human values by synthesizing the complementary but typically disconnected threads in the literature, reflecting on my 15 years of research on the relationship between information and human values, advancing our intellectual understanding of the key facets of this topic, and encouraging further research to continue exploring this important and timely research topic. The book begins with an explanation of what human values are and why they are important. Next, three distinct literatures on values, information, and technology are analyzed and synthesized, including the social psychology literature on human values, the information studies literature on the core values of librarianship, and the human-computer interaction literature on value-sensitive design. After that, three detailed case studies are presented based on reflections on a wide range of research studies. The first case study focuses on the role of human values in the design and use of educational simulations. The second case study focuses on the role of human values in the design and use of computational models. The final case study explores human values in communication via, about, or using information technology. The book concludes by laying out a values and design cycle for studying values in information and presenting an agenda for further research.




Time, Conflict, and Human Values


Book Description

"Over the course of history, Fraser argues, human values have served primarily not as conservative influences that promote permanence, continuity, and balance - as commonly believed - but as revolutionary forces that, in the long run, promote change by generating and sustaining certain unresolvable conflicts."--BOOK JACKET.




Developing Human Values


Book Description

The process by which human beings, as they grow toward maturity, develop values is not an automatic one. The process can be fostered by a number of teaching strategies. The strategies include the techniques of self-discovery, the provision of learning environments that encourage growth, and the practice of specific skills. This volume provides a theoretical basis for an understanding of value development together with practical materials for applying the theory in the lives of individuals and institutions. A model, the Four Phases of Consciousness, was designed that charted a pattern of human moral and intellectual growth in terms of what individuals value in life. The model projected a series of four phases through which all humans pass on their journey toward the fullest possible development. Section 1 focuses on value development theory and identifes the four phases of consciousness in detail; analyzes the factors that enable individuals to move through the phases; explores the relationship between skills and the internalization of values; introduces the classification of instrumental, intrapersonal, imaginal, and system skills; and applies the value theory to the educational system. Section 2 presents a series of exercises in each of the four skill areas because skill development is crucial to making changes in behavior and values. All of the exercises are intended to present the individual with new data about the self and to explore a series of choices crucial to the process of giving direction to one's life. Seven appendices are included: (1) application of value theory; (2) feeling words; (3) value/skill/time list; (4) 125 values and their definitions; (5) glossary; (6) bibliography; and (7) Hall-Tonna Inventory of Values. (DB)




Foragers, Farmers, and Fossil Fuels


Book Description

The best-selling author of Why the West Rules—for Now examines the evolution and future of human values Most people in the world today think democracy and gender equality are good, and that violence and wealth inequality are bad. But most people who lived during the 10,000 years before the nineteenth century thought just the opposite. Drawing on archaeology, anthropology, biology, and history, Ian Morris explains why. Fundamental long-term changes in values, Morris argues, are driven by the most basic force of all: energy. Humans have found three main ways to get the energy they need—from foraging, farming, and fossil fuels. Each energy source sets strict limits on what kinds of societies can succeed, and each kind of society rewards specific values. But if our fossil-fuel world favors democratic, open societies, the ongoing revolution in energy capture means that our most cherished values are very likely to turn out not to be useful any more. Foragers, Farmers, and Fossil Fuels offers a compelling new argument about the evolution of human values, one that has far-reaching implications for how we understand the past—and for what might happen next. Originating as the Tanner Lectures delivered at Princeton University, the book includes challenging responses by classicist Richard Seaford, historian of China Jonathan Spence, philosopher Christine Korsgaard, and novelist Margaret Atwood.




Human Values and Professional Ethics


Book Description

Human Values and Professional Ethics fulfils this noble intention by providing thought-provoking inputs. The reader will be compelled to delve deeper into his own consciousness and explore values that will benefit him and the society. It will also help the reader to develop a holistic perspective towards life. The book explains the essential complementarities between ‘values’ and skills to ensure sustained happiness prosperity. The most delicate issues pertaining to the subject have been discussed in simple language with adequate scientific, logical and practical explanations. Although this book is specially designed for the engineering students of GBTU, the value inputs contained herein, will be equally to all educational disciplines.




Attitudes In and Around Organizations


Book Description

How do the attitudes people bring with them to the workplace-attitudinal baggage-affect thoughts, feelings, and actions in organizations? How are the attitudes of those outside an organization (stockholders, customers, suppliers, government officials, and the public-at-large) affected by the organization? Attitudes In and Around Organizations provides a concise summary of what we know about attitudes and suggests what we might discover by adopting novel means, both conceptual and methodological, for studying attitudes in and around organizations. Arthur P. Brief provides an overview of the job satisfaction literature, including a redefinition of job satisfaction. In addition, he examines the various means by which attitudes have been measured, attitude formation and change, and the resistance of attitudes to change efforts. Groups whose attitudes are organizationally relevant (customers, for example) are examined in order to illustrate how organizations affect the attitudes of people beyond their boundaries and to determine how organizations can influence salient attitudes in their environments. The concluding chapter offers the reader a view of the future and suggests ideas for future research. Students, researchers, consultants, and organizational decision makers will find this a relevant, engaging, and thought-provoking resource.