Values

Values are beliefs about what is important to us individually, or to society as a whole. That is, what we believe to be “good” or “bad”. When values are shared by a group of people, they form a part of that group’s culture. They play a significant part in motivating our behaviour. Each comes with a set of norms, i.e., what we believe to be good or bad behaviour. Values are also information, and so, they can be true to reality or erroneous. If the latter, they may not be good for us individually or for society.

We are not born with values. Rather, we merely have an innate drive to satisfy our personal needs as efficiently and effectively as we can. For example, a young child will cry in distress when it is hungry, thirsty, or experiences any other form of discomfort. Freud referred to this aspect of our personality as the “Id”, and it remains at the core of our being throughout our lives.

Humans have an unusually long childhood compared with other animals of similar body mass. This is thought to be related to the number of neurons in our brains, and thus, the time it takes to become mentally capable of independence. Our long childhood creates a significant overlap with older generations. Throughout it, most learn that we must often co-operate with others to satisfy our needs. Values that enable us to co-operate in this way are passed on to us by our parents and other adults with whom we interact. However, depending on the nature of our upbringing, we may either internalise such values or not. That is, make them an integral part of our psyche. If they are internalised, they tend to remain with us throughout our lives and act as our conscience, which Freud referred to as the “super-ego”.

However, there are some who do not internalise such values. This may be due to random mutations in the variable genome that make it difficult to do so. Alternatively, it may be that early mutations making internalisation possible have not been inherited. However, another very significant factor is childhood upbringing. Parents may not have passed on such values, or may even have passed on contradictory ones such as “looking after number one” or “the end justifies the means”. Unsurprisingly, therefore, such children grow up with little more than an inherited self-interest. In extreme cases, this can take the form of psychopathy, narcissism, or dark empathy, and will be discussed in future articles.

According to Freud, another aspect of our personality, the “ego”, uses reason to balance the demands of the id and super-ego, thereby optimising our behaviour in our best interests. It enables a balance to be struck between the two extremes of immediate self-interest and our longer-term interest gained through co-operation with others.

We are attracted to groups that we feel will enable us to satisfy our needs. These needs are not only our normal ones of survival and existence, relatedness to others, and personal growth and development. Unfortunately, it can also include anti-social needs such as the need for dominance, greed, sex, etc.

Values vary from group to group. To be accepted as a member of a group, we must accept its values. However, this can lead to internal conflicts. Our internalised values or lack of them may not match those of the group. Thus, to gain the benefits of group membership, we have learnt to put on a mask. That is to overtly display values that we do not necessarily hold. This may be an inherited trait that is more dominant in some than in others. So, for example, if one wishes to join a group to gain power and dominance, then one will at first disguise this motivation and express group values in order to gain followers. However, Carl Rogers believed that the internal stress of the mask can ultimately lead to mental ill health. Certainly, it is difficult to sustain in the longer term. So, if someone seeking power has held a mask in order to gain it, then they will drop it as soon as they have sufficient power to coerce their followers. I am sure that you can think of examples from present day politics.

This ability to wear a mask and present a false impression of our values and beliefs is, of course, the foundation of our ability to lie and provide misinformation. In turn, such misinformation and the variety of values are the reason why society is so complex and difficult to predict. This will be discussed further in the next article.