Rokeach Typology of Human Values
The early studies of human values were philosophical and less concern for human values was given by in other fields of profession. However, over the years human values have gained more importance in various fields. The human values now have acquired concrete meaning, through the Rokeach typology of human values.
The typology of human values categorizes people’s stable preferences including societal and private behaviors. However, the flexibility of the hierarchical nature of these values depends on the cultural limitations. In the current world, human values are considered as principle tools that guide people in specific situations.
The Rokeach typology of human values explains the nature of human values, and their relevance. For instance, the core relevance for human values is conformity, security, power, achievement, hedonism, stimulation, self-direction and universalism. The book “The Nature of Human Values” by Rokeach explains the significance of human values in various fields of psychology and sociology.
According to Rokeach, human values are fundamental in major fields because they enable one achieve political ideology, moral reasoning and personal assessment. Rokeach Value Survey (RVS) explains the importance of personal and social values. The Rokeach Value Survey distinguishes values into two types; instrumental and terminal values.
Instrumental values are the modes of conduct or reflecting behavior that characterizes socially desirable values. On the other hand, terminal values refer to the idealized modes of living or state of existence. The terminal and instrumental values only asses the social, personal, competency and moral values. However, there are various conflicting values in the Rokeach Value Survey. For instance, there is a tussle between self-enhancement and self-transcendence among individuals. This tussle is caused by differences in power and achievement values, which oppose benevolence and universalism values. Thus, this situation creates a challenging condition where individuals may conflict with the interest and welfare of other people in pursuit for their own interests (Tripathi, 2006).
Further, the Rokeach Value Survey addresses the challenges faced by openness to change and struggle for conservation of values. Openness to change is caused by personal values like self-direction. This creates a change the conservation of cultural values because everyone has their individual self-direction values. Independent actions such as readiness for change, personal actions, thoughts and feelings, call for change (Snyder & Lopez, 2002).
However, the Rokeach study of values accommodates all the differences in values through an organized value system. Rokeach integrated the motivational value structures in a way that all values work together. Thus, it is easier studying the whole systems of values. This system shows how different personal values relate with each other. For instance, a research carried out on people’s view on gay marriages portrays Rokeach value structures. People are divided between change and self-direction. For example, some may argue gay marriages are between the individuals involved, thus people should not dictate on other people’s lives. On the other hand, some argue that gay marriages are corrosion of the core cultural values and they are unacceptable. This shows the difference in human values among different people. However, if these human values are organized in a manner that mutual understanding is arrived at, the best value interest will be achieved (Snyder & Lopez, 2002).
The Rokeach study of human value explains the complexity of diversity in human values. Most countries use the Rokeach study of human values to develop political ideology and implementing laws.
References
Snyder, C., & Lopez, S. (2002). Handbook of positive psychology. Oxford [England: Oxford University Press.
Tripathi, A. (2006). Human values: For modern professionals. New Delhi: New Age International.
