values

i had to do an exercise for a class where we had to take these questionnaires that helps you take this long list of basic values and puts it in order of most important to least important. below is part of my paper about the results.

            "After completing the Five-Sort Value Inventory and the Values Priority Exercise I have discovered that my top 3 values are love, loyalty and justice with love at the very top and my bottom three values were physical appearance, power, and religious faith with religious faith at the very bottom. I wasn’t surprised by these results when I had finished. My values and outlook on life are a direct result of the way my parents raised me. Despite our lack of money, I had a very happy childhood. Perhaps the fact that my parents always put family first is why we didn’t have much money, but we really couldn’t care less. I always knew I had their unconditional love and that they would always have my back. We always made time to play and have fun with each other. Because I felt so loved and accepted by them growing up, I really looked up to my parents and wanted to be like them. I watched them lead by example, I learned from their successes and mistakes, and I really listened to them when they spoke. They are the most influential and important teachers in my life. My love for them is great and is the reason why love is my most important value. I will always put the ones I love first; they are the source of my joy in life. Because of this, loyalty is my second most important value. I would do anything for the ones I love. For me love and loyalty go hand-in-hand quite naturally.

            Although I don’t remember any serious conversations with my parents about justice, I’ve always found it very important. Perhaps it was implied by the other conversations we had or the way they acted. I know that acts of injustice get them upset, so somehow that got transferred to me during my childhood. I feel as though other important values like morality and honesty sort of stem from justice. If the world were completely devoid of justice there would be no point in morality and honesty. If every time I did something good I got punished and every time I did something bad I got rewarded, eventually I would stop doing good things. And if you think about it, as children we learn through both positive and negative reinforcement. If good deeds were always negatively reinforced, we wouldn’t do them. There needs to be some level of justice in this world to make other values like morality and honesty meaningful.

            As for my bottom three values, they aren’t things I hate or dislike. They are all things that to a certain extent would be nice but aren’t necessary for me in my life. The value at the very bottom of my list was religious faith. Although I don’t mind faith and beliefs in general, it’s the “organized” part of religion that I tend to have a problem with. My parents really never made me go to church because they didn’t really see a need for it. They knew they could lead my spiritual development without it; knowing that at some point I would decide for myself exactly what I believed and why. I do remember when I was really young talking to my mom about God and religion and she said, “All you need to know about God is that he is unconditional love.” That has always stuck with me and really has been all I needed to know about him."


after this part i had to talk about how these values and their level of importance could help and hinder my ability to be a physical therapist and blah blah blah. but i didn't wanna bore you with all that crap.