Image talk:World Values, 2005
From QED
Notes on Values
Values across the world will vary in importance, but all have been formed in the same fashion. Values are formed most by four factors: environment, history, society and economy, and external contact (with other cultures). These elements necessitate ranking values by levels of practicality and importance. Practicality in measures of how values will help individuals in society, in gaining social recognition or elevating status or being accepted, and importance in regards to culture, history and family.
Each person creates their own set of values, and this comes from influences in every part of their lives: their family and friends, society, and religion. A major source of cultural values can be in found the folklore, local and national. Examples of folklore told to children are fairy tales and the fables of Aesop. In some instances, like in fairy tales, the themes and messages can be hidden and in other cases, like in the fables, the story is based around a message. Society’s role in evaluating the importance of values is to put pressure on individuals to respect certain values as one will be rewarded or punished if they adopt them.
In the Atlas for European Values, the survey given asks participants to circle five of eleven values that they would teach, or have taught, to their children, as parents are the primary source for values. The choices on the survey were: good manners; responsibility; tolerance and respect for others; hard work, thrift, saving money and things; independence; determination and perseverance; obedience; religious faith; unselfishness; and imagination. These choices are a mixture of traditional values that have held importance from early civilizations to today and values that have gained importance in the last century.
Values hold a very strong role in culture. The Prime Minister of the Kingdom of the Netherlands has said that Europeans have said that “their common ground is defined by the values of freedom, solidarity, equality and respect for human rights and the rule of law.” While at some level the continent of Europe has a common set of values, each country, nation, and culture order them differently according to their own beliefs.
