Values and Beliefs as an Indicator of Identity

Necessary wisdom

We can also think of our identity as the sum of our personal values and beliefs.

In this project, I define values as assumptions about the way things should be - about what is important and not important in the world. Our values colour the way we define words like “good or bad”, “right or wrong”, “correct or incorrect”, and they form the basis of how we determine the way people “ought” to behave. We typically label values with abstract nouns i.e. names of things that we cannot actually touch or see physically e.g. love, happiness, fun etc.

Beliefs are the conscious assumptions we make about ourselves, other people and about how we think things really are in the universe.

Our values and beliefs are formed from very early in life in response to what we are taught by significant others such as parents and siblings, clergy, teachers, and in response to our life experiences. Almost every motivation we have to act flows from one or more of these values or beliefs, so understanding them plays a key role in understanding ourselves.

What follows is a series of activities to come up with a list of our most important values, followed by an activity where we compile a set of important beliefs. Once we have a list of significant personal values we will turn those into identity elements and add them to the identity chart. We will use this information on values and beliefs again as we develop a purpose statement and explore the “how to live” questions later in this program. Some of the activities in this section and, indeed, from other parts of this book have been adapted from a book I used extensively in my early years of teaching: Values Clarification by Simon, Howe and Kirschenbaum (Hart Publishing 1972). The most recent edition came out in 1995.

Creative responses

CREATIVE RESPONSE (SU): Reflect on the following list of values and select those that are most important to you at this point in your life.

*         Beside each value, place a number from 1 to 33 indicating the importance of these values to you at this point in your life. Use number 1 for your most important value, and number 33 for your least important value.

Rating My Values

-          Attractiveness (to the opposite sex)

-          Caring (Service to others)

-          Comfort and luxury

-          Coolness (being accepted as part of the “in” group; being trendy)

-          Creativity

-          Cultural Heritage (preserving significant art and architecture)

-          Environmental Sustainability

-          Excitement and Fun

-          Faith (in God - believing God exists and is in control)

-          Fame

-          Family Preservation (maintaining family bonds and safety)

-          Freedom (being able to act freely)

-          Friendship (…and goodwill towards others)

-          Happiness

-          Health

-          Honesty (telling the truth)

-          Hope (…that things will get better)

-          Inner resilience

-          Life

-          Love (wanting what is “best” or most beneficial for others)

-          Natural Beauty (only using plastic surgery for disfigurements)

-          Obedience to God (doing God’s will)

-          Obedience to law and maintenance of social order

-          Peace (…for the world)

-          Personal survival

-          Power (…to get things done)

-          Security (being and feeling safe)

-          Social Justice (fairness for all people)

-          Success

-          Uniqueness (being seen as special, and different from others)

-          Tolerance (…of other cultures and ways of doing things)

-          Wealth

-          Wholeness (life in its fullness for people, creatures and the world)