Value (ethics)

About: Value (ethics) is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 21347 publications have been published within this topic receiving 461372 citations.

Is valuing positive emotion associated with life satisfaction

Abstract: The experience of positive emotion is closely linked to subjective well-being. For this reason, campaigns aimed at promoting the value of positive emotion have become widespread. What is rarely considered are the cultural implications of this focus on happiness. Promoting positive emotions as important for "the good life" not only has implications for how individuals value these emotional states, but for how they believe others around them value these emotions also. Drawing on data from over 9,000 college students across 47 countries we examined whether individuals' life satisfaction is associated with living in contexts in which positive emotions are socially valued. The findings show that people report more life satisfaction in countries where positive emotions are highly valued and this is linked to an increased frequency of positive emotional experiences in these contexts. They also reveal, however, that increased life satisfaction in countries that place a premium on positive emotion is less evident for people who tend to experience less valued emotional states: people who experience many negative emotions, do not flourish to the same extent in these contexts. The findings demonstrate how the cultural value placed on certain emotion states may shape the relationship between emotional experiences and subjective well-being.

The reasons of trust

Abstract: I argue to a conclusion I find at once surprising and intuitive: although many considerations show trust useful, valuable, important, or required, these are not the reasons for which one trusts a particular person to do a particular thing. The reasons for which one trusts a particular person on a particular occasion concern, not the value, importance, or necessity of trust itself, but rather the trustworthiness of the person in question in the matter at hand. In fact, I will suggest that the degree to which you trust a particular person to do a particular thing will vary inversely with the degree to which you must rely, for the motivation or justification of your trusting response, on reasons that concern the importance, or value, or necessity of having such a response.

Basic Personal Values Underlie and Give Coherence to Political Values: A Cross National Study in 15 Countries

Abstract: Do the political values of the general public form a coherent system? What might be the source of coherence? We view political values as expressions, in the political domain, of more basic personal values. Basic personal values (e.g., security, achievement, benevolence, hedonism) are organized on a circular continuum that reflects their conflicting and compatible motivations. We theorize that this circular motivational structure also gives coherence to political values. We assess this theorizing with data from 15 countries, using eight core political values (e.g., free enterprise, law and order) and ten basic personal values. We specify the underlying basic values expected to promote or oppose each political value. We offer different hypotheses for the 12 non-communist and three post-communist countries studied, where the political context suggests different meanings of a basic or political value. Correlation and regression analyses support almost all hypotheses. Moreover, basic values account for substantially more variance in political values than age, gender, education, and income. Multidimensional scaling analyses demonstrate graphically how the circular motivational continuum of basic personal values structures relations among core political values. This study strengthens the assumption that individual differences in basic personal values play a critical role in political thought.

Electoral Choices and Core Value Change: The 1992 Presidential Campaign

Abstract: Theory: The recent scholarly literature on core political values has paid relatively little attention to how values change over time. Drawing on studies in social psychology that find that values are reformulated as individuals take on new identities and roles or process new political information, I argue that choosing sides during a major national election campaign provokes shifts in core political values. Furthermore, in keeping with Philip Converse's (1964) discussion of dynamic attitude constraint, value change following electoral mobilization is expected to lead to new positions regarding particular government policies. Hypotheses: Backing Bill Clinton in 1992 led citizens to become more committed to egalitarianism and less attached to moral traditionalism; the reverse is hypothesized to have occurred for supporters of George Bush. In turn, changes in levels of egalitarianism caused shifts in support for federal social welfare spending; new positions on moral traditionalism led to changes regarding abortion policy. Methods: Maximum likelihood (LISREL) measurement and structural models are estimated using a CPS panel survey of the mass public in 1990 and 1992. Results: As hypothesized, presidential preferences in 1992 led to changes in core value stands, even when measurement error and reciprocity between value positions and candidate choice were factored in. As the respondents' values changed, moreover, their positions on several concrete policy items were also significantly modified.