Social Values: Introduction, Definitions, Examples, Functions and Importance

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Illustration: Social Values: Introduction, Definitions, Examples, Functions and Importance

Introduction

  • It is a social product
  • Social values help in understanding the culture of a society
  • Values help in bringing about the stability of the social order
  • Provide guidelines for conduct and they also help in social control
  • Tell Something is good and worthwhile.
  • In short, values represent the range of ideas about what men should do in their life
  • The values of a society provide goals for its members to aim for

Definitions

  • Values are a group of conceptions of the relative desirability of things – G. R. Leslie
  • According to J. H. Johnson, “values are general standards and maybe regarded as higher order norms.”
  • It defines what is worth having and worth striving for, according to Michael Haralambos.
  • Social values are a set of moral principles defined by society dynamics, institutions, traditions and cultural beliefs. These values are implicit guidelines that provide orientation to individuals and corporations to conduct themselves properly within a social system.

Examples

  • Honesty
  • Hard work
  • Fair play
  • Health
  • Status
  • Values can be patriotism and sacrifice, cooperation, democracy et cetera which guides our behaviours in different ways.
Illustration: Examples

Functions and Importance of Values

  • They provide goals for the members to aim for
  • Provide stability and uniformity in group interaction
  • They bring legitimacy to the rules that govern specific activities
  • Help to bring about some kind of adjustment between different sets of rules

Aspects of Values

  • General values like freedom, fundamental rights
  • Specific values for e. g. Physical health.
  • Abstract value - it is abstract in nature and depends on likes and dislikes like choosing one actor over the other
  • Values that are hierarchically arranged

Parsons View

  • According to Talcott Parsons, value consensus forms the fundamental principle in society.
  • When all the members are committed to same values
  • it provides a basis for unity and cooperation and this helps in building common goals
  • Parsons said that the main work of sociology is to analyses the “institutionalization of patterns of value orientation in the social system” .

Conclusion

  • When role, norms and values are in a state of balance it is known as social equilibrium.
  • This equilibrium can be attained with socialization and social control which further helps in maintaining order in the society
Illustration: Conclusion

MCQs

1. Learned and shared cultural products that justify certain type of behaviours in a given society are known as:

  1. Norm
  2. Value
  3. Culture
  4. Custom

Ans. C

2. Social values primarily concern themselves with-

  1. organized social life as a whole
  2. disorganized social life
  3. organized social groups
  4. organized institutions

Ans. D

3. According to whom internalized shared values are regarded as playing a decisive role in the social integration of the society?

  1. Parsons
  2. Merton
  3. Durkheim
  4. Malinowski

Ans. A

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Manishika