Values, Psychological Perspectives

abspara0010 Values are internalized cognitive structures that guide choices by evoking a sense of basic principles of right and wrong, a sense of priorities, and a willingness to make meaning and see patterns. Like other cognitive constructs, values can be studied at the individual level or at the group level. That is societies, cultures, and other social groups have value-based norms, priorities, and guidelines, which describe what people ought to do if they are to do the ‘right,’ ‘moral,’ ‘valued’ thing. The study of values currently focuses more explicitly on the circumstances in which values predict action. s0010 Values: Psychological Perspectives p0010 Values are internalized cognitive structures that guide choices by evoking a sense of basic principles of right and wrong (e.g., moral values), a sense of priorities (e.g., personal achievement vs group good), and create a willingness to make meaning and see patterns (e.g., trust vs distrust). Like other cognitive constructs, values can be studied at the individual level. However, while it is unusual to discuss attitudes as a grouplevel phenomenon, values are amenable to analysis at the societal or group level. That is societies, cultures, and other social groups have value-based norms, priorities, and guidelines, which describe what people ought to do if they are to do the ‘right,’ ‘moral,’ ‘valued’ thing. A society, political party, or region can be described as having conservative or liberal values, traditional or progressive values, religious or secular values, and so on. p0015 Values are supposed to influence behavior and people are suspicious of others if they suspect that they hold different values in part because of the presumed link between values and behavior. Knowing a person’s value system provides a sense that one also knows what he or she will do in a particular situation or across situations. In spite of the strong belief that values predict behavior, the effect of values on behavior is subject to situational constraints and affordances. That is, if mobilized or made salient, individual values are linked with behavior and choices but not necessarily otherwise. p0020 However, if values do not come to mind, they are unlikely to influence judgment and behavior. Cultures may be said to provide concrete and social embodiments of values. Thus, if cultural values are mobilized or made salient, they also predict behavior and choices of groups and to some extent, of individuals within these groups. Whether cultural cues (e.g., the national flag) serve to cue relevant values may depend on whether their appearance in context seems unremarkable or an obvious attempt to cue a particular value response. Some kinds of values, those that form the basis of moral judgments, appear to have a more visceral effect on judgment, influencing how people feel about a topic, situation, or choice separately from their cognitive evaluation of the topic, situation, or choice. Thus values can cue affective (feeling) as well as cognitive (thinking) responses. The effect of values on judgments and behavior can be seen whether the value is explicitly part of the decision-making or not. That is, a value can be associated with a choice without the association being made explicit.