Higher VALUES for higher SUCCESS and fewer problems in life . . . . . .Ch.2
OPTIMUM VALUES FOR BETTER HEALTH AND WELL-BEING
Chapter 2
MOVING UP:
Positive Psychology
Optimum Psycho - Social Lifeskills
by Darrell Franken, Ph.D.
Chapter Outline
Session 2-1 GOING FOR THE VALUES THAT DELIVER
Abraham Maslow’s model of B-eing and D-eficiency values
Maslow’s B-eing values
Maslow’s D-eficiency values
Regression or growth, going down or Moving Up
(Focused on self-actualization, motivation, reason)
Session 2-2 VALUES DETERMINING DESTINY
The search and debate about optimum values
Many high-values lists – What’s yours?
A collective list of optimum personality values
The character education values explosion in the 1990's
(Focused on Allport, Hunt, Morris, Rokeach, MMPI
Session 2-3 OPTIMUM VALUES AND BENEFITS
Values, traits and behaviors linked to health
Values, traits and behaviors linked to careers
Values, traits and behaviors linked to influence
(Focused on Hans Selye, Steelcase health policy,
California Psychological Inventory)
Session 2-4 OPTIMUM VALUES AND REDUCTION OF STRESS
Holmes and Rahe on what stress can do
The role of values in coping with stress
Value-oriented persons coping with external stressors
Going after a belief in higher values (identification)
(Focused Kenneth Cooper and value of exercise)
Session 2-5 INTERNALIZING OPTIMUM VALUES
Everyone needs a hero (identification, internalization)
Only internalize the values of sensible people (ego-ideals)
Getting smart about whose values can take you down
Think “wisdom” when looking for a hero to draw you out of the pits.
(Focused on Reality Principle, problems of dependency)
Upgrading Our Values
to Improve Our Lifestyles
This course teaches that higher-level lifestyle values are associated with higher levels of happiness, health, success, and well-being. Higher-level values combine to give higher-level coping strength. What we believe in or what we value most will guide our decision making. If we believe in higher-levels of certain lifestyle factors we can, in general, lower our risk of illness, unhappiness, failure and misery. Plato taught what he believed were absolute and universal values. Allport, Gordon and Lindzey were early investigators of values in the 1930's. Abraham Maslow taught us D-eficiency Values and B-eing Values. Holmes and Rahe studied stress factors, and they are combined with Franken’s research on the connection between optimum values and stress factors.
Would you like to be a person who has fewer illnesses, less stress and more fun in your entire lifetime? How much more “influence” would you like to have? Want a higher paying job? The chapters of this textbook show you what you need. This chapter helps convince you of the need for higher values as part of the package that, on the average, delivers many benefits.
Session 2-1 GOING AFTER VALUES THAT DELIVER
Character is something we know when we see. Defining character is more complex, because good persons are often quite different from one another. One’s personality is generally described by descriptive words which we call “character-istics.” These character-istics can range from “liar” to “truthful” and from “depressed” to “joyous,” etc. All of them are character-istics, but they don’t clearly show what “character” is, as we think of it. Because of the wide ranges of usage of the word characteristics, we have shifted to think in terms of “values” for those characteristics we respect and promote. In the literature of the social sciences one finds “characteristics” lists divided into three basic categories. Not every social scientist wants certain characteristics to be in the same column. Therefore, the following should only be understood to be an illustration. Remember that what you are looking at are characteristic which are considered to generate more benefits.
TRAITS
Good looking
Easy going
Resourceful
Independent
Masculine
Feminine
These are factors which are quite strongly derived from genetic forces.
VALUES
Honest
Loving
Cheerful
Forgiving
Courageous
Self-controlled
Some think of these as beliefs. One can find this among cognitive therapists and religious persons alike.
BEHAVIORS
Industrious
Communicative
Dedicated
Conservative
Productive
Imaginative
These are more heavily influenced by learning processes.
Examine these lists. You may not be satisfied with the placement of individual words. You are in good company. Traits are more of what a person might have inherited. Values are more of what a person learned, modified and adopted. Behaviors are more of the outcome of the combination of either/or and/or traits and values. Over the last half of the 20th century the researchers have not always been consistent or in agreement. Try to understand that personality inventories are generally devised to discover what trait, or value or behavior is the most respected and will generate the greatest amount of well-being to a person. The general consensus at the present time is that “values” are the deeper motivating forces within our decision-making processes.
Abraham Maslow on values (virtues)
Abraham Maslow was one of the earlier teachers of the place of values in our inner decision-making processes. He used the pyramid as an illustration. (1) The bottom layer of the pyramid consisted of basic biological needs – food, water, shelter, sex, etc. People inherit these biological factors. (2) The next layer of the pyramid consisted of a person’s safety needs – security -- protection from harm, etc. licts and inconsistencies. (3) The next layer was the need for acceptance, to be loved and to belong. (4) The next layer of needwas for self-esteem, to feel adequate and useful. (5) The top factor was self-actualization. This became Maslow’s understanding of how the self dealt with needs along the pathway of life.
Maslow understands inner drives
Good values are important. They help a person get where that person wants to go. Abraham Maslow frequently listed values he observed were more valuable and generated more positive benefits. He saw persons having choices of values. He observed that some people suffered some very painful consequences for their choices. He observed that the more respected persons generally chose the more noble values.
In the diagram below you see Abraham Maslow’s understanding of the basic driving forces, or dynamics which are at work in people. He correctly identified “self actualization” as the ultimate peak of human living. This drive is in each of us. We all want to be our own person, unique, creative and self-controlled. However, most persons do not start out with “self-actualization” fully developed. It grows over time. To make it develop and reach its maximum potential, we start out with basic “Physical Needs.” As those needs are met more and more, a person feels a sense of security and gains a bit more freedom. Maslow called this stage, the stage of “Safety Needs.” Maslow understood that “Acceptance Needs” were next in importance for survival and personal efficacy and well-being. As these three levels of “needs” are met, the person has a greater probability of having “Esteem Needs” being met. And finally, this maturing and growing person combines all four “needs” levels in a process which leads to “Self-actualization,” which is ultimately pulling together and driving the filling of all the needs at all the levels.
Abraham Maslow was one of the early practical psychologists. He is known for having used the phrase “Positive Psychology” decades before Martin.E. P. Seligman popularized it in the late 1990's and early 2000's. Maslow did not think and write psychology to be used by counselors. He described psychological functioning which helps people make choices based on what people value, believe and pursue. Maslow became most famous for his description of “self-actualization” as a basic function and drive in the inner psyche of people. However, Maslow spent much more time and effort on helping us understand the relationship between what we value and the results of that value system.
Maslow’s value system
The following diagram puts together Maslow’s lists of values, and how they affect our lives. There are some real problems in life when a person values, believes in, and pursues some very problem-generating values.
Go the diagram on the next page. Start in the center column. Look left of center, then right of center. See four basic human potentials. Go right of the center and see a list of “People’s needs.” Next, go left of center and see “People’s frustrations.” With that at the core, people now make choices. Some (left) start doing “evil,” “false (lies),” and most of the 13 items in that list. When that increases, those persons move to the left of the chart. The next step (left) is movement into “Self betrayal” patterns of behavior, and that leads to (left) “Character Disorders.” — Back to center — Some persons have their sights set on a whole set and sequence of “Self-actualization” values. They move from center, “Human Potential” to the “B-eing and B-ecoming” values, and live by “justice,” “goodness,” “truth,” and most of the 14 items in that list. Maslow observed that most of these “self-actualizing” persons had more “zest,” “confidence,” “joy,” “calmness,” and those items in the “Reinforcing Self-Actualization” column. Self-actualizers move to the right on the chart, and most of them end up being the “Healthy Humans.”
“Choices” are not always freely chosen. People are often under pressure and do things they would not normally choose to do. In the school parking lot someone has a favorite spot. One day another student, not realizing this, parks in this spot. Out of anger, selfishness, arrogance, or whatever, the student who claims this to be his spot puts a knife hole in the intruder’s car’s tire. He saw his father do that about a year before. People learn problem behaviors and pass them on. In this way some “choices” people make are based on what they have learned, both for good choices and not-so-good choices.
Maslow’s chart becomes a mirror for us to look at ourselves and think through the consequences of certain attitudes, values and behaviors. Each student may be able to think of someone who fits on one side or the other of the chart.
ABRAHAM MASLOW'S OPTIMUM VALUES VERSUS HIS "deficiency" set of tendencies
Leading to character disorders Leading to "healthy humans"
"evil" "wholeness"
"false" "perfection"
"ugly" "completion"
"disassociation" "justice"
"sorrow" "aliveness"
"deadness" "richness"
"valuelessness" "simplicity"
"denial" "beauty"
"guilt" "goodness"
"repression" "uniqueness"
"playfulness"
"truth" etc......
Regression or growth
How does a person get from the left side of the chart to the right side of the chart, in one’s life? Look at the chart again. On the left are stages of deterioration, going from ‘People’s frustrations,” to “Deficiency Values” to “Self betrayal” to “Character disorders.” According to Maslow, when a person suffers a lot of “People’s frustrations” they could wind up on that left side of the chart. Such an individual is seen as regressing, rather than progressing. It may not have been that person’s conscious or deliberate “choice.”
A person needs four basic factors to work one’s way back to the right side of the chart, to getting one’s “Needs met,” to “Being or becoming values,” to “Reinforcers of self-actualization,” and finally to “Healthy humans.” Those four skills one needs are; “Need gratification,” “Reason,” “Identification,” and “motivation.”
1. Re-building one’s life with “Need gratification.”
People have more needs than food, shelter and clothing. People need at least a minimal amount of security, love, belonging, self-esteem, and the other items in the “People’s Needs” list. Homes and schools are dedicated to providing these essentials. They don’t always supply enough of these “needs.” Agencies fill in the gaps, and add to the supply. Religious groups do their share. And there are some major success stories where “needs gratification” has moved persons from the left side of Maslow’s system (model) to the right side.
Darcy, age 14, lost her mother in a house fire. She was alone, without a home, without a dad, without shelter, without comfort, without mother love, without belongings, and she felt unable to cope. By all of Maslow’s standards, she would have slid left to “People’s frustrations,” to “Deficiency values,” and to “Character disorders.” But school friends rallied around. They hugged her. They supported her. They came by hundreds to her mother’s funeral. They got their parents to donate. They bolstered her. They picked her up and brought her to her aunt’s home every day. They proved the rightness of Maslow’s understanding. You save people from winding up in Maslow’s left lane (list) by “needs gratification.”
2. Re-building one’s life with reason
Reason is learning, remembering, and using it. Without reason life is a series of self-indulging satisfactions of appetites. Reason is what one does with one’s mind. It is the capacity to live by learned information, combined with passions and impulses, and generate behavior that is beneficial for oneself and for society. If Maslow is right then persons who don’t want to learn, and don’t want to remember, and don’t want to train their minds to be “reason-able” have a larger risk of ending up on the left side of the Maslow chart.
3. Re-building one’s life with identification
Identification is what happens when a person says, “Wow! I’m impressed by that person. I want to be like him/her!” The psyche cathects with that person. Like a magnet, one is drawn to that person. That person is, in effect, a person’s hero. Identification is the psyche locking on to that image, and using it as a guide for one’s own life. For Maslow “identification” was necessary for self-actualization. It is quite urgent that a person who wants to move up in life will have a hero, or two, or more. Identification energizes the person who wants a better way of life.
4. Re-building one’s life with motivation
Maslow’s fourth skill for building or rebuilding one’s life is motivation. Motivation keeps a person on the right track (of Maslow’s schema). Motivation is a big subject. There entire colleges courses on “motivation.” For our purpose motivation comes into play when we hold certain values with more of a passion than other values. If a person’s attitude is just to do what the crowd does, then motivation is coming from outside oneself. That is called “External locus of control.” Most of the research on “locus of control” (where your place of control is) suggests that people are far better off when they have a clearly identified set of attitudes, values and behaviors in the core of their being. That is called “Internal Locus of Control.”
Without the mobilization of these 4 factors the person’s inner decision-making gradually went into regression, meaning the person slowly became a victim of the D-eficient value consequences. This would account for people acting weird, doing irrational things, becoming ill more often and a number of problems.
With the mobilization of these innate forces the person could return from D-eficient values to B-eing values. B-eing values generated positive behaviors. The result would be a happier and healthier lifestyle. Psychologists have been amazed to see this model remain so accurate and so strong over the past several decades.
There is very little information and training about the stresses, attitudes and values that affect the direction of people’s lives. Therefore, you will appreciate this information and hopefully determine to run you lives with more insight.
Criticism of Maslow’s self-actualizing model
Abraham Maslow’s self-actualizing model is not cast in stone. It isn’t the only model for us to think about. However, his model has had a large following. It is constantly being refined. Parts of the model are undergoing more research. The model lends support to the proposition that beliefs determine destiny.
In the last two decades we understand much more
about how personal psychological beliefs affect our
health, happiness, success and well-being.
Maslow’s model describes a person as having a choice between B-eing Values and D-eficiency Values. The choice might be determined by the “frustrations” and by the “needs” which were met. Too much “frustration” and not enough “need met” mean’t the decision might go toward D-eficiency Values. With sufficient “needs met” the decision might go toward making a B-eing Value choice. The problem is this kind of model there is not much free choice, or responsibility for choosing. You consider youself either lucky or unlucky. Thus, Maslow is criticized for a model which does not adequately make people responsible for their own choice. Such a model creates, “Poor Me!” thinking, and fatalism.
Maslow could argue against that. Maslow also allowed for “peak experiences” to help in the decision making or in the motivation of the body, mind, spirit and psyche. By this Maslow could argue that the person was ultimately responsible for which type of choice was made. Sometimes people fail to understand that Maslow did believe in “ peak experiences.” Peak Experiences were elements of the meditative, the miraculuous, the supernatural, the world of angels, ideas like Newton’s apple and gravity, visions that have a touch of a reality message in them. These were “peak” because they were in the realm of the “peak” of the pyramid, where all the “values” were that controlled ideas, behaviors and consequences. Maslow’s Peak Experiences allowed for technological break-through with ideas that seem to have come from instincts outside contemporary thinking. The Peak Experiences were also those guiding insights that enable peoples and cultures to break their chains and rise.
Session 2-2 VALUES DETERMINING DESTINY
“Values” determine one’s lifestyle. If you value a friendship you will preserve it. If you value a coin you might save it. If you value an experience you will remember it. What is important to us is that which we value. There are moral values, political values, ethical values, religious values, etc.
If you place a high value on fun, then a lot of money and time will go into that. If you place a high value on right behavior, you will become very skillful at it. If you place a high value on personal pleasure then it might be very difficult for you to share some of your resources. People could talk about you as being selfish, and that might be your lifestyle. You could find pleasure in excessive consumption of alcohol. That, too, could be part of your lifestyle. Yet, adopting this lifestyle could bring a great deal of stress and increased illness. The value you place on something can have serious consequences.
You know that if you practice being “loving,” “helpful,” “self-controlled,” “peace-keeping,” “humility,” you will make a happier marriage, have happier children and a happier foreman. Practicing these values takes the stress out of relationships. That will, on the average, help prevent the onset of physical and emotional troubles.
The search and debate about optimum values
The search for the best values to live by started long ago. Probably with the first husband and wife conflict. We do not have written records of the search for optimum values and behaviors from the beginning. We do have Hebrew writings going back two thousand and five hundred years. About 500 BC Greek teachers started debating, teaching and writing about values and other lifestyle guidelines. Aristotle, Plato and Socrates taught and wrote about values. They called them “virtues.” Plato identified several of them in his book, The Republic.
Good: the highest object of knowledge
Happiness: in the avoidance of extremes
Injustice: as natural right of the strong
* Justice: a virtue of the state and the individual
Knowledge: as an innate desire, even passion
Reason: as true self, indestructible essence
* Temperance: as virtue of the state and individual
Truthfulness: high value of
Virtue: makes man godlike
* Wisdom: as virtue of the state and individual
These were the ideals which Plato advanced for the citizenry of Greece. He named courage, justice, temperance and wisdom as the key virtues (*) for an optimum “art of living.” Truthfulness ranked high also. So did gentleness. He believed that the soul (psyche) is purified by devotion to the pursuit of wisdom. Plato was also willing to blame the public’s dis-interest in these high values for corrupting optimum functioning. You might begin to think Plato was a holy cleric, but he wasn’t. He was a teacher, who sensed that some people lived at higher levels of character and benefitted greatly from those lifestyles.
Many high-values lists. What’s yours?
Historians of the social sciences go back to 1935 when The Journal of Abnormal Psychology published A Study of Relative Values of Certain Ideals,
by A. Hunt. Hunt listed 76 values and put them in 17 different categories. This is that list.
Cheerfulness
Cleanliness
Cooperation
Courage
Courteous
Dependability
Effectiveness
Friendliness
Good sportsmanship
Honesty
Initiative
Obedience
Open-mindedness
Respect
Reverence
Self-control
Thrift
Values and lists of values have been constructed by early theorists (Allport and Vernon, 1931; Allport, Vernon, and Lindzey, revision, 1951). In chronological order, Morris (1956), Gorlow and Noll (1967), Woodruff (1948) and Catton (1954) developed values classification systems. Scott (1959) developed 18 "moral values.” Rokeach (1969, 1970) developed a concept of values in which there were 18 "instrumental values,” and 18 "terminal (end product) values.” Rokeach (1969), built his list on the work of Hunt (1935) and Scott (1959) and others. Bales (1970) and Kilmann (1972,1975) have also done work in the area of values research. (Quoted from Franken, 1985)
A collective list of optimum personality values
More research was done and another list was developed. The researcher (Franken, 1985) used all the above lists of values from14 previously published research articles on “values” and combined those words with key values (virtues) 7 major religious and secular organizations. The list includes virtues and values promoted by such persons and organizations as Rotary, Boy Scouts, Tae Kwon Do, Alcoholics Anonymous, Abraham Maslow, Christianity and Islam. It was a pursuit to identify which values are the most universally accepted as high-value virtues. Out of these lists came a synthesis of 31 values, and some synonyms or close approximations.
1. Loving - caring - compassionate - tender
2. Helpful - charitable - generous - (serving)
3. Self controlled - self disciplined - patient
4. Peaceful - compromising - cooperative
5. Humble - gentle - modest - unostentatious
6. Reverent - respectful - obliging - thankful
7. Friendly - hospitable - neighborly - brotherly
8. Equalitarian - just - impartial - democratic
9. Clean - above reproach - blameless
10. Honest - truthful - candid - frank - open
11. Obedient - compliant - respectful of authority
12. Ambitious - hard working - assertive - eager
13. Perseverant - persistent - determined - dedicated
14. Harmonious (inner) - genuine - tranquil
15. Forgiving - merciful - tolerant - conciliatory
16. Courageous - brave - fearless - bold - daring
17. Believing - hoping - expectant - optimistic - (faith)
18. Polite - kind - courteous - civil - mannerly
19. Wise - sensible - discrete - discriminative
20. Cheerful - joyous - happy - smiling - buoyant
21. Responsible - dependable - reliable
22. Loyal - faithful - committed - covenanted
23. Regretful - remorseful - repentant - contrite
24. Empathetic - sympathetic - listening - inclusive
25. Imaginative - creative - inventive - ingenious
26. Accepting - broad minded - tolerant
27. Free - autonomous - independent - unshackled
28. Self assured - confident - trustful - non-jealous
29. Sexually faithful - loyal - honorable
30. Sober - moderate (in relation to stimulants)
31. Thrifty (in spending)
The above list is numbered in order of the frequency of their appearance in all of these 21 sources. No. I (above) was cited the most frequently and No. 31 the least cited by the 21 sources. There were additional “values” listed by individual research scholars, but lack of support and consensus prevented such words from making the list. The chart to the right (Franken, 1995) gives a picture of the association between increasingly higher value systems and decreasingly lower rebellious behaviors. This helps substantiate the general understanding of people, that the number and level of participation in universal values, determines one’s destiny.
Personality Inventories: resource for finding the best values
VALUES IN ACTION (VIA)
Chris Peterson, Ph.D. Univ. of Pennsylvania, Univ. of Michigan
curiosity/interest
love of learning
active open-mindedness
creativity/ingenuity
perspective (“wisdom”)
valor (“bravery/courage”)
industry/perseverance
integrity/honesty/authenticity
vitality/zest/enthusiasm
intimacy/attachment
kindness/generosity
social intelligence
citizenship/teamwork
equity/fairness
leadership
forgiveness/mercy
modesty/humility
prudence/caution
self-control/self-regulation
awe/appreciation of beauty
gratitude
hope/optimism
playfulness/humor
spirituality
During the last 5 decades of the 20th century hundreds of personality inventories were created. Serious personality testing started in 1949 at the University of Minnesota. Researchers began use questions that patients answered, to identify mental disorders. They did not have good success at first. In 1951 they added the factor of being social or not being social. Now the series of questions began to produce profitable and reliable results. The test was called the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI). It is still used today.
After this test was created and used many more were published. The publishers found that psychologists could use certain tests to identify problematic values and behaviors more quickly. That way they could help clients resolve problems faster. By 1973 there were 39 major published personality inventories (Pfeiffer, Heslin, Jones, 1973). These 39 tests were looking for almost 300 values and/or behaviors. Many of the values/word/behaviors in certain tests were synonymous with words (personality concepts) in other tests. When these 300 values (words describing personality traits) were synthesized by an independent panel, they were reduced to 13 basic personality concepts (Franken, 1995).
The 13 basic or core values could be handled, could be understood, and could become known as the 13 most beneficial values that the social sciences have to offer the world. With 13 basic or core concepts people are not overwhelmed. Teachers can teach 13 core issues. Three hundred! No! Thirteen! OK! We need to understand that there are many choices between other dozens of optimum values and other dozens of self-destructive values and behaviors.
Here is the list of 13 optimum personality factors synthesized from the 324 words of 39 published personality tests.
Social
Cheerful
Peaceful
Tolerant
Kind
Generous
Trusting
Assertive
Self-controlled
Self-confidence
Communication
Leading
Autonomous
These optimum values generate benefits. Because we can demonstrate benefits from them, we call them “optimum.” Counselors and psychologists have used various personality tests that include these factors. For decades these professionals have helped people aim toward a less problematic set of values and behaviors by adopting attitudes and skills that lead in these directions.
The character education values explosion in the 1990's
Character Education programs for elementary children mushroomed in the 1990's, coinciding somewhat with the publication of “Virtues” by William Bennet. Dozens of organizations sprang up, each with their own list of optimum lifestyles, lifeskills and virtues. Those three dozen or more organizations broadened the numbers of optimum values and lifeskills. The list has scores of “values” which different organizations believe are important for optimum living. You can find more information on the internet by doing a “Search” on “Character Education.” You may also find some information about the deployment of values in elementary and high school education at this web site.
Values as determined by Positive Psychology
At the turn of the second millenium AD, Martin E. P. Seligman (University of Pennsylvania) and Chris Peterson (University of Michigan) undertook some original research on values. They sensed a growing need for identifying what makes people mature, function well, become successful, and find personal fulfillment. They were aware that the older model of psychology was fashioned on a medical model; “If you have a personal problem, we can help you fix it.” They began to focus on a new model; “Let’s teach you what you may need to reach your optimum potential.” This resulted in an educational model for psychology, to augment the medical model. In this recently identified educational model students are directed more to Positive Psychology than to abnormal or biological psychology.
After years of research on the connection between what one believes and how one behaves, they proceeded to develop their own list of values. They are developing a Values In Action (VIA)questionnaire, to identify what internally held beliefs (and their levels of behaviors) shape a person’s destiny. They went to many previously developed lists and scouted for new sources of possible universal values. Their work is in progress. Earliest results are still not publishable, even though one can see their tentative studies on the internet. (www.positivepsychology.org) However, at this time (2002 AD) 16 of Seligman’s and Peterson’s 24 values are in the above list of 31 values. Of the remaining 8 in the VIA, some are quite unique like “appreciation of beauty” and “forgiving.” Eventually, researchers will help us identify certain constellations of these “talents,” “abilities,” “values” and “virtues” which contribute to one’s most optimum personal fulfillment.
What makes a good president?
Extravert
Assertive
Values
Actions
Achievement striving
Excitement seeking
More open to fantasy
Open to experience
Aesthetics
Feelings
Ideas
American Psychological Association,
108th Annual Convention,
Washington DC August 4-8, 2000
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California Psychological Inventory of values and traits (revised)
Dominance
Capacity for Status
Sociability
Social Presence
Self Acceptance
Independence
Empathy
Responsibility
Socialization
Self Control
Good Impression
Communality
Sense of Well Being
Tolerance
Achievement vs Conformance
Achievement vs Independence
Intellectual Efficiency
Psychological-Mindedness
Flexibility
Femininity-Masculinity
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Universality of optimum values
The fact that you can see some of Plato’s values in current value lists should be a strong persuader that there are universal values. At present there is no known list to which all people can subscribe. There may never be such a single and unifying list. The lists in this textbook begin to show that there is some overlapping and some agreement on certain values. College students have access to the giant data base published by the American Psychological Association. In this data base we are seeing published research reports of college professors in Asia, Africa and South America. Both the professors and their students are using some of the European and American personality inventories. They are using cross-cultural experiments to identify similarities and differences in various values, attitudes and behaviors. That shows there is some willingness to at least investigate whether certain values are universal. So far the results support the universality of some values. Scholars in world wide countries may not all agree with each other. That’s OK. For the present we probably need to learn to live by what we know.
Session 2-3 OPTIMUM VALUES AND BENEFITS
Values, traits and behaviors linked to health
If you go back into history, you find that people believed the gods were responsible for their illnesses. People even slaughtered their sons and daughters to please the gods. They thought that would ensure better heath, greater success, and increased well-being. Those persons had no idea of other causes for illness and poor health conditions. They did not understand that some illnesses are the result of poor lifeskill choices, not from the gods.
Then came the medical world’s understanding “germs” and “bacteria” causing disease. Our medical scientists then opened up the understanding that “virus” does cause certain medical problems. In the 1930's we began to understand that “vitamin deficiency,” caused by the removal of wheat bran, oat bran, and rice bran, was causing a shortage of Vitamins B1, B2, and B3. Then the government made the milling companies add those vitamins.
Starting around 35-50 years ago new research has shown that disease can come from a variety of stress factors. Hans Selye, MD ( The Stress of Life) spent 35> years researching and demonstrating that he could produce “disease” in animals through subjecting them to stress. Then other researchers validated his findings.
In the 1980's and 1990's social scientists began to show us that lack of exercise, excessive smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, inadequate sleep, excessive mono and poly- unsaturated fats, and other factors were undermining peoples’ health. But we keep taking steps to understand more. Medical science is now investigating the immune defenses we have inside us and how they are affected by attitudes and stress factors.
We now understand that health must be viewed as something more than staying free of “germs.” Health is strongly determined by what one eats and drinks. Health is also strongly benefitted by how much one exercises, by one’s ability to conquer problems like anxiety, etc. There are still “germs,” “virus” and “carcinogens” which affect our health. Lifestyle behaviors also affect health. Moving Up is understanding the power of higher self-expectations. Moving up is giving instruction to the superego (what we ought to do) to empower inner computer (psyche) to work at living by the best values that deliver the greatest benefits.
Consequences of problem values, traits and behaviors
It is important to understand that there are positive values and negative values. Both have consequences. The positive ones help us. The negative ones hinder us. This is how the social scientists decide which value generates positive growth and health, and which value does not. The social scientists evaluate values by whether they create problems or not. For example, exercise has been shown to reduce many kinds of medical problems. Therefore, it is a positive value, and we should believe it, and live by it. When we don’t we are in that higher statistical risk category, and may be one whose health deteriorates. The following is a description of a research project which identifies 14 behaviors that raise the risk of illness. The higher risk consequence is in persons who are not pursuing some optimum values
The University of Michigan Fitness Research Center has been conducting a survey on health at the Steelcase Furniture plant in Grand Rapids, Michigan. After 9 years of evaluating thousands of workers, they have identified a list of 14 of the greatest health risks. Below is a list of factors that generate more illnesses.
1. Smoker
2. Rarely/never exercise
3. Sometimes and/or frequently use
of medication or drugs
4. More than 14 alcoholic drinks a week
5. Rarely use safety belt
6. Only somewhat or not very satisfied with lifee
7. Dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with job
8. Rate physical health as “fair”
9. Absent more than five days a year for illness
10. Systolic blood pressure above 140mm Hg.
11. Diastolic blood pressure above 90 mm Hg.
12. Cholesterol of 240 mg/dl or more
13. More than 20% overweight
14. Under high stress (AP-Ann Arbor,MI, 1994)
What this list is saying is that certain persons value some attitude and/or behavior that costs their employer and families a lot of money. The researchers determined that persons of high risk, those violating more of the above, had a 75% higher yearly medical cost. Employees were encouraged to make some behavior changes. Average annual claims for insurance reimbursement dropped from $1155.00 in 1985-87 to $537.00 in 1988-1990. During this time some persons did the opposite and went into the high risk set of lifestyles. Their medical costs went up. About 10% of the employees incur about 80% of the company’s medical costs. This is how we understand that some values and behavior patterns are negative or detrimental to persons.
Values linked to health
When we value something we hang on to it. We live by it. It’s implanted in our MIND. It’s impassions our SPIRIT. It’s fills our PSYCHE (soul). We love it. It’s our friend. It’s precious. We don’t want to lose it. We live by it. It makes us feel good. It becomes some of our source of pleasure.
Higher-level attitudes and values contribute to better health. Being social, enjoying being social, spending money on being social, eating out with people, playing games with people — on the average, all kinds of social activities contribute to fewer days in the hospital and better self-health-report. We have known through research that being social is a high-end value. We have known about the benefits of being social since 1951. That was the year the second edition of the Minnesota Multi-phasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) was published. The first edition was not helpful. Only when they added the “social” category to the test, did they know that “socializing” had a positive influence on how the scores were associated with other factors.
Combine “being social” with other positive values to see how the combined efforts of multiple positive values can reduce medical problems. If you take this list of positive values and combine them, research shows that as people (on the average) have higher and higher levels of positive values, “medical symptoms” become fewer and fewer. The figure on the right ( Franken, 1995) shows a connection between higher levels of 13 optimum values – Social, Cheerful, Peaceful, Tolerant, Kind, Generous, Trusting, Assertive, Self-controlled, Self-confidence, Communication, Leading, Autonomous — and such medical symptoms as fever, headaches, aches, stomach pains, etc.
The 13 higher values were sorted and averaged, so there is one dark line representing 300 persons’ values. Notice the darker solid line going up from left to right. The dark line on the left represents persons with the lowest scores for all the values. The upper right end of the dark line represents all the persons who see themselves as functioning at higher levels in the 13 factors.
The broken line that goes from upper left to lower right represents a 53.7% lower number of medical symptoms by the persons with the higher levels of the 13 higher values. The research shows that higher levels of these 13 values (above) deliver a 53.7% reduction in medical symptoms. This chart helps to support the idea that, in general, a person’s higher positive values deliver health benefits.
Values, traits and behaviors linked to careers
Companies want high value people. The companies that want higher value persons will sometimes require that an applicant fill out a personality inventory. The inventory is used to help them select the right person for the right job. Companies are interested in the person’s credentials, their knowledge, their technological expertise. That isn’t all that companies want to know. They want to know if the person can fit into the company, which means, does this person have a similar value system as that of the company. This is a growing world-wide practice.
“The key to job success may be matching an employee’s personality to the
organization, not just to the job, according to two researchers from the
University of Kansas. . . Our old models used to be to analyze a bundle of
tasks and determine which human attributes, knowledge or skills are
needed to do that bundle of tasks. . . Now the question is, How does that
person fit in with the given business and its values, or, as the buzz word
is today, the organizational culture. . . We used . . . the five -actor analysis . . .
extraversion, emotional stability (or neuroticism), agreeableness,
conscientiousness, and openness to experience.”
(By Kay Albright, AP Lawrence, Kansas, April 28, 1997)
Persons who are “Moving Up” will want to set their sights on higher values which contribute to greater possibilities. The fact that certain companies and businesses have personalities, like people, may surprise the newcomer to the working world. A person may one day wake up to the full realization that they don’t want to work at “that place” any more. The type of work may be quite suitable, even enjoyable, but the workers do not have values similar to yours. Or the opposite. You like the people but dislike the job. At times like this a person can go through emotional struggles, even have anxiety, or become depressed. These are signals that a person needs to recognize. The signals tell us to make a change.
Psychologists are in the business of helping persons with identifying their values and what levels they are at. A person does not need to have a problem to have help from a psychologist. The help lets you know if the dissonance between you and the job is due to your value system or theirs.
Colleges offer services to help students learn about their traits, values and behaviors. It is important to schools that students learn to find a match between their personality and their future careers. Hope College in Holland, Michigan makes this service available for a small fee. The Office of Career Services offers assistance with self-assessment and in evaluating career options. They use the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, the Strong Interest Inventory, The Skills Cardsort, and the Values Cardsort.
Exploring is what students do. There are some fine sites on the internet which can be of help in the discovery of one’s values, talents, traits and optimum behaviors.
Sites for discovering personality traits in relation to careers
The following site is a place where the student can take several free personality tests on subjects such as career, temperament, attitude, power, stress, etc. Each one takes from 10 minutes to 25 minutes.
The following site provides free interactive personal testing for Personality, Health, Realtionship, IQ, and other factors.
The following site is where one can find out more about one's personal level of assertiveness. (Registration required) Queendom.com offers many tests.
Values, traits and behaviors linked to influence
Persons who are “moving up” want to know what it takes to have the kind of influence they see in their uncles, aunts, neighbors and local leaders. Most persons believe that an education in current technology and current business is necessary. That is an important set of factors. However, the values one believes in affect one’s level of influence. What you hold in your heart by way of a guideline for your life, is scientifically associated with influence. Consider the chart on the right as it gives us a picture of which values contribute to the influence that most people have. On the left are all the lower-scoring persons in influence, peaceful, tolerant, cheerful, generous, and total of 13 such values. On the right in the chart are all the persons with higher scores. There is a collective effect, a synergistic effect, all working together to produce the character-istics of an influential person.
We need to recognize that there are some unknown factors which may also contribute to influence. Statistical research has discovered that taller persons have more influence. Perhaps one’s handsomeness or beauty may also contribute to influence. One’s knowledge of a particular subject may make another person more influential. In some cases, these factors may make a stronger contribution to one’s influence. But “taller” will rarely make influence by itself. Beauty will not necessarily make “influence” by itself. Knowledge will not necessarily make “influence” higher by itself. Therefore, we are constantly thrown back to the character-istics of the core of our being. Out of that we move up, move down, or stagnate at some level.
The possibility of being even moderately influential is shaped by the constellation of values in an individual. Again, on the average, about 85 out of a hundred persons with high values will also have high influence. Of course, there are exceptions. Some gain some degree of influence through their money, or through some sport, or through a great amount of service like Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mother Teresa.
Session 2-4 OPTIMUM VALUES FOR COPING
Holmes and Rahe on what stress can do
In 1967 Thomas H. Holmes and Richard H. Rahe, University of Washington State Medical School, Department of Psychiatry, published Social Readjustment Rating Scale (See column on right). It is a 43 item instrument to measure stress. They reported, “Beginning in this laboratory in 1949, the life chart device has been used systematically in over 5000 patients to study the quality and quantity of life events empirically observed to cluster at the time of disease onset.” They concluded that if a person had a test score of 300 or more in one year, that person had an 80% chance of becoming ill in the following year. If the person had a score between 150 and 300, there was a 50% chance of becoming ill in the following year. Reviews of the Holmes and Rahe research have validated that persons experiencing harsher emotional pains, and having clusters of higher-scores, are in fact more vulnerable to disease.
Health is in the coping.
In actuality, one's coping strength is more significant than suffering from excessive stress. Further research of the Holmes and Rahe scales has not given it strong credibility as a good predictor of illness. The criticism is that what is stress for one person may not be stress for another. Or, for example, one “vacation” may be more stressful than another.
The point is, critics are saying that resilience and coping strength is more important than how much stress a person experiences. “It is not what happens to you that matters, but how you take it” (Selye). It is not a new idea. “There are nothings good or bad, but thinking makes them so” (Shakespeare). “Men are disturbed not by things but by the views which they take of them” (Epictetus). That is the direction of psychoneuroimmunology ( how the mind affects the body) which demonstrates that healthier persons have a larger number of more effective coping skills which counteract stress factors. Coping is the key, not stress. While the Social Readjustment Rating Scale may not be as strongly predictive of future illness as we'd like to think, it nevertheless teaches that there is a potential illness-causing breaking point in each person.
Destroying one germ, one disease, one treatment
The Holmes and Rahe Stress Test generates a new message. It produced evidence that the older idea of “One germ, one disease, one treatment,” applies mostly to contagious diseases. It has given some credibility to the fact that unrelated stressors can combine to produce a variety of different physical and mental dysfunctions. This has helped to dilute the strongly held notion of one germ, one disease, one treatment. The Holmes and Rahe Stress Test has been included in over 1000 publications. The extreme popularity of this instrument continues to motivate persons to see a connection between mental/emotional processes and health.
SOCIAL READJUSTMENT RATING SCALE
Circle and total only those you have experienced this past year, (or in the year before an illness).
Death of spouse 100
Divorce 73
Marital separation 65
Jail term 63
Death of close family member 63
Personal injury or illness 53
Marriage 50
Fired at work 47
Marital reconciliation 45
Retirement 45
Change in health of fam. member 44
Pregnancy 40
Sex difficulties 39
Gain of new family member 39
Business adjustment 39
Change in financial state 38
Death of close friend 37
Change to different work 36
Change in number of
arguments with spouse 35
Mortgage over $10,000 (*) 31
Foreclosure of mortgage/loan 30
Change in responsibilities at work 29
Son or daughter leaving home 29
Trouble with in-laws 29
Outstanding personal achievement 28
Wife begins or stops work 26
Begin or end school 26
Change in living conditions 25
Revision of personal habits 24
Trouble with the boss 23
Change in work hours or conditions 20
Change in residence 20
Change in schools 20
Change in recreation 19
Change in church activities 19
Change in social activities 18
Mortgage loan less than $10,000 17
Change in sleep habits 16
Change in No. of family get-togethers 15
Change in eating habits 15
Vacation 13
Christmas 12
Minor violations of the law 11
* Needs to be upgraded to about $60,000 in the 90's, depending on location.
Scores over 300 have an 80% chance of illness in the following year.
Permission to print: Holmes and Rahe, 1967
Role of values in coping strength
Social involvement and social support have always been measures of a mental health. Now we see that social support improves physical health too. The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory considers social introversion / social extra-version an important factor in mental health. The test acknowledges that the degree of interaction a person has with other people is a strength, and poor interaction is associated with poorer mental functioning. But coping strength involves more skills. It involves our attitudes like, the “ hardiness” characteristics proposed by Suzanne Ouellette Kobasa (1984); commitment, control, and challenge. Coping strength also involves the practice of exercise. Kenneth Cooper's Aerobics Program for Total Well-Being (1982) demonstrates significantly lowered illness risk for persons who exercise. The number of behavioral skills needed to cope with stress varies with the individual. Coping depends on skills used at home, on the job and in social relations. The stress on the job may be different than the stress in dealing with the children. Certain problem-solving skills may be helpful for coping in all stressful interpersonal situations. Coping requires a broad range of skills, much like what is being taught in this text.
Values and stress prevention .
Research continues to show the association between higher levels of positive values and reductions of stress in peoples’ lives. Below is a list of stress reduction benefits that are associated with higher values. Three hundred records (of persons) form the data base (Franken, 1995). Persons with higher-level values (30% of data base, N=90) were compared with persons having lower levels of values (30% of data base, N=90). Persons with higher-level of the values averaged,
35.9% fewer stress points in Holmes/Rahe stress39.9% fewer symptoms of medical problems 39.3% fewer symptoms of anxiety 63% fewer symptoms of depression18.5% fewer symptoms of marital problems6.8% fewer symptoms of suppression of negative feelings42.7% fewer symptoms of job stress 45.3% fewer symptoms of financial stress235% fewer symptoms of excess alcohol consumption152% fewer symptoms of smoking side effects24.0% less weight from overeating, underexercising20.0% less deviation from RDA nutrition standards46.4% fewer symptoms of excessive sugar intake53.4% fewer symptoms of allergiesZero difference in the stress of caring33.5% fewer symptoms of average TOTAL STRESS The standard caution needs to be repeated. Scientific research has difficulty in ascribing a cause-effect connection between “values” and the above reductions in stressors. It is possible to say that higher levels of values go together with fewer personal stressors, and less severity in the those stress factors.
Multiple values become a constellation. They exist in a matrix. They combine synergistically. It might be difficult to understand all the possible combinations of variables in values and in stress factors. Stress factors may increase or decrease and intensities may change. Yet, it is almost inescapable to see that certain combinations of personal values reduce stress.
Levels of stress prevention
One is seldom doomed to an untold amount of stress without having people available to counteract stress. Counselors will readily teach them. Friends and neighbors help in emergencies. If coping strengths are rejected by someone, then of course, the stress factors in one’s life may appear unfair and un-conquerable.
Many persons have no pity or compassion for someone who complains about a lot of stress. These non-compassionate persons mentally compare their load of stress with the complainer’s load. Then they mentally become cold-hearted because they see the complainer as unwilling to learn and use the coping strengths that wiser and more assertive persons use.
Going after a belief in higher values
Believe in love. Seek out love, the highest value, to give it, and to make it bring healing to you and to those around you. There is no greater or higher value than love. There is great healing power in that highest of values, love. The hands of the great healers are the hands of persons who have love and compassion for their fellow human beings. The strange thing about love is that one has to give it away to get it back.
Believe in being a charitable person (No. 2 value). By being helpful you improve another person's life. There is receiving in the giving. You receive inner Positive Strokes when you are charitable.
Believe in being a patient person (No. 3 value), with self-control as an unsurpassed virtue. Use that self-control in a disciplined way, to accomplish the goals that you would like for your life.
Believe in being a peacemaker (No. 4), willing to compromise and be cooperative. That requires a good deal of patience, and self control. It is not always easy or possible, but keeping it as a value to live by is important.
A person may not be perfectly capable of remaining true to certain values without some support. You need a group, whether it be religious or secular, from which to gain some support in time of failure and defeat. You need the help of a friend from time to time. Reach out and do not be fearful to admit that you have hurts and needs that only human dialogue can heal or help.
Session 2-5 INTERNALIZING OPTIMUM VALUES
Each person has been internalizing values since birth. Perhaps not the best values. Hopefully the good ones. And hopefully at higher and higher levels, because there are far greater rewards when a person actually adopts and lives by the highest-rewarding values there are. Very few, if any, persons reach the highest level in all the more highly recognized values. Too many become satisfied to remain at mediocre levels which shackle persons to varying amounts of physical, mental and emotional problems. For Moving Up persons the guideline is to search until you know or learn about someone who became well-known for the kind of person s/he was and did what you would like to do.
Only internalize the values of sensible ego-ideals
To understand internalization of values, let’s go back to the psyche, which is made up of superego, ego and id. The ego plays a strong role, like a computer, integrating messages from everywhere. Internalization was more than just implanting an image of ideal in one’s MIND. Internalization of the ideals and behaviors of another person became part of one’s PSYCHE, as well as one’s SPIRIT and MIND. The internalized image gives direction to the memory processes, guides the psyche’s calculating and integrating process, empowers the passions of the heart, mind, soul and body.
Sigmund Freud believed that the ego was guided by the reality principle. In other words, Freud and others like him, knew that a person’s imagination could run wild, but the ego would be sufficiently in touch with the real world, that a person would not act silly, not too much at least. Rather paradoxically, like an opposite, Freud was also known to have identified that the ego could invisibly be drawn to and connect with an image that had real bones, real flesh, real values, real virtues, real success, and real fame. That image could impress the psyche, the mind, the spirit in such a way that it could inspire a person to strive after that kind of person. The word “identification” was also used for this. Identification is a process whereby a person senses a oneness, a kinship of spirit, between oneself and another. This experience is the work of the ego, crystalizing, in a second, all the data of a human being and self-actualizing it with, “GO FOR IT.” This is an internalization process which motivates persons. Freud made the description sound like what Maslow said later. People have some innate power of “self-actualization” and that makes that internalization and self-actualization work.
Accountability Check
What are you going to do to seriously discover what your heart, mind and spirit is connected to, that prevents it from connecting to some higher-level ego-ideal?
Accountability Check
With whom do you identify?
Who is your hero?
Who would you like to have as a mentor?
Childhood development of identification
The ego, your deeper self, can form that identification. The ego, functioning at the core of your inner being, can listen to several things inside you. The ego can hear all the memories of when people said you “ought” to do this or that. Your mind has memories of people you met for the past 15-20 years. Some you liked a lot. Some you disliked. Your ego synthesized that and put that into your psychic computer. Your ego sized up how you feel about how you look, how tall or short you are and how that affected you. It sized up your perception of your looks, your biology. It sized up your perception of your intelligence, your mind. It sized up the responses that came from your Grandmother’s praise. It sized up what you saw on television for 10-20 years. — Your ego makes a calculation, and says, one day, that’s the kind of person I want to be. Or, that’s the kind of work I want to do. In an instant, one internalized ideal can replace a previous one, and thus continue the process of growth. Fortunately, now that you understand this, you can set yourself in motion to awaken your identification processes. Once you let those go to work for you, they’ll scan and roam until they lock onto the image of a real person you would like to copy. Hopefully, your identification and internalization processes will lock onto a person you view as one who has “character.”
Stagnation process that takes place in internalization
The process of internalization of one’s model for life can be weakened or strengthened in early life. Pick up almost any textbook or self-help book and the reason for stagnation or stopping internalization too soon, is the constraints and stagnation of one’s family, friends or peers. What makes persons stop internalizing the value system of the parent is “violent and sporadic outbursts of temper and physical punishment punctuating long periods of almost no parental supervision. . . ” (Langner and Michael, 1963). Persons who have lived with some deficiencies in their environment need to eventually let themselves be free to identify and internalize the image of the person they believe they are most capable of copying.
A strong love bond in early life flexes the emotional processes to appreciate a later cathexis with the ego-ideal. Psychologically speaking, if your psyche gets too much negative treatment for too long, it gets fearful of reaching out. It might get swatted again, so it withdraws. It has learned to withdraw. That invisible arm of the psyche quits reaching out. These persons have a difficult time letting the emotions of their psyche reach out and connect with any ego-ideal, the person you admire. Make one of your goals in life, to find and connect with some ego-ideal (it may not be only a person) that simply awakens you and empowers you to Move Up.
Getting smart about whose values can take you down
While people may have potential for what Abraham Maslow called “self-actualization,” that potential operates both for good results but also for problematic results. Every personality inventory shows that. When a personality inventory sets out to measure the level of a person’s social involvement, it becomes equally effective in measuring the opposite – non-social withdrawal tendencies. There is always a point in the middle which marks the turning point. One either is mostly social, or mostly non-social.
Earlier in the chapter there was a list of optimum values derived from personality inventories. That list of optimum personality values has corresponding opposites which are not considered in the best interest of health, happiness, success and well-being. Notice the opposites on the left side.
Non-social Social
Depressed Cheerful
Hostile Peaceful
Temper Tolerant
Indifferent Kind
Self-indulgent Generous
Jealous/insecure Trusting
Passive/aggressive Assertive
Impulsive Self-controlled
Low self esteem Self-confidence
Silent/withdrawing Communicating
Deferring Leading
Dependent Autonomous (free)
Quite literally, the behaviors on the left can take a person down, or keep the person down in misery, poverty and lowered well-being. The risk for that is high, but not everyone will be affected. Just plain common sense will tell you this is true. There is no known research showing positive consequence come from being largely “hostile” or mostly “jealous,” or greatly “self-indulgent,” or anything in that list. All the benefits a person may have come from values listed on the right, above, and from other higher political, economic, social and industrial values. There is no known, scientifically based evidence, that the larger the behaviors on the left become, the larger the benefits. They cannot be called values. They are not valuable. Yet, some persons have more of the left-side behaviors than the right-side values.
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