Chapter 3: Values and Morals:Guidelines for living - Psychological ...

via lectures or sermons. An example would be teaching about
prejudice and discrimination through a "Brown-eyed, Blue-eyed
experiment," as discussed in chapter 7. Values must be internalized,
i.e. made part of your basic living philosophy or your core "self." This
is usually done by having real life emotional experiences: concern for
the sick is learned as a volunteer in a hospital, concern for the poor is
learned during a year in National Service in the inner city or on an
Indian reservation, concern for migrant laborers is learned in the
fields, concern for single mothers is learned babysitting in small
shabby apartments, etc. But first you have to decide to have real
experiences. This is based on certain values you tentatively believe in.
Let's move on to selecting those values.
It should be clear to you from Kohlberg's description of the higher
stages that you can only be most moral if you have decided on and
dedicated yourself to a set of values: for instance, a commitment to
democratic decision- making for stage 5 or to a fair, clear cut
philosophy of life for stage 6. My objective here is to encourage you,
even though you may not be over 40, to select some basic, guiding
moral principles that you will actually use to guide your life, as
described in stage 6.
To give you some structure for deciding on your guiding principles,
I will first provide you with three lists of major goals pursued by others
around the world. These are some of the choices you have, i.e.
philosophies, goals, principles, or means to an end you might value
and follow. Table 3.1 lists 13 "ways of living" from many cultures
(Morris, 1973). Table 3.2 lists 18 "ends" or objectives or outcomes to
which you might devote your life (Rokeach, 1973). Table 3.3 lists 18
"means," i.e. ways of being that are considered most moral and most
likely to yield the "ends" you seek.
Please don't rush through these lists as though they were just
another cute little personality test in the Sunday supplement. They are
the best lists of guiding principles available. Your serious consideration
of each value is required because you must decide on your highest
principles by weighing one against the other; otherwise, you are in
danger of vaguely feeling a lot of goals or principles are acceptable
and, thus, never really deciding what your highest and most worthy
goals are. Since each value or philosophy of life takes you in a
different direction, not deciding on your major reason(s) for being is
the same as being unguided or morally lost. Go through the lists twice,
first giving your initial reactions and, then, go back and make a final
judgment about which "way" is most moral--the best way for you to be
the best person you could possibly be. These decisions should form the
basic outline for your philosophy of life...an idealistic plan for your life.
This is no trivial task. See Table below.
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