essay about values development brainly

Essays About Values: 5 Essay Examples Plus 10 Prompts

Similar to how our values guide us, let this guide with essays about values and writing prompts help you write your essay.

Values are the core principles that guide the actions we take and the choices we make. They are the cornerstones of our identity. On a community or organizational level, values are the moral code that every member must embrace to live harmoniously and work together towards shared goals. 

We acquire our values from different sources such as parents, mentors, friends, cultures, and experiences. All of these build on one another — some rejected as we see fit — for us to form our perception of our values and what will lead us to a happy and fulfilled life.

5 Essay Examples

1. what today’s classrooms can learn from ancient cultures by linda flanagan, 2. stand out to your hiring panel with a personal value statement by maggie wooll, 3. make your values mean something by patrick m. lencioni, 4. how greed outstripped need by beth azar, 5. a shift in american family values is fueling estrangement by joshua coleman, 1. my core values, 2. how my upbringing shaped my values, 3. values of today’s youth, 4. values of a good friend, 5. an experience that shaped your values, 6. remembering our values when innovating, 7. important values of school culture, 8. books that influenced your values, 9. religious faith and moral values, 10. schwartz’s theory of basic values.

“Connectedness is another core value among Maya families, and teachers seek to cultivate it… While many American teachers also value relationships with their students, that effort is undermined by the competitive environment seen in many Western classrooms.”

Ancient communities keep their traditions and values of a hands-off approach to raising their kids. They also preserve their hunter-gatherer mindsets and others that help their kids gain patience, initiative, a sense of connectedness, and other qualities that make a helpful child.

“How do you align with the company’s mission and add to its culture? Because it contains such vital information, your personal value statement should stand out on your resume or in your application package.”

Want to rise above other candidates in the jobs market? Then always highlight your value statement. A personal value statement should be short but still, capture the aspirations and values of the company. The essay provides an example of a captivating value statement and tips for crafting one.

“Values can set a company apart from the competition by clarifying its identity and serving as a rallying point for employees. But coming up with strong values—and sticking to them—requires real guts.”

Along with the mission and vision, clear values should dictate a company’s strategic goals. However, several CEOs still needed help to grasp organizational values fully. The essay offers a direction in setting these values and impresses on readers the necessity to preserve them at all costs. 

“‘He compared the values held by people in countries with more competitive forms of capitalism with the values of folks in countries that have a more cooperative style of capitalism… These countries rely more on strategic cooperation… rather than relying mostly on free-market competition as the United States does.”

The form of capitalism we have created today has shaped our high value for material happiness. In this process, psychologists said we have allowed our moral and ethical values to drift away from us for greed to take over. You can also check out these essays about utopia .

“From the adult child’s perspective, there might be much to gain from an estrangement: the liberation from those perceived as hurtful or oppressive, the claiming of authority in a relationship, and the sense of control over which people to keep in one’s life. For the mother or father, there is little benefit when their child cuts off contact.”

It is most challenging when the bonds between parent and child weaken in later years. Psychologists have been navigating this problem among modern families, which is not an easy conflict to resolve. It requires both parties to give their best in humbling themselves and understanding their loved ones, no matter how divergent their values are. 

10 Writing  Prompts On Essays About Values

For this topic prompt, contemplate your non-negotiable core values and why you strive to observe them at all costs. For example, you might value honesty and integrity above all else. Expound on why cultivating fundamental values leads to a happy and meaningful life. Finally, ponder other values you would like to gain for your future self. Write down how you have been practicing to adopt these aspired values. 

Many of our values may have been instilled in us during childhood. This essay discusses the essential values you gained from your parents or teachers while growing up. Expound on their importance in helping you flourish in your adult years. Then, offer recommendations on what households, schools, or communities can do to ensure that more young people adopt these values.

Is today’s youth lacking essential values, or is there simply a shift in what values generations uphold? Strive to answer this and write down the healthy values that are emerging and dying. Then think of ways society can preserve healthy values while doing away with bad ones. Of course, this change will always start at home, so also encourage parents, as role models, to be mindful of their words, actions and behavior.  

The greatest gift in life is friendship. In this essay, enumerate the top values a friend should have. You may use your best friend as an example. Then, cite the best traits your best friend has that have influenced you to be a better version of yourself. Finally, expound on how these values can effectively sustain a healthy friendship in the long term. 

We all have that one defining experience that has forever changed how we see life and the values we hold dear. Describe yours through storytelling with the help of our storytelling guide . This experience may involve a decision, a conversation you had with someone, or a speech you heard at an event.  

With today’s innovation, scientists can make positive changes happen. But can we truly exercise our values when we fiddle with new technologies whose full extent of positive and adverse effects we do not yet understand such as AI? Contemplate this question and look into existing regulations on how we curb the creation or use of technologies that go against our values. Finally, assess these rules’ effectiveness and other options society has. 

Highlight a school’s role in honing a person’s values. Then, look into the different aspects of your school’s culture. Identify which best practices distinct in your school are helping students develop their values. You could consider whether your teachers exhibit themselves as admirable role models or specific parts of the curriculum that help you build good character. 

In this essay, recommend your readers to pick up your favorite books, particularly those that served as pathways to enlightening insights and values. To start, provide a summary of the book’s story. It would be better if you could do so without revealing too much to avoid spoiling your readers’ experience. Then, elaborate on how you have applied the values you learned from the book.

For many, religious faith is the underlying reason for their values. For this prompt, explore further the inextricable links between religion and values. If you identify with a certain religion, share your thoughts on the values your sector subscribes to. You can also tread the more controversial path on the conflicts of religious values with socially accepted beliefs or practices, such as abortion. 

Dive deeper into the ten universal values that social psychologist Shalom Schwartz came up with: power, achievement, hedonism, stimulation, self-direction, universalism, benevolence, tradition, conformity, and security. Look into their connections and conflicts against each other. Then, pick your favorite value and explain how you relate to it the most. Also, find if value conflicts within you, as theorized by Schwartz.

Make sure to check out our round-up of the best essay checkers . If you want to use the latest grammar software, read our guide on using an AI grammar checker .

Personal Growth: Your Values, Your Life

Are you living your life in accordance with your values.

Posted May 7, 2012 | Reviewed by Ekua Hagan

Your values form the foundation of your life. They dictate the choices you make and determine the direction that your life takes. Your values will influence your decisions related to your relationships, career , and other activities you engage in.

Yet despite this importance, few people choose their values. Instead, they simply adopt the values of their parents and the dominant values of society. In all likelihood, the values that you internalized as a child remain with you through adulthood (yes, in some cases, people reject the values of their upbringings). Unfortunately, these values may also have created a life that is carrying you down a path that is not the direction you want to go.

What values were you raised with? What values are you presently living in accordance with? Are they the same or different? Do your values bring you happiness ? These are essential questions that you must ask if you are to find meaning, happiness, success, and connection in your life.

Yet, finding the answers to these questions is a challenge—and changing them in a way that will lead to fulfillment is an even greater challenge.

Deconstructing Your Values

To truly understand what values you possess and live by, you must deconstruct them until you are able to clearly see what exactly you value and why you hold those values. Looking openly and honestly at the way you were raised is the first step in identifying the values that you instilled growing up.

What did your parents value, and what values did they impress upon you—in regards to achievement, wealth, education , religion, status, independence, or appearance? Think back to your childhood and ask yourself several questions. What values were emphasized in the way your parents lived their lives? What values were stressed in your family? What values were reflected in the way you were rewarded or punished?

For example, were you rewarded for being highly ranked in your high school class and for winning in sports, or were you rewarded for giving your best effort and for helping others? You might even ask your parents to reflect back on your childhood to see what they perceived their values to be and what values they wanted to emphasize in your upbringing.

Your next step in the deconstruction process involves looking at your present life and the values your life reflects. In responding to these questions, you should ask yourself what values underlie your answers. What do you do for a living—are you a corporate employee, a business owner, a teacher, salesperson, caterer, or social worker?

A common question that people in social gathering ask is, what do you do for a living? Periodically, I have seen people get rather defensive in response to this question. They say, “Who cares what I do? What I do is not who I am.” I would suggest otherwise, at least to some degree. Assuming people have choices in the career paths they take, which one they choose reflects who they are and what they value.

For example, though it's a bit of a generalization, it is probably safe to say that someone who becomes an investment banker has different values than someone who becomes an elementary school teacher. What those underlying values might be may vary, but one might assume that the investment banker values money, while the teacher values education and helping children.

Where do you live—do you live in a high-rise apartment in a city, in the suburbs, or in the country—and what values led you there? What activities do you engage in most—cultural, physical, religious, political, social—and what values are reflected in those activities? What do you talk about mostly— politics , religion, the economy, other people—and what does that tell you about your values?

Finally, perhaps the most telling question reflecting what you value is: What do you spend your money on—a home, cars, travel, clothing, education, art, charity? Because money is a limited resource for most people, they will use their money in ways that they value most. Above anything else, where people spend their hard-earned money says the most about their values.

You can then ask yourself whether your current values are the same as those you grew up with. Have you gone through a period of examination and reconsideration? Have you consciously chosen to discard some values from your upbringing and adopt new ones?

My experience with people who live unsatisfying lives is that the values they grew up with mostly weren’t unhealthy and that their present values haven’t changed since childhood. They never questioned their values. Instead, they simply bought into them early in their lives and created their life around those values. In contrast, fulfilled people tended to grow up with life-affirming values or had a “crisis of conscience ” in early adulthood that caused them to re-evaluate and modify their values.

Now that you have deconstructed your life and have a clear idea of what you value, you can see the values upon which you have created your life. You can see whether those values contribute to your dissatisfaction or bring you happiness. Look at which aspects of your life contribute to your unhappiness—your career, marriage , lifestyle—and ask yourself what values underlie those parts of your life.

For example, if your career in the business world makes you unhappy—no judgment intended, but many of my clients happen to come from corporate life—you need to ask yourself what values you have held that led you to a career in business and how those values presently cause you to be an unhappy success.

Popular Culture and Values

A recurring theme that runs throughout my work is that inadvertently buying into the values that predominate popular culture, for example, winning, status, power, appearance, and conspicuous consumption, is a leading cause of life dissatisfaction. The popular culture in America today—as reflected in our various media—no longer has the time, attention span, or energy to devote to weighty and deep issues such as values. It is much easier to focus on the superficial “things” in our culture. Thus, the pursuit of wealth and material goods has become the dominant “value” in much of our society, in the mistaken belief that these values will bring people happiness.

One of the most powerful ways in which this “value” was impressed on you was in how you learned to define success. Popular culture typically defines success winning, wealth, status, physical appearance, and popularity—the more money and power you have and the more attractive and popular you are, the more successful you would be. Growing up with these definitions, success was largely unattainable for most people.

At the same time, our culture made losing even more intolerable to contemplate—being poor, powerless, unattractive, and unpopular is simply unacceptable. With these restrictive definitions, you may have believed, like so many others, that you were caught in the untenable situation of having little opportunity for success and great chance for failure .

Blindly having accepted society’s narrow definitions of success and failure takes away your power to decide how you wish to define them. By buying into popular culture’s limiting definitions of success and failure rather than choosing definitions based on your own values, you can’t become truly successful and happy because you are forced down a path that is, for most people, impossible to attain and that is not truly yours. You may become successful in the eyes of society, but you probably won’t feel like a success yourself. And this path certainly won’t bring you meaning, happiness, or real success in your life.

Jim Taylor, Ph.D. , teaches at the University of San Francisco.

• Find a Therapist
• Find a Treatment Center
• Find a Psychiatrist
• Find a Support Group
• Find Online Therapy
• United States
• Brooklyn, NY
• Chicago, IL
• Houston, TX
• Los Angeles, CA
• New York, NY
• Portland, OR
• San Diego, CA
• San Francisco, CA
• Seattle, WA
• Washington, DC
• Asperger's
• Bipolar Disorder
• Chronic Pain
• Eating Disorders
• Passive Aggression
• Personality
• Goal Setting
• Positive Psychology
• Stopping Smoking
• Low Sexual Desire
• Relationships
• Child Development
• Self Tests NEW
• Therapy Center
• Diagnosis Dictionary
• Types of Therapy

It’s increasingly common for someone to be diagnosed with a condition such as ADHD or autism as an adult. A diagnosis often brings relief, but it can also come with as many questions as answers.

• Emotional Intelligence
• Gaslighting
• Affective Forecasting
• Neuroscience

• SUGGESTED TOPICS
• The Magazine
• Newsletters
• Managing Yourself
• Managing Teams
• Work-life Balance
• The Big Idea
• Data & Visuals
• Reading Lists
• Case Selections
• HBR Learning
• Topic Feeds
• Account Settings
• Email Preferences

What Are Your Personal Values?

• Jennifer Nash

Three exercises to help you get to know yourself better.

Learning about what matters to you is key to the decisions you make in your life. Author Jennifer Nash shares how she re-discovered her values during a workshop.

• As a successful career professional and a new entrepreneur, Jennifer thought she was content with her life until she realized all that she had sacrificed to get there — friendships, finances, and family.
• Through the workshop, she learned that being vulnerable and open to change helped her deal with uncertainty better.
• She shares three activities that helped her learn more about herself — a life-wheel concept, a journey map, and reframing your thinking.

Early this year, I attended a three-week long workshop to help me improve my productivity and wellbeing. Walking into my first session, everything seemed normal. I met 19 other people from across the globe, we introduced ourselves, and then, we were asked to complete a self-reflection exercise. We were each handed a sheet of paper with a circle printed at its center. The circle was divided into eight equal segments: Career. Romance. Health. Family. Relationships. Spirituality. Fun. Finances.

• Jennifer Nash , PhD is an executive coach to senior leaders at Fortune 50 organizations, including Google, Exxon Mobil, JP Morgan, Boeing, and Verizon. A former executive at Deloitte Consulting, she is the CEO of Jennifer Nash Coaching & Consulting, helping successful leaders and organizations elevate performance. You can download her Success Toolkit here.

Partner Center

The Importance of Value Essay

• To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
• As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
• As a template for you assignment

From a psychological perspective, values can be presented as broad preferences of individuals about various actions and outcomes. At this point, they express individuals’ sense of morally justified action. Values also allow people to distinguish between right and wrong, as well as shape their attitudes and perceptions about other individuals. Shared beliefs have influenced the formation of social norms under which people should observe behavioral patterns accepted in society.

As a result of social development, belief systems have been premised on different norms in terms of morale, ethics, and individual choices. These discrepancies are predetermined by the presence of cultural values that influence people’s perceptions of such issues as the good, evil, or justice. Due to the emerged differences, a number of value theories have been developed. In sociological studies, value theory is associated with individuals’ views that are shared by a community, as well as how those views change under certain conditions.

While discussing the importance of value, many Western theorists, including Max Weber, Talcott Parsons and Emilie Durkheim inclined to believe that values are regarded as independent variables. However, the supporters of traditional sociologists withdrew the concept of value and focus on cultural dimension that builds the foundation for value creation. At this point, although values are often identified with common notions and concepts, their meaning is differently represented across cultures, leading to subjective and objective judgments.

This is of particular concern to religious norms that often influence people’s attitude toward the political power and social norms. For instance, some countries consider the important role of religion in shaping social, cultural and political relations whereas other societies insist on the separation of religion and social system because the former is more associated with personal values.

In fact, considering social values as products of individual behavior, the emphasis on behaviorism and observational philosophy should be placed. The introduced theoretical frameworks are influential for development of educational systems that encourage a learning process as a set of activities focused on understanding morale, ethics, and law. The learning process reflects individual’s engagement in gaining experience about acceptable norms of behavior, as well as deeper understanding of self-image.

Finally, learning provides individuals with the accepted definitions of the right and wrong. In order to control value creation, social sciences refer to the political, social, and cultural institutions studying various dimensions of human organization based on empirical evidence. The proposed framework contributes to comprehending the common values that are accepted in societies, as well as those shaped in various cultures.

As it has been mentioned before, social values can refer to cultural norms that are considered in a broader context. Hence, norms create rules and principles of behavior in various situations whereas values define what actions should be considered as morally right or wrong.

Although cultural norms base on broader meanings, their understanding differs in various societies. Although cultural values are regarded as objective principles, they are still premised on individual’s attitudes toward specific traditions and norms recognized in a particular culture. Hence, values reflect the human ability to analyze and synthesize various aspects and principles that bear especial meaning to them.

For instance, various communities have a specific set of principles and rules that distinguish them from other communities. This is of particular concern to professional communities in which members adhere to specific philosophy and vision of an organization. Hence, although many company’s values differ, the development of global standards influence their normative systems. Due to the globalization process, organizations often address such issues as cultural diversity, human equality, and individual values.

Values can change across time to adjust to new conditions and challenges. If a member of a community adheres to a value that contradicts the commonly accepted norms, the community’s authority can impose certain regulations that encourage adherence and conformity to accepted behaviors.

As a result of such violations, fixed values are often controlled by legislature. The development of the legal system has contributed to the development of the international law that introduces global standards in such fields as healthcare, education, culture. There are many non-governmental organizations, including the World Health Organization, the United Nations, and the World Trade Organization, that provide consistent frameworks for shaping global principles of accountability and legitimacy.

In conclusion, values constitute overwhelming definitions that encompass personal belief systems and socially accepted norms. They also refer to the preferences about such concepts as moral action, ethics, and human behavior. In the course of social development, theorists have worked on various frameworks that can justify value creation across cultures and communities. Although the presence of diverse value systems, there are specific standards that should be followed by the world community.

These standards are monitored by international organizations and, therefore, violating rules can lead to imprisonment and punishment. In general, the existence of fixed values is not justified because societies are constantly developing, introducing new norms, perceptions, and preferences. At the same time, acceptance of diversities in belief systems is also important because it expands individuals’ perception about moral and immoral actions.

• How the American Family is Changing
• Gift Giving: The Art or Science?
• A Case for Global Ethics
• Breaching Social Norms Experiment and Analysis
• Dress Code and Social Norm Violations
• Saving Lives: On the Ban of Texting While Driving
• The Ukita Family and the Skeen Family
• Scams Types
• Single-Parent Families
• Class Structure of the United States
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2018, December 11). The Importance of Value. https://ivypanda.com/essays/values/

"The Importance of Value." IvyPanda , 11 Dec. 2018, ivypanda.com/essays/values/.

IvyPanda . (2018) 'The Importance of Value'. 11 December.

IvyPanda . 2018. "The Importance of Value." December 11, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/values/.

1. IvyPanda . "The Importance of Value." December 11, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/values/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "The Importance of Value." December 11, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/values/.

Home — Essay Samples — Life — Self Reflection — Self Reflection Essay: My Journey Of Self-Development

Self Reflection Essay: My Journey of Self-development

• Categories: Self Reflection

About this sample

Words: 913 |

Published: Mar 14, 2024

Words: 913 | Pages: 2 | 5 min read

Cite this Essay

Let us write you an essay from scratch

• 450+ experts on 30 subjects ready to help
• Custom essay delivered in as few as 3 hours

Get high-quality help

Prof Ernest (PhD)

Verified writer

• Expert in: Life

+ 120 experts online

By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy . We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email

No need to pay just yet!

Related Essays

1 pages / 669 words

4 pages / 1682 words

4 pages / 1606 words

3 pages / 1415 words

Remember! This is just a sample.

You can get your custom paper by one of our expert writers.

121 writers online

Still can’t find what you need?

Browse our vast selection of original essay samples, each expertly formatted and styled

Related Essays on Self Reflection

Self-evaluation is a powerful tool for personal growth and development. It requires introspection, honesty, and a willingness to assess one's strengths and weaknesses. In this self-evaluation essay, I will candidly reflect on [...]

Lamberton, LH., & Minor-Evans, L. (2018). Human Relations, Strategies for Success. 6th Edition. McGraw-Hill Canada.

The question of "Why am I here?" is one of the most profound and enduring inquiries that humans have grappled with throughout history. It is a question that transcends individual experiences and speaks to the very essence of our [...]

Throughout our careers, it is important to take a step back and evaluate our performance in our roles. A work self-evaluation is a tool that helps us to reflect on our achievements, challenges, and areas for improvement. It [...]

According to Dewey, 1933 reflection is a deliberate and active process about thinking to learn.The aim of this reflective journal is to analyse in the first part, my role, as an implementer, to plan a workable strategy and carry [...]

Working in a group increases the productivity and improves once performance. This semester, I and other 4 of my classmates were assigned to make a group assignment with a topic of “Agencies that deals with emotional/physical [...]

Related Topics

By clicking “Send”, you agree to our Terms of service and Privacy statement . We will occasionally send you account related emails.

Where do you want us to send this sample?

By clicking “Continue”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy.

Be careful. This essay is not unique

This essay was donated by a student and is likely to have been used and submitted before

Download this Sample

Free samples may contain mistakes and not unique parts

Sorry, we could not paraphrase this essay. Our professional writers can rewrite it and get you a unique paper.

Please check your inbox.

We can write you a custom essay that will follow your exact instructions and meet the deadlines. Let's fix your grades together!

Get Your Personalized Essay in 3 Hours or Less!

We use cookies to personalyze your web-site experience. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .

• Instructions Followed To The Letter
• Deadlines Met At Every Stage
• Unique And Plagiarism Free

Essay On Sustainable Development

500 words essay on  sustainable development.

Sustainable development is basically an action plan which helps us to achieve sustainability in any activity which makes use of the resource. Moreover, it also demands immediate and intergenerational replication. Through essay on sustainable development, we will help you understand the concept and its advantages.

Through sustainable development, we formulate organising principles which help to sustain the limited resources essential to provide for the needs of our future generations. As a result, they will be able to lead a content life on the planet .

What is Sustainable Development?

The World Commission on Environment and Development popularized this concept in 1987. Their report defines the idea as a “development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.”

In other words, they aimed to prevent the stripping the natural world of resources which the future generations will require. As we all know that usually, one particular need drives development. Consequently, the wider future impacts are not considered.

As a result, a lot of damage happens due to this type of approach. Thus, the longer we continue to pursue unsustainable development, the more severe will the consequences be. One of the most common is climate change which is being debated widely worldwide.

In fact, climate change is already wreaking havoc on our surroundings. So, the need of the hour is sustainable development. We must ask ourselves, must we leave a scorched planet with an ailing environment for our future generations?

In order to undo the mess created by us, we must follow sustainable development. This will help us promote a more social, environmental and economical thinking. Most importantly, it is not that difficult to attain this.

We must see that world as a system which connects space, and time. Basically, it helps you understand that water pollution in South Africa will ultimately impact water quality in India. Similarly, it is the case for other things as well.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Measures to Practice Sustainable Development

There are many measures to take up for practising sustainable development. To begin with, it is important to ensure clean and hygienic living and working conditions for the people.

Next, sponsoring research on environmental issues which pertains to regions. Further, ensuring safety against known and proven industrial hazards. It is also important to find economical methods to salvage dangerous industrial wastes.

Most importantly, we must encourage afforestation . Including environmental education as part of the school and college curriculum will also help. Similarly, it is essential to socialize and humanize all environmental issues.

Further, we must encourage uses of non-conventional sources of energy, especially solar energy. Looking for substitutes for proven dangerous materials on the basis of local resources and needs will help. Likewise, we must produce environment-friendly products.

It is also essential to popularize the use of organic fertilizers and other biotechniques. Finally, the key is environmental management which must be monitored and ensure accountability.

Conclusion of Essay on Sustainable Development

To sum it up, sustainable development continuously seeks to achieve social and economic progress in ways which will not exhaust the Earth’s finite natural resources. Thus, we must all develop ways to meet these needs so that our future generations can inherit a healthier and greener planet.

FAQ on Essay on Sustainable Development

Question 1: State two measures we can take for sustainable development.

Answer 1: The first measure we can take is by finding economical methods for salvaging hazardous industrial wastes. Next, we must encourage afforestation.

Question 2: What is the aim of sustainable development?

Answer 2 : The aim of sustainable development is to maximise human well-being or quality of life without having to risk the life support system.

Customize your course in 30 seconds

Which class are you in.

• Travelling Essay
• Picnic Essay
• Our Country Essay
• My Parents Essay
• Essay on Favourite Personality
• Essay on Memorable Day of My Life
• Essay on Knowledge is Power
• Essay on Gurpurab
• Essay on My Favourite Season
• Essay on Types of Sports

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Download the App