Personal Values Development Paper

Personal Values Development Paper

Shirley Smith

University of Phoenix

PHL/323

Joia Turner

November 17, 2007

Through this paper I will be examining my personal values, ground rules and/or ethics development. To define what my values are and the sources they come from (people, institutions, events, etc.) which helped me to shape my values, and the criteria and decision-making factors I utilize to revise them. Lastly I will discuss the potential impact of my values and my performance in my work place.

I believe that the way I see my personal values stems from my upbringing, which I will share in short term. I came from a family of four children, 1 brother and 2 sisters and both parents, I was born in Iowa which our family lived for five years we then moved to California for the next six years and finally moved to Minnesota in 1967. I had come from a very abusive home life which was taking toll on my life.

I was treated in my family as if I were the son, having to go hunting, camping, target shooting with my dad and his buddies, while my brother was left at home. Then when out on these I would end up having to do the cooking and cleaning up after everyone. I acted as though I truly liked it but I actually hated having to go on these trips all the time with my dad.

At home we were not allowed to go outside after 6:00 pm and all of our meals we had to eat everything on our plates no matter what it was if we liked it or not and were not to talk while we were eating. We were all very afraid of our dad if he were to get mad at us or if we were to do something wrong he would beat us with the belt, weeping willow branch or whatever he could find to use on us.

I left home at 17 years of age, got married and had my first daughter, divorced 2 years later, had a second daughter in 1976, which a couple of months after she was born she passed away from SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome), I blamed myself for moving back to Minnesota from California for years, married my second husband on the rebound of my daughters death which turned into a divorce a couple of months later from physical abuse.

I did counseling for several years after that because of my childhood and the sexual abuse I had suffered for years, but now I am a survivor of my past. I have learned a great deal from my past and have continued to grow from it. I do not take anything for granted and I do not cut people down for any reason. What goes around comes back around.

My values are very genuine and come from a life that I hated and was not going to let it be carried on through my family. I have raised four sons on my own and have done a great job at it. My oldest son Josh is married to a wonderful lady Stephanie and they have 3 children and a very nice home in Lakeville, MN, my second son is continuing his education in college and will be graduating soon with his A.A.S. and B.A. degrees and hopes to launch off into the music industry and lives in Brooklyn Park, MN, my son Christopher just recently moved to Plato, MN and will be doing Bartending and finally my youngest son Phillip is going to be 18 years old on November 20 and is in his senior year.

I will have to say that my boys are very unique and smart and do not do drugs or alcohol and have not been in and out of jail. They all have good values themselves and are carrying them on into their families. I will say that my children have been the biggest influences in my life and have been what has helped me to change and become who I am today.

I knew that from how I grew up I did not want my children to have to go through such a traumatic upbringing. I vowed when I was young that my children would get the love that they needed and deserved not just the discipline.

I believe in the saying "treat others as you would have them treat you". (Jesus - Matthew 7:12 NIV) You want to be treated with respect you have to give respect this is something that you are not born with you earn it and give it as you grow up. So my children are a huge inspiration to me.

Honesty is another major personal value in my life, I cannot say that I have never told a little white lie, but I can say that I am a very honest person with everyone and in my life. I know that this has once again come from my childhood and young adult life where as I would have people in and out of my life and that is what they would do to me is lie to me and relationships were a main part of this.

Reliability falls right into place with honesty; I have always been a reliable person in my personal life as well as my work life. You could always count on me to get things done or to be somewhere on time. An example of this is if you are car pooling you need to make sure that you pick up your riders on time as to get everyone to work on time or wherever it is that you will be going. I find many people that I know or come in contact with are not very reliable.

Many people judge others by their appearance and/or behavior; I know that I am guilty of that. When I was a young child/teenager I would find myself judging someone because of the way they looked, for example I would make fun of anyone that was overweight either by snickering or saying something mean. Well