Personal Values

Personal Values

Personal values are just that; personal. Each individual’s personal values are exclusive to that person. Personal values are the beliefs or standards that individuals use to evaluate and define actions and events throughout the multiple domains in their lives (Hyde & Weathington, 2006). Although, people may share similar values, it is how they interrupt those values and apply those values to their own life that makes them unique. These differences in how personal values are interpreted are based on the person and the experiences that make that person a distinctive being. One’s personal values determine how they will react when faced with a situation whether it be at home or at work. Although each person is composed of many different values often a handful of values come to represent the primary core values.

This student’s personal values are accountability, loyalty, and compassion. These three personal values lay at the core of his personal values. This paper will review these three core values in relation to how they came about, who or what influenced these values, what criterion is used when employing or altering these values, and how these values help to influence this student’s professional career.

Core Personal Values

As stated this student’s three personal core values are accountability, loyalty, and compassion. As defined by the Oxford Dictionary Accountability is the ability to answer for responsibilities and conduct. A more personal definition of the term is personal responsibility for ones own actions or holding self-responsible for the choices that are made whether the results are positive or negative. This student feels that along with his parents instilling these values in him that formal schooling played a large part in these being his core personal value. Formal schooling taught him at a young age that he must be responsible for his own actions, if he failed to study for a test or failed to do his homework and performed poorly on either then it was his actions that cause him to obtain a poor grade. Rather than failing into a routine of blaming outside sources for his failing. This student learned that for each action that he took there would be response in accordance with his actions and school taught him that he must accept this fact and be accountable for those actions as well as the result.

The next core value that this student represents is loyalty. The Oxford Dictionary defines loyalty as faithful adherence to one’s promise, oath, and word of honor. This student’s personal definition to the term is remaining true to one’s self as well as others. This student believes that of the three core values loyalty is the most difficult to adhere to without creating conflict. The biggest influence to this core value was his mother. To her loyalty above everything is most important. This student can still recall the many speeches on loyalty his mother gave to him. She focused mostly on loyalty to family, however as he grew up the value of loyalty became centered in everyone he became involved with.

The third personal value that makes up that this student holds is compassion. The Oxford dictionary defines compassion as the feeling or emotion when a person is moved by the suffering or distress of another, and by the desire to relieve it. This value was first instilled in him as a child in the form of being kind to others, but has since become a core value since he has become a nurse. The nursing profession is centered on compassion toward all human-being and the wiliness to help relieve their suffering and ensure their comfort. The patients and families that he helps on a daily basis are in the hospital due to illness, disease, or some other disparity. One would not be able to be a nurse without compassion.

Criteria utilized to revise values

Even the most steadfast individual held values at times become subject to alterations. This is often the result of conflict produced by the same value being placed on two different matters. An example is trying to remain loyal to work who wants the employee to stay late to work on a project and remain loyal to his family who he promised to meet for dinner. Eventually conflicts such as this will arise. The only way to resolve the conflict is to determine which matter holds priority. The ability to prioritize what matters most is essential to resolving conflicts when they arise. Prioritizing is the primary criteria that this student uses when resolving conflicts that arise from his personal values. However, prioritization cannot be a sole determining factor when making decisions. This happens when the conflict involves matters either equals in priority or things unable to be prioritized. When this occurs a second or backup criterion is used. This criterion utilizes feedback from outside sources. This feedback could be representative of two sources. The first is feedback from those who I respect their opinion and the second is historical outcomes of similar conflicts. Such that his wife or families advice could be obtained or his willingness to stay late at work was not appreciated by his organization. According to Deborah Raines (1997), “A value is a belief upon which a person acts by preference or a representation