May 4, 2021 –
Topic: Everything You Wanted to Know about Values but Were Afraid to Ask
For the last few years, I have been using a new concept of "value" which I believe clarifies every issue in psychology. This concept refers to a psychological phenomenon that you can introspect. In this meaning of the word, values are real, stable structures in your psychology. At any given time, you have the values you have. You cannot change them by decree, although they do change over time as a result of your actions.
In this class, I will explain this concept of value, and show how it enables you to understand yourself and your emotional reactions at a deeper level. We will discuss:
• The observational evidence that you hold a value
• How values form
• What a value hierarchy is and what it is not
• How you identify your value hierarchy
• How you change your value hierarchy over time
• How a morality (a code of values) helps you organize your value hierarchy
• What it means to say a value is at stake right now
• Why your value hierarchy does not dictate the top value at stake right now
• Why you cannot decree the top value at stake right now
• Why I have you focus on "right now" as opposed to some other time