Most Values are Learned, Cornell Sociologist States
A person's sense of values is based upon his experience, Robin Williams, professor of sociology at Cornell University, said Friday in a sociology lecture in Dyche Auditorium.
Williams began by stating that the concept of value as an entity is relatively new. "I have lived through a period when attitudes have changed," he said.
HE REFERRED to value as possibly a learned behavior connected with the human organism. He said, "Man has a plasticity and docility in his organic makeup. The first year of human existence is sometimes referred to as a nesting period since man has not all of his instincts and learning done.
"He must learn to react to the stimuli about him," Williams added.
A value is an ideal to be achieved through desire, he said. "If one desires the ideal he will respond. If through his response learning occurs, a value is formed."
WILLIAMS THEN went into a discourse on learned values. He stated the concept that values are learned through stimuli.
Williams said that the formation of a desire involves a judgment of value. "There is, however, a difference between desire and preference. Preference indicates a relative value but not an absolute."
The way to determine the effect of values is through "sheer naturalistic observation," he said. He then began a portion of the lecture in which he presented various formulae for explanation. The first was "Value determines behavior." This was the theory that man has a conscience and that he is directed through himself without external influence, Williams said.
ANOTHER FORMULA was that "Conditions determine behavior." This is the stimulus response type formula. Values are either non-existent or meaningless in this set, he said.
The final group says the three are so interwoven that it is impossible to tell what determines what, Williams said. "Behavior is variable according to conditions, . . . People don't just act—they have to a reason."
The determination of values is something that is hard to understand, but "values have to come from experience," he said.
WILLIAMS ASKED how important freedom and equality—both of which are values—have to give or take in the interplay of conditions and values in behavior.
"My freedom infringes on your equality," he said. "Values occur in clusters. Freedom and equality are different but related in this."
Values therefore have a set of problems all their own, he said. In a changing society "the last thing to change is the system of values."
The crucial problems in the study of values are:
"What causes alienation of values?
"We have no theory to go on here.
"How do you re-center values?"
Williams said the idea of values has become accepted to a large degree. "The concept of values has proved itself of sufficient consequence that we should have some research in the area."
It Used to be...
By Hector Olave
Dec. 6, 1915
In spite of the fact that it was the "thirteenth" annual party of its kind, there was no "hoodoo" hovering about to spoil the Law Scrim, which was given in Robinson Gym. The monster affair was a success in everywhere—socially and financially. More than one hundred couples attended.
Dec. 6, 1940
"If the postman stopped to kick at every dog that barked at his heels he would never get his mail delivered," said Dr. F. C. (Phog) Allen answering criticism against his statement, "At the rate big time college football is going it will die of its own rottenness in 10 years."
Daily Kansan Monday, December 6, 1965
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