This original and engaging book advocates an unabashedly empirical approach to understanding human values: abstract ideals that we consider important, such as freedom, equality, achievement, helpfulness, security, tradition, and peace. Our values are relevant to everything we do, helping us choose between careers, schools, romantic partners, places to live, things to buy, who to vote for, and much more. There is enormous public interest in the psychology of values and a growing recognition of the need for a deeper understanding of the ways in which values are embedded in our attitudes and behavior. How do they affect our well-being, our relationships with other people, our prosperity, and our environment? In his examination of these questions, Maio focuses on tests of theories about values, through observations of what people actually think and do. In the past five decades, psychological research has learned a lot about values, and this book describes what we have learned and why it is important. It provides the first overview of psychological research looking at how we mentally represent and use our values, and constitutes important reading for psychology students at all levels, as well as academics in psychology and related social and health sciences.

This original and engaging book advocates an unabashedly empirical approach to understanding human values: abstract ideals that we consider important, such as freedom, equality, achievement, helpfulness, security, tradition, and peace. Our values are relevant to everything we do, helping us choose between careers, schools, romantic partners, places to live, things to buy, who to vote for, and much more. There is enormous public interest in the psychology of values and a growing recognition of the need for a deeper understanding of the ways in which values are embedded in our attitudes and behavior. How do they affect our well-being, our relationships with other people, our prosperity, and our environment? In his examination of these questions, Maio focuses on tests of theories about values, through observations of what people actually think and do. In the past five decades, psychological research has learned a lot about values, and this book describes what we have learned and why it is important. It provides the first overview of psychological research looking at how we mentally represent and use our values, and constitutes important reading for psychology students at all levels, as well as academics in psychology and related social and health sciences.

This important book considers the wealth of social psychological research on human values (e.g. honesty, equality, freedom, security) and examines the role they play in our attitudes, behavior, well-being, and interaction with others.

Reflecting the contributions of M. Brewster Smith to social psychology and personality study, this selection includes not only his best known essays but also previously unpublished material. Professor Smith's consistent striving for a psychology both scientific and humane unifies the collection; it is a valid and valuable overview of the relevance of social psychology to human experience and societal problems by a man at the midstream of his career.An introductory essay traces the major themes in Professor Smith's work. Part I discusses the interdisciplinary relations of social psychology with other behavioral sciences; it shows that social psychology, standing at the crossroads of the social sciences, must articulate its contributions with those of the other disciplines, and it delineates the problems involved in this articulation. Part II presents the author's principal contributions to the social psychology of attitudes and values, a central topic in the field, in which he is a major proponent of the functional approach. Part III is devoted to the broader issues of personality theory, focusing on the "self" as the object of personal attitudes and including a classic paper on the phenomenological approach.Parts IV and V probe human effectiveness and "mental health," consider the social development of personal competence, and examine from a social psychological perspective a variety of social problems -foreign students and cross-cultural education, population growth, ethnic prejudice, and student protest. The final group of essays deals with perennial human concerns: the nature of rationality, the ethics of behavioral research, the psychology of literature, and the problems of evil.

This volume presents theoretical, methodological, and empirical advances in understanding, and also in the effects of understanding, individual and societal values.

Social psychologists have studied beliefs and values, and related constructs such as "attitudes" and "prejudice" for decades. But as this innovative and interdisciplinary book convincingly demonstrates, the scientific examination of beliefs and values now influences research and practice across a range of disciplines. Specifically, this edited volume explores the many cutting edge implications and applications of Equilintegration or EI Theory and the Beliefs, Events, and Values Inventory (BEVI). Grounded in twenty years of research and practice, EI Theory seeks to explain the processes by which beliefs, values, and worldviews are acquired and maintained, why their alteration is resisted, and under what circumstances they are modified. Based upon EI Theory, the BEVI is a comprehensive analytic tool which examines how and why we come to see ourselves, others, and the larger world as we do as well as the influence of such processes on multiple aspects of human functioning. Edited by the developer of the EI model and BEVI method, and informed by contributions from leading U.S. and international scholars, this book features captivating research findings and pioneering practice applications. Research-focused chapters explain how the EI model and BEVI method increase our conceptual sophistication and methodological capacity across a range of areas: Culture, Development, Environment, Gender, Personality, Politics, and Religion. Practice-oriented chapters demonstrate how the BEVI is used in the real world across a range of applied domains: Assessment, Education, Forensics, Leadership, and Psychotherapy. Written in an accessible and engaging manner, this fascinating and timely volume speaks to many of the most pressing issues of our day, by illuminating why we believe what we believe, and demonstrating how our beliefs and values may be assessed, explained, and transformed in the real world. Key Features: Presents an interdisciplinary theoretical model and innovative assessment method derived from two decades of work on the etiology, maintenance, and transformation of beliefs and values Features contributions from leading scholars from the U.S. and internationally, demonstrating the many implications and applications of this cutting edge approach for research and practice Demonstrates the importance of "making sense of beliefs and values" in addressing many of the most pressing issues of our day

First Published in 1971, Human Values and the Mind of Man examines how value questions have been treated in traditional theories of human nature. The book presents an interdisciplinary dialogue centred around the 'human mind'.