Values and Behavioural Controls
I understand values as a certain conduct and they are the main responsible for the culture of humanity and of the civilisations that have existed on our planet, values have been, are and will be the pillars of all civilisation or cultures, the words Civilisation and Culture, apparently synonyms, are not always, in my opinion, Culture is part of Civilisation, We could say that it is a subgroup, so as not to make a mess, but, I will use the word Humanity, and so everything will be easier, the values of humanity, have been and are very flexible and very variable, but also very strong and are very linked to the survival of man, its capital importance is the role that these values play in society when I say that they are flexible, I must be very careful because there are very strong values and others not so strong, on the other hand, while for one generation, these values may be very strong, for another generation they may not be so strong, and that is why we must be very careful with the flexibility and strength of the values, because we must take into account the context, currently the values of our society are not the same as those of other Societies, What is good for one society is not good for another and vice versa, so it is very difficult to analyse values, which are good and which are bad, the good ones, however, are the ones that promote survival, it is not my intention to make an analysis of values, but to make an analysis of behavioural controls, because for me value is a variable that is a function of the Culture, which we are talking about.
How many types of control are there?
First we must define what we understand as values and what it represents in the control of behaviour, in very distant times, the first values that we know did not represent a change but were a fact or a confirmation of what already existed in the modern society of those times, I am referring to the 10 Commandments, which became the official pioneers of values and put them in the place that corresponded, giving them a legal character, We could say that it was the first Constitution and the first social rules of behaviour, a kind of civil code, a jurisdiction, today many of these commandments are still in force, some have changed, others are the same and there are new ones, these commands or values are the ones that determine our behaviour in one direction or another, as long as we agree, or disagree, it will depend on the positive or negative relationship with our interests, Many times personal interests are stronger than values and that changes the balance, normally values are inside the head and in the conscience, they are always lurking, without us being conscious, everything happens automatically, but these are the ones that really control our behaviour, each one has his values and when he negotiates with one or another conduct, without him being conscious, he risks his values, and tests his mechanism, between values and interests, this negotiation can have consequences on his new behaviour or future, which will not always be in agreement with his values, it is possible that the interests are above the values, to this analysis I give the name of “Values and Behaviour Control”, which needs an explanation, for both values and behaviour control, are Controllers and this complicates the issue.
Let’s briefly analyse the value and define by itself, before continuing I would like to make a clarification of the word “Value”, because it is very important, be careful with Value, which is reality, conduct, behaviour and many more synonyms, well if a “dog barks”, is this a value, a reality, a conduct, or a behaviour, or so on and so forth. Well, here we will have to make an analysis of what the dog does, is it a value? man, not a reality! Well, yes, the fact that the dog barks is a reality, and also a behaviour, which is also a reality, it is not very important now in this case, what we can say is that if the dog barks it is a reality, and this is the essence of everything, of values, of conduct and behaviour and many other things more, I want to concentrate on “reality”, reality has three facets, the first one is that the dog makes it bark, and with this reality I call it mutant reality, then the dog barks and I call it pure reality or simply reality and when the dog has stopped barking, I call it resultant reality, reality alone is a symbol, a dog, a ship, but the dog barks, the ship sails is a Reality, everything else is, or values, behaviours, behaviours, opinions, judgement, criteria, concept, thought, belief and so on, we have to be very careful of all this, because here is the essence of everything, reality is the core of everything, and values, behaviours, behaviours, opinions, judgement, criteria, concept, thought, belief and so on, all have as their core the mutant reality, pure and resultant reality, and instead of saying values, behaviours, behaviours, opinions, judgement, criteria, concept, thought, belief and so on I will say or Values or Behaviour, ok? values include within it behaviours, I will explain here the effect it has, a value, or a certain behaviour, that makes you behave in one way or another, this is actually a Controlling effect, this effect determines a kind of agreement with the current values, that you firmly believe with them is another thing, Behavioural Control is the information of values, but this behaviour is already controlled by the values of the culture and by the interests of the Controllers, these controls can be biased and partial, but still valid because it is an existing control and has to be taken into account, The problem is that the individual often overlooks certain values, at the level of society, but values are the pillars of this and all societies, on the other hand, the Control of Behaviour is formed by, Your values are, among them, not to steal, not to fornicate, etcetera, but maybe for whatever reason these values are not very strong or you overlook them.
Let me be clear, first of all, there are realities, then values and ultimately behaviours and then everything else opinions, judgement, criteria, concept, thought, belief and so on, how many kinds of controls do we have? Well I have classified them and the most important are 10 Controllers namely:
Controllers
1) Parents
2) Teaching or School
3) Religion
4) Friends
5) Media TV-Radio-Internet Etc.
6) Biological – Hereditary
7) Sexuality
8) Environment
9) Political apparatus
10) Economy
1) Parents are the first to transmit the values of society, regardless of whether the child accepts them or not, they are the first to come into contact with them and become a very important source of values and behaviours.
2) The school is the second contact that the child has with people outside the home, perhaps with very different impulses from the family, it is clear that they are values that are not necessarily the same, but the child realises that there is something outside the family, from here, the child sees that the values do not fit exactly and sometimes there can even be conflicts of values, society has programmed and condensed the essence of its values that it wants to transmit to the child so that he continues to transmit these values.
3) Religion is, or can be, a very important source of very deep and strong values which, strengthened by other values, can become a high potential for control.
4) Friends and friendships, given the plurality within values, are for children and older children a new source of values, friends help them, within another context that is not communal but individual, to differentiate between different types of friendships.
5) The media are extraordinarily important nowadays, it was not like that before, but TV, Radio, Internet, Computers, Cinema, Theatre, Books, mobile phones, etc., have been an enormous source of information, and globalisation, all of this helps the exchange of values.
6) Biological Inheritance is a control that can define a lot of values, I will recall, for example, beauty, intelligence, race, diseases (with all that it entails) etc. mutilations, deformities, etc.
7) The control of Sexuality is also very strong, since it is the main responsible for survival, there are values established by Society, about how these values should be, and it gives the impression that they are well defined, sexuality is above all kinds of values, regarding sexuality, even the individual who firmly believes in these values, at the moment of truth, if the occasion arises, he will overlook them, the value of sexuality is also a value that must be taken into account, the very strong sexuality of a person can lead, in the social world, to a certain instability in the framework of established values, therefore, a divergent sexuality can lead to a very important turn in the conduct or value of that person, sexuality today is still a taboo, and there are countless subgroups that are not well seen in our culture, they continue, however, to fight for sexual equality.
8) The environment exerts a very important control, especially before, when man lived determined, to a large extent, by the environment, fortunately, however, things have changed, a person born in Africa has very different values from those who live in the Arctic, the control of the environment is less important every day because a person, a thousand years ago, the way of living was very different from today, before they lived in an igloo and today they live in flats or houses with heating and all the comforts, anyway, outside the house or the flat, the meteorological situation is the same, and, in this case, the control would be the same as before, but a person who lives in the desert, or in the jungle or in the Arctic or in New York, they have different values, and the conclusion is that the Environment, exerts a Control
9) Politics As can be understood, all the values that are determined by the political apparatus are also very important, there are three political systems:
- A) Dictatorships.
- B) Religious Theocracies
- C) Democracies
Dictatorships set the values of their subjects.
Theocracies tell their parishioners what values they should have.
Democracies set values through elections
10) The Economy or Money, also have a very important role, they are these Controllers, that have a vital importance, since it controls the conduct of the person, it is a very important value in the society, manipulating these can manipulate the Conduct of the Culture.
Enric Giné