Spiritual Intelligence and the Ten Basic Human Values
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Spiritual Intelligence and the Ten Basic Human Values
«Because it is about men in his human representation; and about an enlargement of the eye to the highest interior seas »
Saint-John Perse, Winds
Awakening man’s consciousness. Is it only a dream?
Of course, many people fortunately manage to raise their level of consciousness by themselves, without any help or explanation, but they often do so in solitude, or even in pain. Following an event or a shock, they then realize the consequences that an attitude or a behavior, should be their own or the one of somebody else, had on their life or somebody life or life in general as for the last ecological disasters They learn then who they are in terms of value. The shock leads them to look for explanations and answers, trying to understand why events happen to them and how to react.
Every year, we are told that lots of people have died in the street of starvation or cold, often next door, in total indifference. When someone commits suicide, everyone is puzzled, especially their own children, when they haven’t anticipated anything. The answer can be despair, but many get aware of the fact and respond. The great majority of charities’ managers have lived family dramas.
But you may lack the tools because throughout the years, they have changed. No more schools and churches, whatever the religion, for answering to existential questions. Nowadays social life is usually ruled by politicking which no one believes in any longer. the values dictating their decisions are often obscure and they end up in muddled, and sometimes violent, situations that contradict good intentions. Then, confusion, distress and anger arise and the question is:” What can we turn to, here and now? Is there anything we can do? Why and how?”
Spiritual traditions teaches us that a first essential step towards a higher level of consciousness is about self-knowledge.
“Know yourself and you will know the universe and the gods”: this is what we can read on the pediment of Apollo’s temple in Delphi. Then, you will have the keys to understand the others better, including organisations, institutions, political and social systems...which are the framework of our social life.
This nearly four thousand years ancient rule may be retrieved in all the cultures and religions and has sometimes been forgotten. But it applies to everyone and everywhere, in a universal and permanent way. Of course, this rule or principle have been updated as several scientific discoveries occurred. An now, self-knowledge may be improved while adopting a syncretistic[1] approach combining social sciences, neurobiology, sociology, psychology and religions. In this post, I propose you to improve your self-knowledge by doing a test on your values. It is based on the theory of universal values developed by the social psychologist Shalom Schwartz in the 90s. This researched developed the Theory of Basic Human Values in the 90s according to which all human beings share the same ten values.
The Ten Universal Values
Values are a person's beliefs about what is important and central to his or her life and, as such, determine what they seek to achieve and attain in order to satisfy their main needs (Pope, Flores, Rottinghaus, 2014). Linked to the affects, they are relatively stable, transcend situations, are hierarchical and motivate action. The ten fundamental and universal values put forward by Schwartz (1992) are: autonomy, stimulation, hedonism, success, power, security, conformity, tradition, benevolence and universalism.
These values are structured along two axes ("Continuity vs. Change" and "Self-affirmation vs. self-improvement") and according to their compatibility. Thus, adjacent values are complementary, and those that are opposed, potentially in conflict (see Figure 1). These are valid for the personal sphere, but can also be applied to the professional sphere (Consiglio et al., 2017).
To take the test, it is here
To get the results, please send me an e-mail on info@elisabeth-carrio.com
RÉFÉRENCES
Consiglio, C., Cenciotti, R., Borgogni, L., Alessandri, G., & Schwartz, S. H. (2017). The WVal: A New Measure of Work Values. Journal of Career Assessment, 25(3), 405-422. doi:10.1177/1069072716639691
Pope, M., Flores, L. Y., & Rottinghaus, P. J. (Eds.) (2014). The role of values in careers. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
Schwartz, S. H. (1992). Universals in the Content and Structure of Values : Theoretical Advances and Empirical Tests in 20 Countries. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 25, 1-65. doi:10.1016/S0065-2601(08)60281-6
[1] Defined as a philosophical system based on mixing several different doctrines.