The American Value System

Chapter 3 – Section 1

Traditional American Values

• Personal Achievement

– Based on believe in individualism and competition

– Evident in employment, and measured in power and wealth

• Individualism– Base for personal achievement– Ones success comes from hard work

and initiative

• Work– Always valued– Not based on rewards– Mostly seen as virtue

• Morality and Humanitarianism

– U.S. founded on religious faith, justice and equality

– Charity towards the less fortunate big part of American life

• Efficiency and Practicality

– Every problem has a solution

– Objects judged on usefulness

– People judged on their ability to get things done

• Progress and Material Comfort

– With hard work and determination, living standards will improve

– Science and technology make the world a better place

• Equality and Democracy

– Human equality = equality of opportunity and equal chance of success

– Citizens have the right to express their opinions and choose their representatives in government

• Freedom

– People have personal choice

– Protection from direct government interference in business and daily life

• Other Core Values

– Education

– Religious values

– Romantic love

– Self-fulfillment

– Environment

Changing Values

• Self-fulfillment– Development of one’s personality,

talents and potential

– Narcissism

Social Control

Chapter 3 – Section 2

Internalization of Norms

• Internalization– Norms become part of the

personality of an individual

– Individual conforms to society’s expectation

Sanctions

• Sanctions – motivations for people to enforce conformity to the norms of society

• Positive Sanctions

– Rewards for a particular, expected behavior

• Parents give rewards with praise

• Teacher reward students for turning in good work

• Negative Sanctions

– Punishment or threat of punishment are used to enforce conformity

• Ridicules, fines, imprisonment or death

• Formal Sanctions

– Reward or punishment given by organization or regulatory agency

• Negative: Low grades, suspension, termination or imprisonment

• Positive: Graduation certificates, raises in pay, promotion and awards

• Informal Sanctions

– Spontaneous approval or disapproval by a group or individual

• Positive: standing ovations, compliments, smiles and gifts

• Negative: gossips, insults, and ridicules

Social Control

• Social control is self-control

– Internalization of norms

– Agents perform external enforcement

Social Change

Chapter 3 – Section 3

Sources of Social Change

• Values and Beliefs– Ideology

• System of ideas or beliefs that justifies the social, moral, religious, political, or economic interests held by a group or society

– Social Movement• Long-term conscious effort to promote

or prevent social change

• Technology

– Knowledge and tools that people use to manipulate their environment

– New technologies evolve through discovery and invention

• Population

– Changes in population will bring changes in culture

– Cultural changes also result from changes in the average age of the population

– Diffusion• Spread of cultural traits from one

society to another

– Reformulation• Adapting borrowed cultural traits

• Physical Environment– Environment provides conditions

that encourage or discourage cultural change

• Wars and Conquests– Not common source of cultural

change, but result in the greatest change

Resistance to Change

• Ethnocentrism

– The tendency to view one’s own culture or group as superior to others

– Ethnocentrism makes cultural borrowing difficult or impossible

• Cultural Lag– The rapid change of some traits, and

the transformation of others that take a long time

• Vested Interests– A persons resist any change that

threatens their security or standard of living