social values essay

50 Social Values Examples

Chris Drew (PhD)

Dr. Chris Drew is the founder of the Helpful Professor. He holds a PhD in education and has published over 20 articles in scholarly journals. He is the former editor of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education. [Image Descriptor: Photo of Chris]

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Social values refer to the values of a society or social group . These are the values that keep the society functioning and cohesive.

Often, social values are inherent in a society’s social contract – a set of agreed-upon values and virtues that make the members of the society feel as if fairness and justice are delivered.

Social values tend to be confused with cultural values. While the two overlap, social values are usually more related to a set of expectations around citizenship or group membership (such as ‘obey the law’ or ‘be polite’) while cultural values represent the customs and traditions of your cultural group (such as ‘modesty’ or ‘honor thy father’).

Social Values Examples

Harmony is a social value because it represents a fundamental value necessary in order for a society to remain functional and cohesive. Without it, we may experience some degree of anarchy.

With harmony, we can maintain a peaceful and cooperative social environment where people can get on their lives unimpeded, so long as everyone adheres to this value.

To achieve and maintain social harmony, there is often both a right and responsibility: a right to live in peace, but also a responsibility to be peaceful yourself, so you don’t break the social harmony.

Example of Harmony In a workplace, harmony could be achieved by promoting open communication, resolving conflicts in a respectful and fair manner, and creating a culture that values each individual’s contribution.

2. Fairness

To be fair is to try to be impartial in the way you treat other people, trying to avoid prejudice, bias, or discrimination against or toward any individual.

The benefit of fairness is that it will lead to other key values of a society, like harmony and democracy. As a result, we often see fairness as what sociologists call an instrumental value – a value that helps unlock other deeper values that are important to us. greater social harmony and a general sense of justice in the world.

On a social level, fairness might mean that everyone gets a fair trial rather than being persecuted without a chance to defend your innocence.

On a personal level, fairness can look like taking turns in a game, sharing with others, or obeying the rules even when you lose.

Example of Fairness A judge who acts with fairness will make decisions in the court room based on facts and evidence. They may be required to distribute resources in a way that they judge to be most fair to the most people (such as in a divorce dispute) or they may have to decide what is a fair punishment for a crime.

3. Civic Duty

Civic Duty is the responsibility of a citizen to contribute to their society. This social value is exercised when someone volunteers, votes, or sits on a jury duty.

In democracies, civic duty is a core feature of active citizenship. It requires us to participate in public affairs such as voting and following the law. But some particularly patriotic members of a society may go above and beyond in their civic duty by serving as a police officer, nurse, firefighter, or soldier. Standing for public office is also considered an act of civic duty.

However, in most societies, the core civic duty which is often unavoidable (if called up) is jury duty.

Civic Duty Example Serving on a jury is one of the most important patriotic civic duties that a citizen can perform. It is an opportunity to help ensure that justice is served, and to play a role in upholding the rule of law.

4. Privacy and Property Rights

Respecting the privacy and property of others is a value in most societies. It refers to the importance of not intervening in others’ lives and restricting their rights as a private citizen.

The right to privacy, for example, can be reflected in the social responsibility we have to not pry or interrupt, and even on an individual level, not gossip about others.

Respecting private property would be reflected in the responsibility not to steal or trespass, but it is also a moral value in the sense that when we find something like a wallet on the street, we should continue to respect the fact that this is not ours and we should return it to the owner.

Private property rights are generally a social value in most societies, perhaps with the exception of a pure communist world.

Example of Respect for Privacy An instance of respecting privacy could be refraining from reading someone else’s personal messages or emails without their consent, even if you have access to them.

5. Democracy

Democratic values are a wide range of values that cohere around the idea that a society should be governed by consent of the people – genreally reflected by a ballot in which people vote on issues or select representatives.

While there are many forms of democracy , democratic values are underpinned by this sense that there should be no ‘ruler for life’. Rather, we all get an equal say in whether something should or should not happen.

Democratic values can also extend to social concepts like liberty (all people are free to live their lives without undue influence from others), equality (nobody is better than anyone else), and justice (everyone should follow the law, and lawbreakers should face fair judgment).

As a social value, democracy may also emphasize the importance of everyone’s right to express their views (freedom of speech) and participate in decision-making processes (as in direct democracy ).

Example of Democracy The most obvious example example of democracy is voting. But another example could be being allowed to stand up and say what you believe even if it’s a minority viewpoint.

6. Respect for Others

Respect refers to treating everyone with dignity , even if you don’t agree with them.

To be respectful, we would aim to treat people the way we would want to be treated and not violate their rights, interests, or personal space.

Being respectful is often most important when we disagree with someone else or are in conflict with them. In those situations, we need to remember that we need to always treat everyone – no matter who they are – with respect. Here, we can see that respect is also a moral value.

Example of Respect A simple everyday example of respect is waiting your turn in a line. This, generally, is a western conception of respectfulness. For example, I recall in Thailand getting very mad at all the loclas pushing in-front in a line-up to get tickes, and I realized they didn’t consider this to be disrespectful in their society – each society has different values!

Honesty is the virtue of truthfulness, sincerity, and straightforwardness. Most societies see this as an important value that maintains decorum within a society.

For example, by expecting everyone in society to speak the truth to one another, we can then engage in trade and social interactions with a degree of security and safety that we wouldn’t have if this were not a core value of the society.

As with many values, this differs from one society to another. For example, societies rife with corruption cannot trust the police to behave honestly and impartially, and they may even expect you to give them money to make the problem go away.

Example of Honesty If you accidentally break an item in a shop, honesty would entail you admitting your mistake to the shopkeeper and offering to pay for the damage, rather than hiding it or blaming someone else.

8. Compassion

Compassion occurs when we feel sympathy for people when they are struggling or hurt, and often, it means we will be inclined to help out others in our society.

This is a social value because a compassionate society will take care of other members of our social group. This may mean as a society agreeing to provide aid and housing to the homeless, healthcare to the sick, and so on, even if those people cannot afford it.

On a personal level, it may mean donating to an important cause or helping your neighbor when they are in need.

The more compassionate a society, the more likely we’ll find that either the individuals or social organizations will care for those in need.

Example of Compassion If you see someone crying, you may feel a reflexive feeling that you want to give that person a hug. Here, you’re expressing a base feeling of compassion for your fellow citizen.

Justice refers to fairness based on a moral, political, or ideological worldview.

But there are many different ways of thinking about justice and how it can be delivered in a society, meaning it’s a value that differs across different societies.

For example, some societies highly value retributive justice, which involves taking vengeance on offenders and punishing them harshly to both harm the offender and deter others from also offending.

Other societies value restorative justice , where the offender must make amends to the victims and community, and may have to go through rehabilitation before being returned to the community.

Of course, on an individual level, justice may look a lot like fairness – e.g. ensuring everyone gets equal turns on the sports pitch.

Example of Justice In a sports team, a coach showing justice would give all players an equal opportunity to demonstrate their skills and contribute to the game, rather than favoring a select few. If a rule is broken, the coach would take appropriate action regardless of who broke it.

10. Cooperation

Cooperation is the process of working together respectfully with common interests or goals.

On a broad social level, cooperation is important because it ensures society is harmonious and social interactions go smoothly.

Societies of all stripes generally value cooperation out of acknowledgment that by working together, we all benefit – such as by finishing a job faster or ensuring an event is run smoothly.

Example of Cooperation As a cooperative citizen, you might offer to pitch in and help people if you see that a car is attempting to get out if a tight parking spot.

List of Social Values (A to Z)

• Adaptability
• Authenticity
• Community Involvement
• Cooperation
• Environmental Stewardship
• Forgiveness
• Health and Wellness
• Mindfulness
• Perseverance
• Reliability
• Respect for Diversity
• Respect for Law and Order
• Respect for Privacy
• Responsibility
• Self-discipline
• Self-Improvement
• Service to Others
• Trustworthiness

Remember that different societies have different social values.

Social vs Cultural vs Moral Values

Social, cultural, and moral values are overlapping concepts and you’ll find that one value could fit under all three categories.

However, there are some key differences:

• Social values: Social values represent the values of a social group – an organized group of individuals brought together by shared interests. 
• Cultural values : A society has many cultures in it – e.g Canada is a multicultural society . So, cultural values are more specific to a group of people with shared customs, traditions, and belief systems – i.e. western culture or Aboriginal culture .
• Moral values : are any values that represent right and wrong, good and bad. They are often based upon a coherent moral framework that stems from religious texts, philosophy, or cultural lore.

(Go deeper: Society vs Culture )

Here is a table that compares these three types of values:

Of course, these categories can and do overlap significantly – a bit like a venn diagram. For example, the dominant culture in a society tends to shape social values. Similarly, many cultures are oriented around a specific religious tradition, so the culture itself has its own set of moral values.

Social values refer to the set of values that a specific society (distinct from a culture ) generally agrees upon. Different societies will have different values, although some values do tend to be shared by most societies – such as cooperation and fairness.

One interesting way to differentiate between different societies with different values is to compare western and eastern societies, which are often differentiated by differing foci – for more on this, I recommend reading my piece on individualism versus collectivism next .

• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd-2/ 10 Reasons you’re Perpetually Single
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd-2/ 20 Montessori Toddler Bedrooms (Design Inspiration)
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• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd-2/ 101 Hidden Talents Examples

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Essays About Values: 5 Essay Examples Plus 10 Prompts

Similar to how our values guide us, let this guide with essays about values and writing prompts help you write your essay.

Values are the core principles that guide the actions we take and the choices we make. They are the cornerstones of our identity. On a community or organizational level, values are the moral code that every member must embrace to live harmoniously and work together towards shared goals. 

We acquire our values from different sources such as parents, mentors, friends, cultures, and experiences. All of these build on one another — some rejected as we see fit — for us to form our perception of our values and what will lead us to a happy and fulfilled life.

5 Essay Examples

1. what today’s classrooms can learn from ancient cultures by linda flanagan, 2. stand out to your hiring panel with a personal value statement by maggie wooll, 3. make your values mean something by patrick m. lencioni, 4. how greed outstripped need by beth azar, 5. a shift in american family values is fueling estrangement by joshua coleman, 1. my core values, 2. how my upbringing shaped my values, 3. values of today’s youth, 4. values of a good friend, 5. an experience that shaped your values, 6. remembering our values when innovating, 7. important values of school culture, 8. books that influenced your values, 9. religious faith and moral values, 10. schwartz’s theory of basic values.

“Connectedness is another core value among Maya families, and teachers seek to cultivate it… While many American teachers also value relationships with their students, that effort is undermined by the competitive environment seen in many Western classrooms.”

Ancient communities keep their traditions and values of a hands-off approach to raising their kids. They also preserve their hunter-gatherer mindsets and others that help their kids gain patience, initiative, a sense of connectedness, and other qualities that make a helpful child.

“How do you align with the company’s mission and add to its culture? Because it contains such vital information, your personal value statement should stand out on your resume or in your application package.”

Want to rise above other candidates in the jobs market? Then always highlight your value statement. A personal value statement should be short but still, capture the aspirations and values of the company. The essay provides an example of a captivating value statement and tips for crafting one.

“Values can set a company apart from the competition by clarifying its identity and serving as a rallying point for employees. But coming up with strong values—and sticking to them—requires real guts.”

Along with the mission and vision, clear values should dictate a company’s strategic goals. However, several CEOs still needed help to grasp organizational values fully. The essay offers a direction in setting these values and impresses on readers the necessity to preserve them at all costs. 

“‘He compared the values held by people in countries with more competitive forms of capitalism with the values of folks in countries that have a more cooperative style of capitalism… These countries rely more on strategic cooperation… rather than relying mostly on free-market competition as the United States does.”

The form of capitalism we have created today has shaped our high value for material happiness. In this process, psychologists said we have allowed our moral and ethical values to drift away from us for greed to take over. You can also check out these essays about utopia .

“From the adult child’s perspective, there might be much to gain from an estrangement: the liberation from those perceived as hurtful or oppressive, the claiming of authority in a relationship, and the sense of control over which people to keep in one’s life. For the mother or father, there is little benefit when their child cuts off contact.”

It is most challenging when the bonds between parent and child weaken in later years. Psychologists have been navigating this problem among modern families, which is not an easy conflict to resolve. It requires both parties to give their best in humbling themselves and understanding their loved ones, no matter how divergent their values are. 

10 Writing  Prompts On Essays About Values

For this topic prompt, contemplate your non-negotiable core values and why you strive to observe them at all costs. For example, you might value honesty and integrity above all else. Expound on why cultivating fundamental values leads to a happy and meaningful life. Finally, ponder other values you would like to gain for your future self. Write down how you have been practicing to adopt these aspired values. 

Many of our values may have been instilled in us during childhood. This essay discusses the essential values you gained from your parents or teachers while growing up. Expound on their importance in helping you flourish in your adult years. Then, offer recommendations on what households, schools, or communities can do to ensure that more young people adopt these values.

Is today’s youth lacking essential values, or is there simply a shift in what values generations uphold? Strive to answer this and write down the healthy values that are emerging and dying. Then think of ways society can preserve healthy values while doing away with bad ones. Of course, this change will always start at home, so also encourage parents, as role models, to be mindful of their words, actions and behavior.  

The greatest gift in life is friendship. In this essay, enumerate the top values a friend should have. You may use your best friend as an example. Then, cite the best traits your best friend has that have influenced you to be a better version of yourself. Finally, expound on how these values can effectively sustain a healthy friendship in the long term. 

We all have that one defining experience that has forever changed how we see life and the values we hold dear. Describe yours through storytelling with the help of our storytelling guide . This experience may involve a decision, a conversation you had with someone, or a speech you heard at an event.  

With today’s innovation, scientists can make positive changes happen. But can we truly exercise our values when we fiddle with new technologies whose full extent of positive and adverse effects we do not yet understand such as AI? Contemplate this question and look into existing regulations on how we curb the creation or use of technologies that go against our values. Finally, assess these rules’ effectiveness and other options society has. 

Highlight a school’s role in honing a person’s values. Then, look into the different aspects of your school’s culture. Identify which best practices distinct in your school are helping students develop their values. You could consider whether your teachers exhibit themselves as admirable role models or specific parts of the curriculum that help you build good character. 

In this essay, recommend your readers to pick up your favorite books, particularly those that served as pathways to enlightening insights and values. To start, provide a summary of the book’s story. It would be better if you could do so without revealing too much to avoid spoiling your readers’ experience. Then, elaborate on how you have applied the values you learned from the book.

For many, religious faith is the underlying reason for their values. For this prompt, explore further the inextricable links between religion and values. If you identify with a certain religion, share your thoughts on the values your sector subscribes to. You can also tread the more controversial path on the conflicts of religious values with socially accepted beliefs or practices, such as abortion. 

Dive deeper into the ten universal values that social psychologist Shalom Schwartz came up with: power, achievement, hedonism, stimulation, self-direction, universalism, benevolence, tradition, conformity, and security. Look into their connections and conflicts against each other. Then, pick your favorite value and explain how you relate to it the most. Also, find if value conflicts within you, as theorized by Schwartz.

Make sure to check out our round-up of the best essay checkers . If you want to use the latest grammar software, read our guide on using an AI grammar checker .

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Measuring Social Impact

Measuring social value.

Funders, nonprofit executives, and policymakers are very enthusiastic about measuring social value. Alas, they cannot agree on what it is, let alone how to assess it. Their main obstacle is assuming that social value is objective, fixed, and stable. When people approach social value as subjective, malleable, and variable, they create better metrics to capture it.

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By Geoff Mulgan Summer 2010

Over the last few decades, many people have attempted to measure what is sometimes called social, public, or civic value—that is, the value that nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), social enterprises , social ventures, and social programs create. 1 The demand for these metrics has come from all sectors: Foundations want to direct their grants to the most effective programs; public officials, policymakers, and government budget offices have to account for their spending decisions; investors want hard data analogous to measures of profit; and nonprofits need to demonstrate their impact to funders, partners, and beneficiaries. Metrics to meet these needs have proliferated over the last 40 years, resulting in hundreds of competing methods for calculating social value. 2

Despite the enthusiasm for metrics, few people actually use them to guide decisions. In the nonprofit sector, good managers are very rigorous about tracking costs and income. But few use sophisticated metrics to help allocate resources. Meanwhile, in the public sector, political judgment counts more than cost-benefit assessments. In the rare cases when decision makers do use metrics of social value , it’s far from clear that they should.

I’ve dealt with social value metrics in a variety of roles: as director of policy and strategy under United Kingdom Prime Minister Tony Blair; as director of the Young Foundation, an NGO that has created dozens of ventures, some for-profit, some social enterprises, and some public; and as an advisor to many other governments. In these positions, I’ve seen not only why social value metrics are ignored, but also how to make them more useful.

One recent project that proved particularly informative was a collaboration between the United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS) and the Young Foundation. The NHS commissioned the Young Foundation to develop a practical tool for assessing service innovations and guiding investment decisions. The NHS is a vast organization with a budget of around $150 billion, a workforce of some 1.2 million employees, and contracts with more than 30,000 social enterprises. It needed a set of tools that would be both robust and flexible, and that could be used for decision making as well as evaluation.

We started by scanning existing social value metrics, such as the ones described in the table “10 Ways to Measure Social Value” on page 41. We found hundreds of competing tools, of which foundations and NGOs generally use one set, governments another, and academics yet another. In addition to discovering this segmentation, our survey suggested two more reasons why so few metrics guide real decisions. First, most metrics assume that value is objective, and therefore discoverable through analysis. Yet as most modern economists now agree, value is not an objective fact. Instead, value emerges from the interaction of supply and demand, and ultimately reflects what people or organizations are willing to pay. Because so few of the tools reflect this, they are inevitably misaligned with an organization’s strategic and operational priorities.

The second reason that current measures of social value fail to influence decision makers is that they conflate three very different roles: accounting to external stakeholders, managing internal operations, and assessing societal impact. In the business sector, decision makers use different tools for each of these tasks. An airplane manufacturer, for instance, would use one set of metrics, mandated by laws and regulations, to explain to external stakeholders how it spends its money. The company would then use a second set of metrics to allocate resources in the building of airplanes. (It is a brave manager who would let investors see these internal accounts.) The company would then use entirely different kinds of measures to explain how its activities affect larger economic indicators such as gross domestic product.

Yet in the social and public sectors, some proponents of new social value measures claim that their metric can play all three roles. Not surprisingly, and despite courageous efforts, these attempts to do three things at once have resulted in the failure to do any one of them well.

Here, I describe a better way to think about social value: the product of the dynamic interaction between supply and demand in the evolution of markets for social value. I then show how decision makers in the nonprofit and public sectors can use these insights to measure what can be measured without pretending to measure what can’t be. Finally I recommend better ways to make social value metrics. My main advice is that nonprofits and foundations should resist the current trend of developing assessment tools entirely separately from public policy and academic social science, and instead should collaborate across sectors.

Elusive Quarry

The failure of the social and public sectors to measure the value they create does not stem from a paucity of intelligence or good intention. Rather, it reflects four unavoidable complexities that bedevil the measurement of social value. First among these is the lack of hard-and-fast laws and regularities in the social field. Many people would love the social field to be more like natural science, so that they could definitely predict the effects of, say, a $10 million investment in a crime prevention program.

But unlike molecules, which follow the rules of physics rather obediently, human beings have minds of their own, and are subject to many social, psychological, and environmental forces. Several decades of involvement in evidence-based policymaking has shown me that although evidence should inform all action, very few domains allow precise predictions about what causes will lead to what effects. The social sciences (including business) simply do not have laws in the way that physics has. Even seemingly solid economic principles, such as the rule that demand falls when prices rise, have many exceptions.

A second reason that measuring social value is hard is that, in many of the most important fields of social action—such as crime prevention, childcare, and schooling—people do not agree about what the desired outcome should be. In other words, the public argues not only about social value, but also about social values. For example, many people want to imprison criminals to punish them, even when incarceration costs more and confers fewer benefits than do alternatives to prison. Psychologists call this willingness to sacrifice a lot to penalize others altruistic punishment.

Because people’s ethics, morals, and priorities vary, social value assessments that look only at costs and benefits are bound not to influence many members of the public and the politicians who represent them. Philosophers (from John Dewey to Luc Boltanski) have long recognized that societies are made up of competing and conflicting systems of valuation and justification. But measurers of social value have often tried to deny this.

Even without these problems, many social value metrics are inherently unreliable. Measurements of social return on investment (SROI), for example, often quite arbitrarily estimate costs and paybacks, which dramatically affects the final calculated value. SROI calculations can help in broad-stroke predictions, but they can’t help with finer-grained decisions.

Revealed preference and stated preference methods are also notoriously unreliable. Although they try to provide precise numbers, they are not very rigorous about the means of deriving these numbers. As a result, these methods confuse rigor with precision—a point that REDF and others in the SROI field increasingly recognize.

A final reason that measuring social value is difficult is the problem of time—estimating how much good an action will bring about many years in the future, relative to how much it will cost to implement it now. In predictions of commercial returns on investment (ROI), businesspeople use discount rates to account for the assumption that a given amount of money will be worth less in the future than it is in the present. With a 5 percent discount rate, for example, $100 of today’s money will be worth only $35.85 in 30 years, and only $7.69 in 50 years. Many current measures of social value, such as SROI, likewise use commercial discount rates—perhaps because of a mistaken belief that treating social discount rates as equal to commercial ones will make social value metrics seem more rigorous.

But it’s not clear why social organizations and governments should use commercial discount rates, especially as these rates radically devalue the future. Indeed, we should hope that the people in these organizations give greater weight to the interests of future generations than do commercial markets. A closer analysis of discount rates suggests that they do. 3 In health, many countries apply a very low or zero discount rate, on the grounds that younger generations should not be disadvantaged relative to older ones. Governments ignore discount rates when investing in education and defense technologies. And in climate change policy, a furious debate has raged about what discount rates to apply—again in part a moral argument about how to weigh the needs of future generations against the needs of current ones. These examples reflect my broader point: Social value is not an objective fact. Instead, it emerges from the interaction of supply and demand, and therefore may change across time, people, places, and situations.

Constructing Value

Borrowing practices from business and economics has led to many mistakes in the measurement of social value. Yet these fields still offer some important lessons for the field of social innovation. For much of human history, philosophers and economists believed that value was an objective fact. Aristotle thought that there was a “just price” for everything, for instance. And Karl Marx thought that value came from labor.

But more recently, most economists have accepted that the only meaningful concept of value is that it arises from the interaction of demand and supply in markets. In other words, something is valuable only if someone is willing to pay for it. This blunt approach upsets many people because it implies that there may be no economic value in a beautiful sunset, an endangered species, or a wonderful work of art. But this definition of value is useful because it forces economists to observe real behavior, rather than trying to uncover hidden realities.

The time is ripe for the social field to take an equally simple starting point, and to view social value as arising from the interplay of what I call effective demand and effective supply. Effective demand means that someone is willing to pay for a service or an outcome. That “someone” may be a public agency, a foundation, or individual citizens. Effective supply means that the service or outcome works, is affordable, and is implementable. I use the qualifier “effective” because social problems will always invite simple supply and simple demand. But to measure social value, the supplies and demands must be effective in the senses described above.

Markets, conversations, and negotiations then link, on the one hand, people and organizations with needs and resources, with, on the other hand, people and organizations with solutions and services. Social value metrics are useful if they give shape to these markets, conversations, and negotiations.

In some fields, the links between supply and demand are mature. For example, many voters are willing to pay taxes for police forces and primary schools, and many governments are able to supply these services. Likewise, many donors are willing to fund health care for children in developing countries, and many local charities and churches are able to deliver this care. In these domains, analyzing social value is not difficult, because the links between what funders want and what providers know they can offer is clear.

But for other social issues, the links between supply and demand are missing. In some cases, effective demand may be lacking because funders, politicians, or private citizens do not view a need as pressing enough to warrant their resources. For example, some states are unwilling to fund sex education or drug treatment. In other cases, effective demand may be present—for instance, many governments are willing to pay to reduce obesity—but the supply of cost-effective interventions is limited. In these situations any descriptions of social value are bound to be more tentative and exploratory.

In still other cases, both sides of the supply-demand equation may be murky or complex. Many social policy makers, for instance, understand that more holistic solutions often yield better results. But holistic approaches necessarily have to deal with purchasers—that is, demand—that are split across many different public agencies and NGOs, each with its own view of what really counts as valuable. The supply side may also be fragmented: Helping homeless people, for example, may depend on the contribution of many different agencies to provide therapy, alcohol treatment, job training, and housing. In these fields, too, social value can become clearer only through iterative processes that bring together supply and demand in deliberation and discussion. Even the most brilliant researcher cannot measure or even describe social value if she is not immersed in these discussions.

Healthy Numbers

All of these points have become particularly clear in our work for the NHS, which is involved in everything from routine checkups, to surgeries, to behavior-change interventions, to community programs. The advantage of a single, integrated health service like the NHS is that it has to be explicit about its demands, that is, what it needs and what it is willing to pay for. The NHS’s effective supply side is also reasonably easy to define, and it includes doctors, nurses, managers, social enterprises, private providers, and members of the public.

To help the NHS make better decisions and allocate its resources more effectively, we at the Young Foundation created a tool that makes explicit the social value of various alternatives. Earlier on I described the three very different roles metrics can play—external accountability, internal decision making, and assessment of broader social impact. The tool we developed focuses squarely on the second of these goals. It attempts to capture the value that accrues to the individual from being healthy, rather than sick; to caregivers; to the wider community (for example, from the control of infectious diseases); and to the taxpayer.

The tool we created is not a simple computer program or calculator. Instead, it is a framework for thinking about value. Like many of the tools used to assess social value, this one requires a series of judgments. The judgments fall into four main categories: 1) strategic fit (how well the proposed innovation meets the needs of the health service); 2) potential health outcomes (including likely impact on quality-adjusted life years and patient satisfaction); 3) cost savings and economic effects; and 4) risks associated with implementation.

When faced with a proposal, users of the tool apply a 0 to 5 scale to rate the proposal on items in each of these categories. Proposals range from a promising idea from a group of doctors or nurses, to an idea that has already been piloted on a small scale or a venture that is ready for scaling up. Users can also provide commentary along with their ratings.

In some cases, decision makers can draw on strong data—for example, evidence from a randomized controlled trial. In other cases, they must rely on less certain numbers. To capture this variability, the tool also includes measures of the reliability of the evidence on which judgments are based. The visual presentation of the results then makes judgments and their reliability very clear.

Once mastered, the NHS tool is quick to use and transparent. Multiple users can interrogate the judgments, and in due course compare them with what actually happened. It is also publicly available. Ten regional innovation funds (worth around $350 million in total) are using it as a basis for decisions and encouraging applicants to use the tool to assess themselves. Decision makers can also use the tool to review each other’s work, to ensure consistency in their decisions, and to communicate with other public agencies.

The net result of the NHS tool is a picture of social value that is explicit about what’s valued and what isn’t; that doesn’t try to combine everything into a single number; that is transparent and interrogatable; and that is simple enough to help decision makers having to cope with a large volume of examples. It also avoids the flaw of trying to impose a single discount rate onto diverse measurements.

Making Markets

I describe this tool because it is one approach to operationalizing social value that balances coherence, consistency, and simplicity with the flexibility needed to cope with messy and complex phenomena. Developing it was helped by the fact that the NHS is an organization with clear supplies and demands. But for most NGOs, supply and demand are fuzzier, and each field brings with it a different set of concerns.

For example, primary, secondary, and tertiary educational institutions create value for students and the wider society. They rely on a strong research base to decide which types of education deliver which returns to whom. Vocational education, in contrast, presents a different set of considerations. Certain kinds of skill may be of value to only one sector, or to a small set of employers. A program offering intensive support to a chaotic drug user will have a still more complicated set of values, including value for the individual (both financial and health-related), value for the community (for example, from lower crime), as well as value for a wide range of public agencies (from hospitals whose emergency services will be used less, to police, prisons, and welfare agencies).

Seen through this lens, the job of funders is not to alight on one particular method for measuring value. Although common frameworks for thinking about value are useful, funders must adapt these frameworks to the organization and field under consideration.

Indeed, the greatest contribution that funders can make is often not to measure value, but to forge the links between supply and demand that will later generate value. For example, they can invest in effective supply by supporting promising projects and collecting evidence of what works. They can invest in effective demand by persuading governments to use their much greater resources to pay for new services. And they can use their convening power to connect purchasers and providers and then encourage them to talk.

Foundations can also help less powerful players have a voice in the market. Many groups, such as homeless people, migrant workers, and people with mental illnesses, have clear needs but lack the resources and political power to translate their needs into demand. Foundations can turn this latent demand into effective demand. For instance, several European foundations that support undocumented migrants have developed the demand side of this emerging social market by encouraging larger NGOs and public authorities to allocate resources (for example, for housing and health care) to it. On the supply side, these foundations have funded promising projects that are more effective at meeting the needs of this group.

Some foundations are likewise developing the market for addressing elder abuse. On the demand side, they have funded research on the extent of the problem and influenced commissioners to allocate resources and attention to it. On the supply side, they have supported innovative programs to prevent or mitigate abuse.

In both cases, governments’ resources vastly outweigh those of foundations and NGOs. This is almost always the case. Just about anyone wanting to make a big social impact has to engage with the worlds of politics and public provision.

Good Accounts

The field of social innovation can learn some lessons from business and economics. But it should not be naive. As the collapses of Enron and Lehman Brothers revealed, even such seemingly objective metrics as profit are not the facts they appear to be in economics textbooks. And in business, accounts are just that: accounts. They are ways of explaining what is being done, with an eye toward the often conflicting interests of investors, managers, regulators, and consumers. They involve judgments as well as facts.

Anyone who wants to finance social goods and anyone who wants to provide them should use metrics to clarify how inputs can contribute to outcomes, as well as to clarify choices and trade-offs. But they should abandon metrics that obscure these choices or that pretend to offer a spurious objectivity. And they should use metrics only in proportionate ways. It’s not sensible for a small NGO to invest scarce resources in apparently elaborate estimates of social value—not least because these estimates are bound to crumble under serious scrutiny.

Meanwhile, larger NGOs that do need measures of social value should clearly distinguish between those that are primarily about external accountability, those that help internal management, and those that support assessments of broader patterns of social impact. If an organization is using the same method for all three, its findings are almost certainly flawed.

People involved in funding social value, whether at the stage of promising innovations or of large-scale practice, likewise need sharper common frameworks. Greater use of these shared frameworks would be more valuable than proliferation of ever more assessment tools. Building on these frameworks, what matters is the quality of the discussion and negotiation, and the depth of the learning several years later, when participants reflect on what worked and what didn’t.

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Essay Samples on Values

The essential role of human values in the 21st century.

The 21st century presents a myriad of challenges and opportunities that call for a renewed emphasis on human values as guiding principles to shape individual behaviors, societal norms, and global interactions. In an era marked by technological advancements, cultural diversification, and interconnectedness, the role of...

• 21St Century

Human Values in 21st Century: A Blueprint for a Better World

The 21st century presents a unique set of challenges and opportunities that demand a reevaluation of the values that guide human behavior. In this era of rapid technological advancements, cultural diversification, and interconnectedness, the importance of human values in the 21st century cannot be overstated....

Unpacking the Value of Community Service Hours

The concept of community service hours, often a requirement in academic and organizational settings, has sparked diverse opinions. While some see it as a mere checkbox to tick off, others view it as an avenue for genuine personal growth and societal contribution. Delving deeper into...

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The Power of Censorship: Safeguarding Societal Values

The debate surrounding censorship persuasive is one that evokes strong emotions and diverse opinions. It raises questions about the delicate balance between protecting public morality and preserving the ideals of freedom of expression. While some argue that censorship stifles creativity and limits access to diverse...

The Ascent of Money: Is Money the Root of All Evil

In Niall Ferguson’s The Ascent of Money, Ferguson analyzes the history of money, banking, and credit. He tracks the development of currency as a form of trade, explores its growth and effects on society, and looks forward to how it may continue to develop in...

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Being Proud of Your Values and Beliefs

Hear the phrase “be yourself” all the time but what exactly does it mean. Some people can argue that “being yourself” has to do with your relationship with others, and that is by giving attention to what people think about you; while others can argue...

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Understanding What Is The Special Value To Life

Value of life is a question is which many of us try to answer how valuable is our life, how valuable are peoples lives in general. This could be a dark subject if the outcome might be as positive as someone may think. When we...

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Defining The Meaning And Value Of Human Life

The biggest cliché of all the questions already had the most varied range of answers. The value of life could even be answered by simple a way: that each individual constructs its own meaning. That is because everyone has their impossible mission in here. Each...

Finding The True Meaning And Value Of Life In Plato's Works

The universal question, “What is the meaning of life?” has been questioned since the beginning of civilization. Answers given by most individuals in today’s society dissent greatly from the answers of Roman and Greek civilizations thousands of years back. Great philosophers such as Socrates, Plato,...

The Meaning Of Life And Value Of Life Based On Plato's Philosophy

What is the meaning of life? There are numerous cultural beliefs on how life should be lived by following certain religious or traditional practices. These “meanings of life” could differ based on racial or religious beliefs but in a way, I believe there is an...

Searching For What Is The Value Of Life

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The Value Of A Single Life And Its Meaning

Close to 6 million innocent animals enter shelters each year. All across the world, people are faced with the issue of how to deal with the overpopulation of stray animals. However, the murder of these animals should not be justified just because the problem is...

The Impact Of Religion On Defining What Is Value Of Life

What might most people on this earth value? You guessed it right, it’s Life! Life brings a lot of meaning and purpose that is I feel is an ideal answer to the society and lets just face it, what could someone value other than life?...

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Personal Dignity And Integrity As The Core Of Personal Values

'The standard of being honest and possessing powerful personal values' is the vocabulary term of integrity. In my view, terms were never useful for anything except for composing papers. Integrity is a person's way of existence. Every day we confront decisions in life that we...

Exposition Of Wicks Concept Of Human Right And Value To Life

Human right to life is the most fundamental of all human rights. In her book, The Right to Life and Conflicting Interests, Wicks (2010: 1), begins by noting that ‘the life on earth is diverse and abundant. From simple bacteria and virus through to the...

Money Is Not Everything: The Importance Of Knowledge

Money is one of the most sensitive issues when we mention it under any circumstances. It is also an indispensable thing for each people. In many people's opinion, money is very important and valuable. They think that with money, we will have everything. Besides these...

Importance Of Ethical Values In Islam: Patience, Truthfulness

The ethical values are very important in human life and play a vital role in human life. Ethics /manners are complete code of life without manners we cannot spend a better life. Quran emphasized us for better ethical values. In this paper the importance of...

Analysis Of Core Values Of The United States Airmen

Core values can be defined as someone’s central beliefs that are guiding principles and dictate their behavior. Usually, core values are used to help a person understand the difference between right and wrong. My core values were not all present when I first enlisted, but...

The Efficiency Of Common Law System

Common law is based on judges past decisions rather than written law (Department of Justice, 2017). The common law system takes past decisions made by judges and uses them in new situations that are similar to the original event; otherwise known as the term “stare...

• Judicial System

Analysis of Leadership and Motivation Theories in the Movie Coach Carter

Being a leader is one of the most responsible roles one can take. An effective leader knows what is best for the project team as well as have a complete understanding of the needs of employees, peers as well as of the superiors. Outstanding leaders...

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Moral Values I Was Taught by My Parents

Love. Caring One of them is love and caring as it is the fundamental for all the children in the family. Since young, they used to give me love and care by giving adoring environment at home. My father constantly invested his energy and time...

The Real Value of Treasurable Moments in Achebe's "Civil Peace" and Maupassant's "The Necklace"

What makes something valuable or a treasure is not determined for their actual worth but for the value you are able to give or see in them. In the storyarticle “The Necklace” we can come across two different types of values, the value that is...

• Chinua Achebe
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Ethics: A Guiding Light in Human Life

Ethics must be the primary source of reference when it comes to evaluate a situation through acting upon it by making a decision. What’s right and what’s wrong depends on the perception of the person that is derived from the certain values that humans hold....

• Decision Making
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Exploring the Importance of Ethics in Our Lives

 Ethics is the discipline of moral and principle involvement to gain knowledge and experience. This specific code of conduct administers our thoughts so as to walk away from certain situations, almost like fleet or flight. “Rome was not built in a day”, it relates to...

Literature Analysis of Anna Quindlen's Article Life of the Closed Mind

A person’s values assumptions are why a person chooses one side over the other in a context. Value assumptions can be changed based on different topics that are discussed and the reasoning and conclusion can also vary by the person responding to the statement based...

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The Theme of Nonconformity in the Works of Chris McCandless

Pressure, perfection, and ideals are some of the dangers in society. Chris McCandless did not want to be a victim of the social norm, he wanted to live the life he wanted without allowing others to influence his decisions. The novel, Into the Wild, by...

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A Man For All Seasons: The Destructive Power of One's Morals

Values, virtues, and morals are often implemented in individuals as they grow up. However, how they are taken into effect and are followed varies based on personal greed. In the movie A Man For All Seasons, a screenplay written by Robert Bolt and directed by...

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Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe: Questioning of Own Values with the Change of Era

As time passes, our morals and values change. This becomes apparent as we look back into human history throughout different cultures. This become apparent as we notice in our own lives that values that suited you as a child change as you become a young...

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My Key Personal Values That Make Up My Individuality

How do people decide what is the right or wrong way to live and behave? They use their personal values to lead them to make the decisions that they believe are right. Personal values are the way in which individuals decided the way of thinking,...

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Ideals In Dan Brown'S Da Vinci Code For Aringarosa And Collet

The Da Vinci Code is a thrilling and enticing novel that was written by Dan Brown in 2003. The main plot of the novel revolves around efforts to discover the truth about the Holy Grail as well as its location, and the story also features...

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Issues Brought Up in John Green's Novel Looking For Alaska

Looking For Alaska, written by the young John Green, brings forward some of the most concerning ideas in a high-schoolers mind. Love and Lust, Consequences, Friendship and Home. Green introduces a set of unique characters that most highschool kids can see themselves hugging in between...

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The Values and Codes of Behaviour in Liberal Studies

In critically analyzing and digesting the contentions of Flannery’s perspective in his article on liberal arts and education, the path is greatly elucidated to say that, liberal arts provide a monumental sense of direction for technocrats, educators and students in this advanced era. To this...

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How the Air Force Core Values Align with My Individual Values

From day one, every Airman is introduced to the Air Force core values of Integrity first, Service before self and Excellence in all we do. These core values are taught by peers and seniors. However, before a person decides to become an Airman, they have...

The Main Ideas and Values of Humanism

Humanism is defined as the rejection of religion in favor of the advancement of humanity by its own efforts. Key humanist beliefs are: They trust the scientific method when it comes to understanding how the universe works and rejects the idea of the supernatural (and...

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The Renaissance Value of Humanism

As a leader living during the Renaissance, I am focused on the qualities of humanism, individualism and secularism based on Machiavelli’s book. The Prince, written by Niccolò Machiavelli, is a guide for successful monarchial rule. From its origins in 14th-century Florence, the Renaissance spread across...

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Personal Values In "What Should A Billionaire Give" And "Dumpster Diving"

Should everyone have the same obligations? Why or why not? Should those who have more give more? All human beings are in this world are equal. They had been created equal but their economic fame may additionally not. Not every human have an identical situation,...

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Values and Human Conscience in Shakespeare's King Henry IV

Shakespeare's, King Henry IV Part I’s an examination of timeless human conscience and behaviour of 15th century Elizabethan England compellingly transcends time and translates to the modern audience of the 21st century through its focus of universal human values of moral choice and individualism -...

• William Shakespeare

Representation of Messages and Values in the Tom Burton's Filmography

In this essay I will be investigating how Tim Burton’s messages and values are represented through the style of his films by looking at five of his films: Edward Scissorhands (1990), Sweeney Todd (2007) Beetlejuice (1988), Alice in Wonderland (2010) and Frankenweenie (2012). Messages and...

The Euphronios Krater as a Figure of Heritage Value

James Cuno, an American art historian and the President and CEO of the J. Paul Getty Trust, in his book Who Owns Antiquity? argues that antiquities should not be returned to their countries of origin. He states that there is a distinction between encyclopedic and...

The Impact of Religious Values on One's Worldviews

Humans have struggled throughout the centuries with the complication and doubt of our humanity. I ask myself, when I think about worldview, is what we are as humans? Which I find to be difficult and does not have an easy answer. My first understanding of...

Life of Pi: Journey of Values and Self-Exploration

This story, from my viewpoint, is a fanatic one. The realness the author involves in the story makes readers believing. On the other hand, he wants to describe how hard the life of the protagonist, PI’s life was. This story starts with normal family life,...

Antigone and Creon: Discussion of Values and Justice

Occurring in the moral realm, the major conflict in Sophocles' Antigone finds its very essence in the binary opposition of two disparate minds, the upholder of divine law and the advocate of human law. This clash between two social forces is embodied by the author...

• Antigone Tragic Hero

Teacher's Recollection of Life and Values

As an early childhood educator, it is important to identify your key values and beliefs. This is to ensure the children of the future will have the confidence and be able to believe in themselves. Leading them to be great and extraordinary. Having a good...

• Childhood Development
• Values of Life

Realization Of The Value Of Sacrifice

My dad squints his eyes, so focused that he doesn’t hear me asking him a question. Nothing seems to distract him from the news and his dictionary app in his hands. After moving to the States, he only watched American news and until recently, I...

Understanding The Meaning Of Leisure

Over centuries, the meaning of leisure has changed drastically due to the always developing societies and their norms and cultures. In other words, everyone has a different understanding of what leisure means for them. One can look at it from many perspectives which makes the...

Personal Values, Morals & Biases Connected With Them

According to Mashla (2016) values is what we believe about what is right and wrong and what is most important in life, and that which controls our behaviour. My personal value system is one that is built strongly on Christian principles. I am a person...

• Personal Life

Social Values In Singapore And Their Role For Economy

In “Singapore as Model” Huat explains that social values have played a significant role in Singapore's evolution and changes in its position in the global economy. One example of this involves the social (and political) values of anti-communism, which was a defining force during the...

• Economic Development

Ethical Dilemmas: Personal Values versus Professional Ethics

The values I personally hold dearest and strive every day to realize, exemplify, and uphold for others as well as myself are fairness, social justice, tolerance, integrity, dignity, and equality. These values are deeply rooted in my personality and have, for as long as I...

• Personal Qualities

My Valiues In Community, Moral Decisions And Professional Choice

Values are treasured by a person, a group of individuals, or an organization. Each and every single person has a distinct set of values. My values are made up of my experience, surroundings, and family background. My actions in my community, my moral decisions, and...

The Process Of Becoming Superior Human Beings

In the aphorism Excelsior, meaning to go beyond an imposing height, of Book 4 of “The Gay Science” by Friedrich Nietzsche, Nietzsche encourages all human beings to transcend, to rise ever higher, ever upwards than before: to become superior human beings. Throughout the aphorism, Nietzsche...

• Friedrich Nietzsche
• Human Development

Best topics on Values

1. The Essential Role of Human Values in the 21st Century

2. Human Values in 21st Century: A Blueprint for a Better World

3. Unpacking the Value of Community Service Hours

4. The Power of Censorship: Safeguarding Societal Values

5. The Ascent of Money: Is Money the Root of All Evil

6. Being Proud of Your Values and Beliefs

7. Understanding What Is The Special Value To Life

8. Defining The Meaning And Value Of Human Life

9. Finding The True Meaning And Value Of Life In Plato’s Works

10. The Meaning Of Life And Value Of Life Based On Plato’s Philosophy

11. Searching For What Is The Value Of Life

12. The Value Of A Single Life And Its Meaning

13. The Impact Of Religion On Defining What Is Value Of Life

14. Personal Dignity And Integrity As The Core Of Personal Values

15. Exposition Of Wicks Concept Of Human Right And Value To Life

• Personal Experience
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• Career Goals
• Actions Speak Louder Than Words
• Self Awareness

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• > Core Social Values in Contemporary Societies

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Core social values in contemporary societies.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

This essay intends to build an analytical tool for understanding social values. It proceeds by defining the term ‘social value’, differentiating ‘core’ and ‘non-core’ social values and discussing their respective functions in society. Then, it extracts from social values a seven-tier system of core social values, built on seven basic social relationships: self–other, man–nature, individual–community, community–society, people–government, people–(state) nation, and (state) nation–world system. The corresponding views of right and wrong on these types of relationships are ‘core values’ and concern perceptions of morality, nature, groups, society, politics, nation, and the world. The very core of the construct is the universal morality of human beings, and the outermost tier is the perception of world affairs. In a further section, the functional connection between the tiers is explored, to show how a core value system collapses. Lastly, the author presents a rudimentary idea of how a core social value system might be built or rebuilt.

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• Volume 56, Issue 1
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• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0392192109102155

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Essay on Values for Students and Children

500+ words essay on values.

Importance of Values

For an individual, values are most important. An individual with good values is loved by everyone around as he is compassionate about others and also he behaves ethically.

Values Help in Decision Making

A person is able to judge what is right and what is wrong based on the values he imbibes. In life at various steps, it makes the decision-making process easier. A person with good values is always likely to make better decisions than others.

Values Can Give Direction to Our Life

In life, Values give us clear goals. They always tell us how we should behave and act in different situations and give the right direction to our life. In life, a person with good values can take better charge.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Values Can Build Character

If a person wants a strong character, then he has to possesses good values such as honesty , loyalty, reliability, efficiency, consistency, compassion, determination, and courage. Values always help in building our character.

Values Can Help in Building a Society

If u want a better society then people need to bear good values. Values play an important role in society. They only need to do their hard work, with compassion, honesty, and other values. Such people will help in the growth of society and make it a much better place to live.

Characteristics of Values

Values are always based on various things. While the basic values remain the same across cultures and are intact since centuries some values may vary. Values may be specific to a society or age. In the past, it was considered that women with good moral values must stay at home and not voice their opinion on anything but however, this has changed over time. Our culture and society determine the values to a large extent. We imbibe values during our childhood years and they remain with us throughout our life.

Family always plays the most important role in rendering values to us. Decisions in life are largely based on the values we possess. Values are permanent and seldom change. A person is always known by the values he possesses. The values of a person always reflect on his attitude and overall personality.

The Decline of Values in the Modern Times

While values are of great importance and we are all aware of the same unfortunately people these days are so engrossed in making money and building a good lifestyle that they often overlook the importance of values. At the age when children must be taught good values, they are taught to fight and survive in this competitive world. Their academics and performance in other activities are given importance over their values.

Parents , as well as teachers, teach them how to take on each other and win by any means instead of inculcating good sportsman spirit in them and teaching them values such as integrity, compassion, and patience. Children always look up to their elders as their role models and it is unfortunate that elders these days have a lack of values. Therefore the children learn the same.

In order to help him grow into a responsible and wise human being, it is important for people to realize that values must be given topmost priority in a child’s life because children are the future of the society. There can be nothing better in a society where a majority of people have good values and they follow the ethical norms.

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Home / Essay Samples / Philosophy / Ethics / My Personal And Ethical Values

My Personal And Ethical Values

• Category: Philosophy , Psychology , Life
• Topic: Ethics , Morality , Values

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