Table of contents:
- What are human values ?: Definition
- Types of human values
- List of human values, meaning and examples
- 1. Love
- 2. Friendship
- 3. Kindness
- 4. Trust
- 5. Fraternity
- 6. Honor
- 7. Honesty
- 8. Justice
- 9. Freedom
- 10. Peace
- 11. Respect
- 12. Responsibility
- 13. Solidarity
- 14. Tolerance
- 15. Courage
- How to change or improve my personal values?
- Why is it not easy to change our personal values?
- Advantages of acting according to our personal human values
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In this Psychology-Online article we will talk about human values, what they are, the types that exist and we will offer you a list with examples. We are going to explain in detail what human values are, the types of values that exist and what each of them consist of. In addition, we will give you the best keys to personal growth so that you learn to act according to your personal values.
You may also be interested in: Moral values: list and examples Index- What are human values ?: Definition
- Types of human values
- List of human values, meaning and examples
- How to change or improve my personal values?
- Advantages of acting according to our personal human values
What are human values ?: Definition
When we speak of values of the human being, we refer to the set of norms that facilitate harmony and coexistence in society. These norms are valid in a certain time and epoch and are part of human development since they emerged through growth, humanization and the conquest for freedom. These are values that have appeared as a result of people's efforts to conquer themselves and out of love for others.
Types of human values
The values of the human being can be classified by their nature and characteristics. According to philosophical knowledge, the main types of values are the following:
- Moral values. Those related to virtues and fulfillment as human beings. The goal of moral values is the pursuit of virtue, of what is right and what is not.
- Religious values. These human values are determined by different religions and are usually based on concepts of goodness, faith and sacrifice.
- Human values. Those values of people and their nature. Its main objective is to improve coexistence and promote empathy.
- Universal values. They are those values of the human being that can be applied to all societies, cultures, economic status and religion. Tolerance and respect, for example, are two types of universal values.
- Aesthetic values. As the name suggests, aesthetic values are aimed at the own beauty and the joy of harmony, these values are applied above all in art and creative expression.
- Intellectual values. These types of values focus on the search for knowledge and truth.
- Physical values. Following Maslow's pyramid theory, this type of human values are focused on maintaining a certain level of well-being and physical health, thus avoiding states of disease or weakness.
- Social values. Social values are those that are recognized by a culture or society and whose objective is to strengthen human bonds.
- Affective values. Very linked to the previous point, we find these values of the human being, the affective values are those related to love, affection and interpersonal pleasure.
- Economic values. Finally, one of the most prevalent types of securities today are economic securities. These are aimed at the search for monetary stability and achieve more economic gains. Among these types of values, we find business and professional ones.
List of human values, meaning and examples
A large part of the cultures that exist today have this type of human values and they help us to know how to act with ourselves and with other people.
A person who has his personal values well defined and who acts in coherence with them is a person who surely has good emotional stability, good mental health and therefore his quality of life is also very good. On the contrary, a person who is not consistent with his own personal values is more likely to have his emotional well-being altered.
Next, we will show you which are the main values of the human being, briefly explaining what each one of them consists of.
1. Love
Love is an extremely important and powerful value, it is a principle of union and connection between ourselves with the universe. We can manifest love towards others by doing good through our actions.
2. Friendship
Like love it is one of the most precious values and it can even be considered as part of love too. It is a relationship of affection, support and trust between two or more people.
3. Kindness
It is a quality that people have who will always try to do good to others and in which evil does not exist.
4. Trust
We can say that more than anything it is an act of faith since the person who trusts places security in something or someone.
5. Fraternity
It is a bond of union and good correspondence between siblings or between those who consider themselves as such.
6. Honor
It is a quality or a deep feeling of one's own dignity.
7. Honesty
It is a quality of people that makes them act with rectitude and coherence, respecting the rules to get to have a good coexistence with others.
8. Justice
It is about acting fairly with oneself and with others, giving each one what they really deserve according to their actions.
9. Freedom
It is about acting with free will in a responsible way and without harming anyone. A person who is free can do what he really wants as long as what he does does not directly or indirectly affect other people. In the following article you will find more information about What is freedom and how to put it into practice.
10. Peace
It is about acting in a harmonious way with other people to achieve an excellent coexistence within society or with the family.
11. Respect
It is about the value and good treatment that we give ourselves and others, recognizing qualities, merits or situations in particular.
12. Responsibility
A responsible person is considered when he is capable of taking charge of his own actions, making his own decisions and acting according to them.
13. Solidarity
It is about helping others without claiming to receive anything in return, collaborating in the cause of others.
14. Tolerance
When a person is tolerant, they show an open and non-judgmental attitude towards other people's opinions, even if they are different from their own.
15. Courage
It is about facing with courage and determination all the difficult situations that we face in life, regardless of the fear that this may cause us.
How to change or improve my personal values?
Now that we have provided you with a list of human values, we are going to introduce you to some psychological keys so that you can improve your personal values.
When we do not feel comfortable with the personal values that we have adopted throughout our lives and we would like to make a modification or add others to those that we already had, in most cases this will not be an easy task.
Why is it not easy to change our personal values?
It is difficult because all or most of our lives we have acted on the basis of what we now have and we have turned them into deeply ingrained habits, however, despite this, something can always be done to achieve it and adopt more human values positive.
Here are some tips so that you can take the first step to start adopting more positive values in your life:
- Identify your own values and personal strengths, once you have done it, determine which of them you can improve and what type of negative actions you need to modify.
- Identify what new values you would like to adopt.
- Actively participate in developing your new values and improving the ones you already had and really commit to it. For example if you would like to improve the value of responsibility or start adopting it, from now on stop blaming others for your own actions and take charge of them and make your own decisions.
- Understand and respect the values of others by practicing empathy.
- Be aware that you will not be able to modify them from one day to the next since it is a constant work and just as it has taken you time to adopt the ones you have now, you also have to wait a while to make the new ones a habit.
Advantages of acting according to our personal human values
Now that you know all the values of the human being and we have given you a list with examples, it is important to know the advantages of acting according to our own values.
The fact of having identified our own personal values as well as putting them into practice and therefore being consistent in our day-to-day with them, has a series of advantages so valuable that the sum of each of them helps us increase our balance and emotional well-being.
If you want to make a personal development plan, you should know that some of the most important advantages are the following:
- They help us to know ourselves better.
- They give us greater emotional stability.
- They help us to have a better relationship with ourselves and with others.
- It makes us more upright people
- When we act in accordance with our personal values, it is easier for us to make our own decisions without hesitation.
- They help us to know what our true priorities are and therefore give us valuable information about how to spend our time.
- Others will perceive us as safer and more reliable people when they notice that we act in coherence with our own values.
This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
If you want to read more articles similar to Human values: definition, list, types and examples, we recommend that you enter our category of Personal growth and self-help.
References- Negrete, L. N (sf). Universal values. Retrieved November 24, 2018, from