Development of Values
In some respects the values the child acquires are imposed on him, and often they come in indirect ways. Some come from parents, some from school situations, and some from one's peers. Values also relate to identification and to social class determinants. Goal setting relates to our value system. For example, a child raised in a middle-class home, where self-sacrifice and long-range educational planning are part of the environment, is likely to be motivated by these values. In such a home, self-discipline is taught and an effort is made to subdue imediaee gratifications. The person growig up in this climate strives to learn the appropriate social as well as technical skills and struggles for improvement. When achivement is a dominant goal, failure is an ever-present threat.
In contrast, a child growing up in a poor environment may be deprived not only of material possessions, education, and opportunity, but of other values that relate to goal seeking. The person who is guided by middle-class values may find it difficult to understand or even communicate with those whose values differ markedly. But it is characteristic that some children, as well as adolescents and adults, revolt against their original class value structures.
The feelings, attitudes, strivings, and even complacencies of many adults are more easily understood wl1en we look into their backgrounds for determinants of values. There is considerable difference in values between those who have a background of struggle against poverty and those raised in affluence. One of the problems in subcultures where there has been laxity of parental control is that the individual may evade, try to destroy, or make a game out of control exercised by others, particularly by legal authorities. The standards of success or failure set by any given adult may well be traced to values learned in childhood. It should also be noted that a child or young person may have good intelligence, even special abilities, and still function within a value system that decreases motivation for achievement. We sometimes see this in college, where attending class on a regular basis and doing the required work may not be part of one's habit structure.
