America is a nation built upon common values held by members of it's society. While some values of the American people may alter throughout time our core values seem to remain the same. The Barrett Values Centre, a global values assessment company conducted an assessment on American values for the years 2009-2011 (Clothier, 2011). The purpose of their assessment was to monitor how the common values held by the American nation are changing. The purpose of this paper is to discuss how the core values of America remain the same while work values and societal perception are changing. The paper will further discuss the values that were foundations in building America and will explain the relevancy to core values held today by Americans. Finally, I will compare and contrast my own personal values with the values assessed by the Barrett Values Cenre.
According to the Barrett Values Centre, there are 10 core values of America that can be summed up into 3 main values. The three main values that we, as Americans consider the most important to our way of life are relationships, accountability, and autonomy. Additionally, the assessment from the Barrett Values Centre concludes that these three values do not alter in their importance as core values in our society from 2009-2011. It is my opinion that these top three values will not alter in importance as core values in the future because,
“according to Bellah et al. (2007) in Habits of the Heart, the founders of our nation viewed the following principles as most important as our political and philosophical foundation : (1) Republicanism, (2) Individualism, (3) Freedom of Religion, and (4) Entrepreneurship” (Davis, 2013).
Essentially, republicanism, individualism, and freedom of religion can be summed up into the value of autonomy. Autonomy is defined as, “the quality or state of being self governing or, self governing freedom and especially moral independence” (Merriam-Webster, 2013). A republic essentially gives...