Value Contradictions

Examples of Value Contradictions in the following topics:

• Value Contradictions

  • Although various values often reinforce one another, these clusters of values may also include values that contradict one another.
  • Value contradictions can arise between individual and communal value systems.
  • Value contradictions can also arise within individual or communal value systems.
  • A value contradiction could be based on a difference in how people rank the value of things, or on fundamental value conflict.
  • The practice of slavery represents a value contradiction between wealth and liberty.

• Ideal vs. Real Culture

  • Any given culture contains a set of values that determine what is important to the society; these values can be idealized or realized.
  • When we talk about American values, we often have in mind a set of ideal values.
  • Along with every value system comes exceptions to those values.
  • A realized value system, as opposed to an ideal value system, contains exceptions to resolve the contradictions between ideal values and practical realities in everyday circumstances.
  • Whereas we might refer to ideal values when listing American values (or even our own values), the values that we uphold in daily life tend to be real values.

• Subcultures & Countercultures

  • A counterculture is a subculture with the addition that some of its beliefs, values, or norms challenge or even contradict those of the main culture of which it is part.

• Values as Binders

  • Values and value systems are guidelines that determine what is important in a society.
  • Types of values include ethical/moral value, doctrinal/ideological (religious, political, etc.) values, social values, and aesthetic values.
  • In this case, the two value systems (one personal and one communal) are externally consistent provided they bear no contradictions or situational exceptions between them.
  • Values can act as blinders if people take their own personal values (or their society's values) as universal truths and fail to recognize the diversity of values held across people and societies.
  • Values can act as blinders if people fail to recognize the diversity of values held across people and cultures, and assume their own society's values are universal truths.

• Value Neutrality in Sociological Research

  • This inevitably renders truly value-free research inconceivable; however despite this, sociologists should strive for value neutrality.
  • To do this, they must be conscious of their own personal values.
  • Sociologists are obligated to disclose research findings without omitting or distorting significant data, even if results contradict personal views, predicted outcomes, or widely accepted beliefs.
  • Is value neutrality possible?
  • Value neutrality does not mean having no opinions, however.

• The Functionalist Perspective

  • In the 1960s, functionalism was criticized for being unable to account for social change, or for structural contradictions and conflict (and thus was often called "consensus theory"), and for ignoring systematic inequalities including race, gender, and class, which cause tension and conflict.
  • As noted sociologist Michael Omi observes, "The structural-functionalist framework generally stressed the unifying role of culture, and particularly American values, in regulating and resolving conflicts.
  • During the turbulent 1960s, functionalism was often called "consensus theory," criticized for being unable to account for social change or structural contradictions and conflict, including inequalities related to race, gender, class, and other social factors that are a source of oppression and conflict.

• Formulating the Hypothesis

  • If results contradict the predictions, then the hypothesis under examination is incorrect or incomplete and must be revised or abandoned.
  • Variables are measurable phenomena whose values can change under different conditions.
  • In other words, the value of a dependent variable depends on the value of the independent variable.
  • If there is no relationship, then the value of the dependent variable does not depend on the value of the independent variable.

• Theoretical Perspectives on Childhood Socialization

  • He believed it was instructive for children to see contradictions in their explanations.
  • A child, his school, and his parents are all part of a cultural context whose constituents are united by a sense of common identity, heritage, and values.

• Social Correlates of Religion

  • They add, "Contradicting these conclusions requires demonstrating a positive link between theism and societal conditions in the first world with a similarly large body of data - a doubtful possibility in view of the observable trends. "
  • The model considers not only the changing number of people with certain beliefs, but also attempts to assign utility values of a belief as per each nation .

• The Scientific Method

  • A dependent variable is a variable whose values or qualities are presumed to change as a result of the independent variable.
  • In other words, the value or quality of a dependent variable depends on the value of the independent variable.
  • If there is no relationship, then the value or quality of the dependent variable does not depend on the value of the independent variable.
  • In a study of the influence of gender (as a value) on promotion, the independent variable would be gender/sex.
  • If results contradict the predictions, then the hypothesis under examination is incorrect or incomplete and requires either revision or abandonment.