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Sociology vocabulary · Society and Culture

Values

Meaning in sociology, with examples

/ˈvæljuːz/nounCore term

In sociology, values means: Widely shared beliefs about what is good, right, important or desirable in a society, which guide people's choices and the norms they follow.

In Turkish: değerler, toplumsal değerler

How it is used

Mostly used in the plural: shared values, core values, traditional values, family values. In essays, values are described as general ideals, such as equality or freedom, while norms are the specific rules that put them into practice.

Example sentences

  1. Projects such as the World Values Survey track how values change across generations.

  2. Individualism is a core value in many Western societies.

Common collocations

  • shared values
  • core values
  • traditional values
  • value system
  • hold values
  • normA written or unwritten rule about how people are expected to behave in a particular situation, supported by approval when it is followed and by sanctions when it is broken.
  • cultureThe shared beliefs, values, norms, language, practices and material objects that a group of people learn and pass on from one generation to the next.
  • socialisationThe lifelong process through which people learn the norms, values, language and roles of their society and become members of it.
  • ideologyA set of ideas and beliefs that explains how society works and how it should work, and that often supports the interests of a particular group.

More terms: Society and Culture

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