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The present study entitled 'value orientation among rural and urban adolescent boys and girls' was undertaken in the Kapurthala district of Punjab. The study was designed to compare value orientation of adolescents across gender and locale. The sample comprised of 200 adolescents (100 boys & 100 girls) of age group 14-16 years. Personal Value Questionnaire by Sherry and Verma (1994) was used to assess the value orientation of adolescents. The scale consists of 40 items representing ten types of values namely Religious Values, Social Values, Democratic Values, Aesthetic Values, Economic Values, Knowledge Values, Hedonistic Values, Power Values, Family Prestige Values and Health Values. Gender differences revealed that girls possessed more values as compared to boys. In locale differences urban adolescents were found to possess more values as compared to rural adolescents.
Keywords: value orientation, locale, gender
A value can be defined in terms of one's beliefs about the desirable as against those that are undesirable or less desirable. It follows that a value serves to provide a basic set of standards or criteria that guide human thoughts and actions. Through socialization processes, cultural, institutional, societal and personal forces act upon the individual and shape the individual's values and cultural personality. Values are, therefore, social and cultural products. Man in any given society, leams and internalizes through socialization, the beliefs, attitudes and values of that society, the desirable goals and appropriate modes of conducts which are to certain extent prescribed by that society. In every culture or society, values reflect assumptions of people they hold about man and world he lives in. It provides the basis for action, forjudgement, and for evaluating ways of living (Bhadoria & Singh 2005). The concept of value is essentially a synonym for attitudes, usually referring to dominant and pervasive system of attitudes. Each attitude may be organized into consistent and coherent structures known as value system. When attitudes have definite structure, are constant or unchanging and stick together they take the form of value orientation. As a result persistency in behaviour is observed, the individual is motivated to maintain the continuity of behaviour. Value orientation means the principles of right and wrong that are accepted by an individual or a social group (www.freedictionary.com). It is a group of interconnected...