Response Seven

THE VALUES AMERICANS LIVE BY

By L. Robert Kohls, Ph.D.

A guide to understand the U.S. culture and its values.

Dr. L. Robert Kohls, Director of International Programs at San Francisco State University

http://web.pdx.edu/~sbaweb/faculty/amlei/alaccess/576/ValuesAmericansLiveBy.pdf

This article is very interesting because it talks about American values, is as a guide to understanding American culture and says that should not seem their actions or ways of thinking as disrespect or rudness we have to tolerate and respect other cultures besides ours and try to learn about them and take for your own the positive things for your life.
In this particular case, this article "The values Americans live" what I understood was that they are very independent people , have a very large ego, are very positive in a 100% , they like to be under the control of everything, are open minded and so on.

This is a comparative table that explain more about values from U.S. and other countries values.

U.S. Values Some Other Country’s Values

Personal Control over the

Environmental/Responsibility .............. Fate/Destiny

Change Seen as Natural

And Positive .............................Stability/Tradition/Continuity

Time and its Control ........................Human interaction

Equality/Fairness .........................Hierarchy/Rank/Status

Individualism/Independence......Group’s Welfare/Dependence

Self-Help/Initiative ........................Birthright Inheritance

Competition .........................................Cooperation

Future Orientation ............................Past Orientation

Action/Work Orientation ................“Being” Orientation

Informality...........................................Formality

Directness/Openness/Honesty ......Indirectness/Ritual/”Face”

Practicality/Efficiency ......................Idealism/Theory

Materialism/Acquisitiveness ......Spiritualism/Detachment

Which list more nearly represents the values of your native country?