VALUES AND MORALS: GUIDELINES FOR LIVING

Values and morals
• Overview
• Why we need values and morals
• Why it is hard to deal with values
• The Golden Rule
• Understanding why we need meaning in our lives; what's religions's role?
• Being good is hard

Writing your own philosophy of Life
• Kohlberg's stages of moral development
• Discussion of Kohlberg's stages 5 and 6
• Are women's values different from men's values?
• Selecting your guiding principles
  • Table 3.1: Ways of living
  • Table 3.2: Your life goals
  • Table 3.3: Desired personal characteristics
  • Self-centered vs. others-centered
• Conscience and escape from one's own conscience
• Pitfalls: bypassing our own moral standards
• Other guidelines for living
• Finding the meaning of or in life
• Examples of philosophies of life
• Writing your first draft

Putting your helping philosophy into action: Altruism
• Becoming helpful yourself
• Developing a specific self-help plan

Concluding comments; recommended readings