Creating Values in Life - Essay Example

 According to Gulla, “one can only use his or her own experience in terms of how much what society demands have contributed to the formation of personal values or the testimonies of others to determine if societal pressure can affect personal beliefs” (76). Parental influence is also likely to play a huge role in determining personal beliefs. The fact that young people often behave in similar ways to their parents is another obvious observable fact in almost every culture in the world.

Still, the influence of an individual’s personality becomes evident when the individual becomes independent and moves away from the parents. People will often adopt different interests from those encouraged by society or even their families once they are outside the control of their parents. This means that it is an individual personality that mostly influences the value systems of people. According to Lewis, “it would appear that the influence of social or peer pressure, as well as parental beliefs, is only temporary for well-developed people” (Lewis, 301).

At younger ages, the individual may not have the mental capacity to bear the consequences of refusing to adopt the preferred values as determined by society as well as parents. However, with adulthood comes maturity as well as the freedom to be able to make personal decisions and support them in spite of opposition. Once an adult begins making personal decisions that have nothing to do with societal or parental expectations, and he or she sees that those decisions are valid, then he or she will be more comfortable with embracing values that are based on his or her own personality.