Positive Futures

The Positive Futures articles are designed to be thought provoking and give up to date examples of how we can change the way we think and operate, so that we become more successful.

Why do people do the things they do?

It’s a bit of a challenging time at the moment for most people, but I have been struck by peoples differing responses to the same situation.  See if you recognise some peope  or even your own response after you have read this piece.  In fact understanding this might help you to explain your feelings and show that you are human after all! 

Eduard Spranger and Gordon Allport and their study of human value, motivation and drive, identified six groups or clusters of beliefs that people posess.  These values play out in our daily lives, very often without any considered thought, it’s almost instinctive how we react or behave to various situations.

Each of these clusters have a low value and a high value which produces 12 groups of distinct driving forces that guide us in our lives, effortlessly, continually without conscious consideration.

A really good example of that was on the news tonight. A young lady who was travelling back from work as a nurse, had her car crashid into by an elderly man.  He was out fetching food and explained that there was no one else to help him.  He had a raging temperature and 999 was called. she accompanied him to hospital and  she  thereafter regularily visited him and held his hand. Unfortunately he succumed to Covid-19.   When queried, her response was that “it was what anyone would do”.  Which, interestingly is not the case. What you would do depends upon what you value most.

So above is a representation of someones six value sets (which can be measured) showing how they impact upon a persons driving forces.   The case of the nurse caring for the old man who passed away recently (which is a true story) shows that one of her driving forces was almost certainly altruistic.  It’s probably why she is a nurse, although not all nurses are altruistic.  Thefact that she held his hand when she didn’t need to, is how her altruistic driving force became obvious.

So how you would have dealt with that situation could have been different, in fact its odds on that it would have been different, because the values that each of us have are different and they are pretty fixed,  especially under stress and pressure. 

It might be worth thinking about what drives you!  There are no rights or wrongs here, just appropriate things or inapropriate things and this I think is why we are all different.  Somehow built into us for millennia is this difference of what we value. 

Imagine if everyone at the scene of the accident had been altruistic. there would be chaos.  In reality it would be best if the police officer was driven to take control of the situation ie be commanding and the doctor who treted the elderly man needed to be intellectual and the fire rescue team probably needed to be structured.  

The point I am making is that in the main, most of us don’t get to chose what our values are, and they are pretty fixed so our response to this current coronavirus is framed by our values.

So when the boss of Weatherspoons or Sports Direct decide to act where the focus is money, they are showing they are driven by utility ie they are resourceful.  If you find that strange thats becaus you probably arent driven in that way and if they weren’t those jobs probably wouldnt exist in the first place.

Perhaps you are or have been thinking “Whats all this fuss about, why can’t I go on holiday”, you are possibly instinctive,  intentional or commanding.

We are all different and as I showed above nature has created us that way. 

So please be alittle more understanding of why people seem to be misbehaving or not playing the game as we see it as it just takes them (or you) a while to get to the same point. 

Keep going



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Don't look back, don't look down, always look over the horizon.


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