Living in a Social Construct: Having Intrinsic Values and Repudiating Instrumental Values

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary there are 8 different possible meanings for the term value. The word ‘value’ can be defined as a monetary worth of something or in the case of philosophy; there are both intrinsic values and instrumental values. Intrinsic values define our individual importance that we place on a given feeling. This is what we define as meaningful or valuable in life. Instrumental values can be thought of values that are somewhat superficial or fake to our intrinsic values; like in the case of young women idolizing stars and striving towards perfection that they see every day in magazines, TV shows, or movies. These values are created by society and are often instilled in the members at youth. The creation of these outside values is created by a phenomenon known as a social construction. How can we escape this social construction and repudiate instrumental values? We must identify the social norms that we find conflicting to our intrinsic values. After identifying these values, these instrumental values, then we can either repudiate them or substitute for intrinsic values. Living in a social construct provides the opportunity for humans to lose intrinsic values; social norms substitute the intrinsic values for an instrumental value set.

  We live in a society that puts people on pedestals for being successful businesspersons. Having millions of dollars, a large house, and a college education from an Ivy League school is how people in this country view success. This is an example of an instrumental value; money equates to success and seeks to find happiness through materialism. For some people, making millions of dollars and being a successful businessperson is total happiness. My counter to this argument is the amount of stress that would impose on an individual being rather large.

Stress is the result of when there is a conflict between instrumental and intrinsic values. Stress is commonly defined as a constraining force or influence. To refute the instrumental value resulting in stress is to understand stress as an indicator. Instrumental values do not promote but delay any success in finding the meaning of life. These values all come from our social construct but the way we live treats them as if making money was one of our basic instincts. The argument could be placed that such a thing is an imposition of social norms. Well if that is the case than we are no different than a rock; shaped to the point of no importance greater than the use as a tool. In other words, individuals that rely purely on instrumental values are objects. They eat, look, think, feel, and do, as instructed to the point of total control as the rock. By result, instrumental values are derived from social norms whose focus is on controlling an individual’s emotions, actions, and thoughts.

The case of women in our capitalist society is the most blatant example of the power society has with instrumental values. According to Angela McRobbie, a professor of communications at the University of London, women are treated as “female commodities.” (McRobbie, 1) They are used as products to sell ideals. For a teenage girl to face all of the images used to market products, they are also being sold the instrumental value of a goal of perfection. Makeup is an example of a product to help lead towards this direction of the adoption of this new instrumental value.

Sharon Jayson, a USA Today journalist for Health and Behavior, confirms this result in her article, “Media cited for showing girls as sex objects.” Within the contents, Jayson discusses a new report by the American Psychological Association. The APA report states that, “Advertising and media images that encourage girls to focus on looks and sexuality are harmful to their emotional and physical health.” (Jayson 1) Teenagers are confronted with this image of perfection thru the medium that is the media. The media has the strongest impact in establishing social norms. Clearly, the media imposes instrumental values unto females, especially teenagers, as a tool to generate more power and control. For this case, the business in the media doing the advertising stands to benefit the most from this superficial value. If they succeed in convincing the viewer into buying their reality (their values) then not only will the teen adapt to this reality but they will also buy the product in question. The generalization of what this case alludes to is a term coined by the APA as sexualization.

Jayson reports that, “the panel defined sexualization as occurring ‘when a person’s value comes only from her/his sexual appeal or behavior, to the exclusion of other characteristics, and when a person is sexually objectified, e.g. made into a thing for another’s sexual use.” (Jayson 1) In other words, sexualization drives home the idea that in our social construct, we are faced with a clash between our personal values and what values someone else thinks we should have. The act of doing this by the media is the objectification of an individual at the expense of their intrinsic values. The loss of these values make the individual no less shaped than a rock, with no more power than to be controlled. Instrumental values are easy to identify in this case, as most people in our country understand the idea that “sex sells.”

Sex sells is the idea that men or women can be marketed towards a specific age group to promote a fake set of ideals that will inevitably sell the proposed product/solution. This product will help you with your new instrumental or superficial value that you just attained. The idea that being skinny is more socially acceptable than a person who is fat is another example of instrumental values. If you look at a magazine, the majority of the models you see will follow the instrumental value of being both slim and attractive as acceptable.

According to the APA report, “One of the dominant themes about sexuality reported across these studies and across magazines is that presenting oneself as sexually desirable and thereby gaining the attention of men is and should be the focal goal for women.” (APA 14) This is a widely held instrumental value that is conflicting with intrinsic values in females. For our capitalist society, it is most beneficial for women to focus on being desirable because this creates a myriad of products for them to buy. This also can be seen as a control mechanism by our social construct. The very fact that young children and teenagers are being targeted in a time of their lives when they are most influenced into these concepts illustrates the power that instrumental values instill.

The APA report also cites Bratz dolls for “sexualized clothing such as miniskirts, fishnet stockings, and feather boas.”(APA 14) They go on to say, “it is worrisome when dolls designed specifically for the 4- to 8-year olds are associated with an objectified adult sexuality.” Not only teenagers are affected by the power of instrumental values but young children are just as much of a target. At a young age, we are all most vulnerable to be influenced. Through the most common medium of social norms, the media, instrumental values in the most radical sense become subconsciously overpowering. While at this young stage where healthy sexuality starts to develop, children are most vulnerable to actually acquiring the values without knowing better and repudiating them.

Repudiating instrumental values in a social construct is called social deviance. Social deviance is any action or behavior that does not satisfy society’s social norms. A person who is labeled as insane is a socially deviant individual. This stereotype of insanity for a person as socially deviant does not fit appropriately. It is possible that this reality for the socially deviant individual is just a form of consciousness. Peter Berger, director of the Institute on Culture, Religion, and World affairs, said that this is considered, “the realization of the social construction of reality.” (Berger 2) He defines the realization of the social construction of reality as, “a world that originates in their thoughts and actions, and is maintained as real.” (Berger 2) For an individual to understand how the world around him works and to disagree, it is plausible to define their own reality. They could design their own world that revolves around their own intrinsic values.

Instrumental values affect most people subconsciously and to define your own reality can allow you to repudiate this power that social constructs exhume. As in the report from the APA, the only other possible way to repudiate instrumental values is to understand their origins and try to fix that within the social construct. A social construct is only as good as its intentions and with studies we are able to find problems and make them known. This is not an aspect of the economic system but an aspect of our political system.

Subconsciously our intrinsic values, like healthy development of sexuality, are being challenged by the instrumental values of society which is purveyed through reality as the correct value. To identify how our social construct operates is the first step to achieve a state where we can maintain our intrinsic values. For the case of the teenage girl, understanding that marketing is an attempt to subvert essential values for survival is key in maintaining true intrinsic values. To become socially deviant is to accept your own values over the instrumental values of society which allows for the only understandable way to have your own true existence.

Works Cited
1. McRobbie, Angela. "YOUNG WOMEN AND CONSUMER CULTURE." Cultural Studies 22.5 (Sep. 2008): 531-550. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. [Library name], [City], [State abbreviation]. 16 Oct. 2008 .
2. Berger, Peter L. The social construction of reality : a treatise in the sociology of knowledge. New York: Anchor Books, 1990.
3. “Media cited for showing girls as sex objects” By Sharon Jayson, USA Todayhttp://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2007-02-19-sexualized-girls_x.htm
4. Young Girls Targeted By Makeup Companies. Advertising Age, 11/27/2000, Vol. 71 Issue 49, p15, 1phttp://www.frankwbaker.com/young_girls_targeted_by_makeup.htm
5. Calhoun, Thomas C., and Addrain Conyers.. "A SOCIOLOGY OF DEVIANCE IN THE NEW MILLENNIUM." Sociological Spectrum 26.6 (Nov. 2006): 529-531. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. [Library name], [City], [State abbreviation]. 30 Oct. 2008 .
6. Psychological Association Task Force, American. "Report of the APA Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls." Report of the APA Task Force on the sexualization of girls. 2007. American Psychological Organization. 30 Oct 2008 .