Investigation the hierarchy of values among youths of hamedan province and related factors it

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1 International Research Journal of Applied and Basic Sciences 013 Available online at ISSN X / Vol, 4 (9): Science Explorer Publications Investigation the hierarchy of values among youths of hamedan province and related factors it Saeid Goudarzi Department of sociology, Payame noor university (PNU), Tehran, Iran. Corresponding Author Sgoodarzi1355@yahoo.com ABSTRACT: The present research has been conducted aiming at investigation the hierarchy of values among youths of hamedan province and related factors it. The research methods used in this study were survey. The tools for collecting data used were questionnaire and interview. The population of this research was all of youths (15-9 years) in hamedan province (in iran) in year 011 that 384 of them were selected by cluster sampling method. Obtained results indicated that hierarchies of values among youths respectively are social, religious, cultural, economic and political values. It is also observed that there is a significant relation between gender and social, religious, cultural and political values; between marital status and social, religious and cultural values; between place of residence (city/village) and social, cultural and political values; between education variable and cultural, economic and political values; between reference group and economic, religious, cultural and political values; between socialeconomic class and social, religious, cultural and political values; between variable rate using of mass media and social, religious, cultural, economic and political values. But there is no significant relation between gender and economic variable; between marital status and economic and political values; between place of residence (city/village) and economic and religious values; between reference group and social values; between age and social, religious, cultural, economic and political values; between education and social and religious values and between social-economic class and economic values. Key words: Social-economic class, Reference group, Hierarchy of values. INTRODUCTION Values are among concepts which have involved the human being s mind from long ago (Sharifi, 003: ). Also one of the main elements of each culture is its values. Values are in the most interior layers of each person s personality and character. Knowing someone s internal realities is dependent on knowing his values and internal attitudes. Values are form the behavioral system of individuals, and have the greatest effect on their actions. Also in individual and psychological dimension, it is considered as the most important source for understanding and knowing oneself, and in social dimension this is a collection of opinions and attitudes which a persons have acquired them along with the process of socialization and harmonize himself with norms of the society (yosefi, 004: 7). Values are considered as the essential ingredients of culture which would affect the perceptions of individual and within the process of learning culture they would be transformed from one generation to another (Watson et. al, 00). One of the most important and most universal changes in the domain of values is change in the hierarchy of them. These changes act in a way that changed values have inclination to replace dominant values. This can be considered as criteria for development in any society (Safiri & Sharifi, 005: 78-79). In another word values in each society always as order are organized in this system based on the relative importance which people of each society associate to these values a kind of hierarchical order is figured between different values, that is considered as one their important characteristics. The importance of these characteristic is revealed in relation with social developments, because perception such developments is necessary for the understanding of cultural changes. Considering to the position of values in the society s culture, without studying changes in values there is no possibility to attain precise inference of cultural changes. So determination the hierarchy of values in modern societies is a problem which must be considered precise, until about dominating values of the society can be awareness. On the other hand knowing the pioneer groups (youths) is of great importance. Because there is possibility of acquiring the changed values by an active group, and consequently this

2 Intl. Res. J. Appl. Basic. Sci. Vol., 4 (9), , 013 can affect the whole society. Accordingly being awareness about the hierarchy of values not only reveals the needs and preferences of these groups, but also it provides the possibility of predicting social changes. The importance of this problem is revealed that; recall the results which were conducted in the last years they showed that the materialistic values are taking the dominance over our society. The question is whether by changes in different area are these values still in prominence and have they kept their dominance yet? What factors are effective on the hierarchy of values? Considering to subjects that to said, problem of this research is «investigation the hierarchy of values among youths of hamedan province and related factors it». History Of Research The findings of allport et. al (1961) indicated that score of men is higher of economic and political values, but of aesthetic, religious and social values they are lower than women. Results obtained by ahmed and heiserman (1978) showed that there is significant relation between gender, social- economic class, rate using of mass media, being religious, generation (fathers and children) and some value priorities. Value priority of the youth is more materialistic and there percent of materialistic men is higher that materialistic women. The findings of musgrave (1984) showed that there is difference between values of boys and girls, parents and children. In the research conducted by talaee abdi (1978) indicated that scientific value has the highest grade and ethnic value gained the second place and subsequently economic value has gained the third and last position. Also social class has shown differentiations in values. Based on results of yamagake (1989) the most important values for both men and women are social and political values. Values supporting these two values, in women are religious values and in men are economic values. Both men and women in older ages showed more interest as to religious values. Findings of rezaee ardestani (1994) explained that 6.5% of the respondents first value priority was cultural values, 30% social values and the remaining 7.5% is economic values. No one chose political values as their priority. Age, birth place, kind of occupation, the area of residence and rate of religious beliefs have influence on the hierarchy of their values. Beutel and marini showed that (1995) have significant differences with respect to their value priority. Kofild (1996) expressed that there is difference the values of girls and boys. Schwartz & gibson (1998) proved that gender has no influence on the individuals value priority, moreover there is no significant difference with age, education, ethnicity. Mahbubi manesh (001) indicated in his research that the hierarchy of students is as following: social, cultural, political, and economic values. The results obtained by bad bareh (001) showed that there is reverse relation between social class and attitude to family, traditional religious values. Attitude to religious values in under class is higher than middle and upper class. The value priority of upper class consists of theoretical, economic, political, religious, social and artistic values. The value priority of the underclass respectively is theoretical, religious, social, economic, political and artistic values. Delkhamosh & ahmadi (00) and delkhamosh (005) the hierarchy of values of two gender were the same. The findings of Sharifi (003) showed that the hierarchy of values of students with respect to priority consists of social, cultural, political and economic values. Value hierarchy of students based on being religiousness of themselves and their parents and reference groups is different. Maleki (005) observed that the most important criteria in the value hierarchy in iran are the religiousness, after that success incentive and familianism. Also single persons and married persons are the same in theoretical, economic and social values. But single persons have higher levels of aesthetics value compared with married persons. They pay more attention to symmetry and harmony than others. Nor bala (007) observed that religious values and social values are standing in the first and second priority in the values hierarchy of the students. The last priority was occupied by artistic values. In a study conducted by niko goftar (007) it was proposed that in all values except political, there is a significant difference between men and women. In theoretical, social and economic values men acquired higher scores than women, but in aesthetics, religious values women acquired higher scores. Also political values no significant difference was observed. Single and married persons were different of aesthetics and religious values. Single persons had higher scores of aesthetics values were examined, and reversely married persons had higher score in being religious. Results indicate that the structure value of age groups is different only in aesthetics values

3 Intl. Res. J. Appl. Basic. Sci. Vol., 4 (9), , 013 Erfani (008) explained that the structure of values between students with respect to their priority is scientific, economic, social, artistic and religious values. Moreover results indicate that the structure value of male and female students is different only in political values. Political value of male students is more prominent than in female students. The value structure of students, of their major was considered only showed difference between scientific and artistic values. Scientific value is considered more important for students of humanities, engineering and natural sciences than in students of art. But artistic values are more crucial for students of art than students of engineering, humanities and natural. Amiri and et. al (009) reported that hierarchy of values of youths is consists of religious, scientific, social, economic and artistic values. METHOD The research methods used in this study were survey. Statistical sample consists of: youths of hamedan province (15-9 years) in 011. The number of population was The size of research samples was determining 384 persons on the basis of formula of cochrane. t pq 1.96 (0.5)(0.5) n = d 0.05 = = t pq (0.5)(0.5) 1 + ( 1) 1 + ( 1) N d 0.05 Sampling method of this research was cluster sampling. Technique collecting of information is questionnaire and interview. For making each questionnaire each of the variables of the research was transformed into appropriate questions or indicators. The questions after preparation were delivered to judges and their views were applied. Also for to increase validity and reliability of questionnaire the below measures has performed: In this research Face validity was applied. For face validity of the questionnaire, its questions were delivered to the supervisor of the project and experts of evaluations and measurement; their comments were considered. To guarantee the external validity of the project it was tried to have a good proportional sample than the whole society which was under investigation. Pretests with 30 questionnaires with a number of samples randomly were conducted. These questionnaires were completed by researcher himself by face to face interview with some of the respondents. After gathering information by pretest their reliability were examined. Based on cronbachs coefficient alpha the reliability of the data was examined, the results is as follows: Table 1. cronbachs coefficient alpha for research variables Social- economic class Religious values Political values Social values Economic values Cultural values In order to increase the reliability of the items the following measures were applied: A) The questions of the questionnaire were clear and had no vagueness. B) The time allocated for interview of data collection was appropriately enough. C) It was tried not to give different codes to a single question. There are 8 hypotheses and 1 question in this research which listed in the following: 1) There is significant difference between the hierarchy of values and gender. ) There is significant difference between the hierarchy of values and marital status. 3) There is significant difference between the hierarchy of values and place of residence (city/village). 4) There is significant difference between the hierarchy of values and reference group. 5) There is significant relation between the hierarchy of values and age. 6) There is significant relation between the hierarchy of values and education. 7) There is significant relation between the hierarchy of values and social- economic class. 8) There is significant relation between the hierarchy of values and rate using of mass media. 9) How is the hierarchy of youth values?

4 Intl. Res. J. Appl. Basic. Sci. Vol., 4 (9), , 013 Findings 16.9 % of the respondents were between 15-17, 7.1% between ages 18-0, 6.3% between 1-3, 19% between 4-6 and finally 10.7 % was 7-9. The mean of the age of the respondents was % was female and 55.% were male respondents. 6.8% of the respondents were married and 73.% was single. 10.1% of the respondents had primary education, 0.1% guidance school, 43.8% high school and 6% university education. The mean of education was Place of residence of 53.1% of respondents was city, and 46.9% was rural areas. 55.4% of them were from under class, 41.7% were from middle class and.9% were from upper class. More information is presented in the following table: Rate using of mass media Religious values Political values Social values Economic values Cultural values Table. distribution of research variables Very Some Very low Low extent Much much Mean Standard deviation Obtained results indicate that values of youth respectively are social, religious, cultural, economic and political values. Table 3. distribution of the variable of value hierarchy of youths Standard Mean deviation Kurtosis Skewness Social values Religious values Cultural values Economic values Political values Moreover for examining the hypothesis of the research two independent samples t-test, one-way analysis of variance and simple linear regression analysis test were applied. The results of two independent samples t-test indicated that between girls and boys of social, religious, cultural, political values are considered, there is a significant difference. But there is no significant relation between gender variable and economic values. Between single and married respondents there were no significant differences of economic and political values are considered. Between young people living in city and those living in rural areas with of social, cultural and political values significant difference was observed. But no significant difference was detected of religious and economic values of young people in cities and young people in rural areas are compared. Table 4. Two independent samples t-test for independent variables gender, marital status, place of residence and hierarchy of values Social Religious Cultural Economic Political F t Gender Sig (-tailed) F t Sig (-tailed) Marital status Place of residence F t Sig (-tailed) The results of one-way analysis of variance shows that between reference group of economic, religious, cultural, political values has significant difference.but between reference group with social values no significant difference was observed.

5 Intl. Res. J. Appl. Basic. Sci. Vol., 4 (9), , 013 Table 5. one-way analysis of variance for reference group variable and hierarchy of values Sum of Squares D. F Mean Square F Sig Between Groups Within Groups Religious Values Total Between Groups Within Groups Political Values Total Between Groups Within Groups Social Values Total Between Groups Within Groups Economic Values Total Between Groups Within Groups Cultural Values Total The findings indicate that correlation coefficient between variables of age and social, religious, cultural, economical, political values is not significant. Between education and cultural, economical, political values there is a significant correlation. But between education variable and social and religious values there is no significant correlation. Correlation significant is between the variables of social- economic class and social, religious, cultural, political values; but correlation coefficient between variable of social- economic class and economic values is not significant. The findings show that correlation coefficient between variable of rate using of mass media and social, religious, cultural, economic, political values is significant. Table 6. linear regression analysis for age, education, social-economic class, rate using of mass media variables and hierarchy of values Social Religious Cultural Economic Political Constant Age Beta F Sig Constant Education Beta F Sig Constant Social-economic Beta class F Sig Constant Rate using of mass Beta media F Sig DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION Considering the research question about the hierarchy of values among youths, obtained results showed that there is a significant difference between values of youths. The hierarchy of values among youths respectively is social, religious, cultural, economic and political values. These results are in accordance with results of the studies conducted by yamagake (1989), rezae ardestani (1994), mahbubi manesh (001), sharifi (003), nor bala (007) and amiri & et. al (009). But these results are not in agreement with results proposed by erfani (008) and talaaee abdi (1987). Because the samples of research consist of young people, and youths are idealistic and they are

6 Intl. Res. J. Appl. Basic. Sci. Vol., 4 (9), , 013 interested to social, religious activities, so they paying more attention to social, religious and cultural values. Also it can be an of the society s need to social, religious and cultural values. In one of the last ranks, economic values is explainable which youths have not yet entered to the labour market and still being economically dependent on their families, they don t feel superiority to this value. Also one of other problems about economic values is education and close competition for entering to the university which is a consequence of population increase. The last priority is devoted to political values; it shows the lack of interest of youths to politics and political discussions and also an indication of their dissatisfaction of present conditions and the function of responsible officials in this area. One of the results of the present research is the relation between gender of the respondents and hierarchy of values (and social, cultural, economical, religious and political values). This is in harmony with the results obtained by allport et. al (1961), ahmed and heiserman (1978), musgrave (1984), yamagake (1989), beutel and marini (1995), kofild (1996) and niko goftar (007) which believe that there is value difference between boys and girls. But these results are not in agreement with results schwartz and gibson (1998), delkhamosh and ahmadi (00) and delkhamosh (005) that believe between the values of men and women there are no difference. Thus it can be said that the conducted research in the area of values and gender are not in agreement and equivocal results have been obtained. Probably the quality of demography can explain the difference in the obtained results. Feather observed that sex differences in homogeneous samples are lower than heterogeneous samples. One of the results of the present research is the relation between the hierarchy of values (also social, cultural, economical, religious and political values) and the marital status. Niko goftar have found the similar results but rezaee ardestani (1994) believe that there is no difference between the values of married and single youths. One of the other results of the research is the relation between the hierarchy of values and the place of residence. Rezaee ardestani (1994) also have obtained the same results. The lack of relation between the age of respondents and the hierarchy of values (also social, cultural, economic, religious and political values) is another result of the research. Ahmed and heiserman (1978), beutel and marini (1995), feather (004), rezaee ardestani (1994) and niko goftar (007) is not in harmony which they all believe that there is no relation between age and hierarchy of values. One reason for lack of agreement between results obtained by this research and other ones is related to closeness the age distance of the participants of the research. Because they are of the same generation it seems that within the context of these values between teenagers there is no idea and information exchange. Obtained results also indicated that there is a relation between hierarchy of values and the level of education. These are in agreement with the results obtained by ahmed and heiserman (1978) and rezaee ardestani (1994). Another result of the research is the relation which exists between the hierarchy of values (also social, cultural, economic, religious and political values) and reference group of the respondents. Sharifi (003) also have obtained the same results. Relation between the hierarchy of values (also social, cultural, economical, religious and political values) and the social- economic class of the respondents is among the obtained results of the present research. This is agrees with results concluded by ahmed and heiserman (1978), talaee abdi (1987) and bad bareh (001), but is against results of rezaee ardestani (1994). Among the results of the research is the observed relation between value hierarchy and rate using of mass media which agrees with results of ahmadi and heiserman (1978). Suggestions Officials responsibles must cooperate in order to deepening the social, cultural, religious, religious and political values. The obtained results must be delivered to responsible official organizations and socialization factors, so that these organizations while correcting their deficiencies can transfer values more efficiently to young people. Planners and programmers of different institutes such as schools, universities and mass media must be good ground for value transfer also must provide a kind of positive context about the indigenous values of the society. More attention must be paid to religious values of the young people; programs must be performed in order to absorb them to religious ceremonies. Officials of cultural institutes with cooperation together can enforce and strengthen the cultural values and cultural identity of the society. Official must provide a sense of collective activity in order to provide the conditions for collective participation and cooperation between young people. Because political value is standing in the last priority in the hierarchy of values, officials must have some programs in the area of political activities of the young people which can attract their political participation.

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