Clustering of Rabindrik Human Values

CLUSTERING HUMAN VALUES: A
HIERARCHICAL CLUSTER
ANALYSIS OF THE RABINDRIK
HUMAN VALUE SURVEY
Debdulal Dutta Roy
Psychology Research Unit
Indian Statistical Institute
203, B.T. Road
Kolkata, India – 700108
Venue: Asia Pacific Social Sciences Conference
8.11.2014

Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore was Asia’s first Nobel
Prize winner. He was awarded the Nobel
Prize for literature in 1913 for his book
Gitanjali.
Although most famed for his poetry, Tagore was
a creative genius who played a crucial role in
the cultural renaissance of India and Bengal
in the 19th and early 20th Century.
As well as being a Seer poet Tagore’s
achievements included notable contributions
in the fields of music, literature, plays, art and
education reformer.
Tagore’s songs are enriched with positive human
values.

Rabindrik human values and
Positive psychology
Rabidrik human values focus on positive side of human existence like
self-awakening, peace, resolute etc. They are not the antonym of
negative information but the guiding principles to overcome threat
from the negatives like fear, unknown danger etc.
Tagore wrote “ This is not my prayer to rescue me in fear” (Bipode
more rakkha karo e nohe more prarthana, bipode jeno na kori kono
bhoy) :
“ Hey, I am not afraid of unknown, my life will be flourished by
understanding the unknown” (Achenake bhoy ki amar ore,
achenakei chine chine uthbe jibon bhore).

Rabindranath Tagore (7 May 1861 – 7
August, 1941)
and Martin Seligman (Aug,12, 1942)
Tagore was not Psychologist by degree. He
was seer poet. His area of research was
dynamics in consciousness through
performing arts. He understood nature by
composing songs. His method of research
was observing the changes in nature – the
light, sound, water, air etc.
But Seligman is Professor of Positive
Psychology. He started career in search of
learned helplessness and depression
through animal experiment. Later he
moves to positive psychology and builds
up theories of learned optimism, the
antidote of depression. Seligman has
observed role of positive information in
clinical intervention.
Though they are different by profession, by nationality and
by research methods, they are similar in some areas.
Both stress on importance of positive values in
psychological intervention. They assign weight on
positive information of human existence like freedom,
peace, harmony etc. Seligman tried to move our
attention to six character strengths in his theory ‘:
wisdom/knowledge, courage, humanity, justice,
temperance, and transcendence
Both of them are against labelling people in terms of
certain psychiatric disorders.
Both stress on inner control, freedom to think, and act.
Both built institution. Tagore built ‘Shanti niketan’ (the
abode of peace). Seligman built Institute of Positive
Psychology.
By using Tagore’s theory in therapy, it is noted that
Tagore’s songs possess some human values that can
be used as diagnosis and clinical intervention
specially depression, Obsessive compulsive disorder
and anxiety.
D. Dutta Roy, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata,
Asia –Pacific Social Science Conference, Malaysia, 8.11.2014

Characteristics of Rabindrik Human Values
Core concept: Rabindrik human values are the core concept of human existence. Values are the
expressions of worth.
Universality: Rabindrik human values are free from any religions, cultures, gender differences. All
the values are the core values of human existence.
Guiding principles: Rabindrik human values have the guiding principles in peaceful life. The values
played major roles in guiding the behavior of freedom fighters in the British era. Freedom fighters
being inspired by the values imbibed in the Rabindrasangeet were not afraid of the inhuman
torture of British people.
Positive : All the values are positive in nature. The values stress on the positive flow in
consciousness.
Types : The values are of two types – path oriented and goal oriented. This is in relation to
instrumental and terminal value types of Rokeach.
Source : The values are originated and differentiated by the changes in consciousness layers.
Way to explore the values: Observing flow in consciousness as detached being.
Uses : In Psychological counseling and therapy. The values can change the interpretation of fear, the
unknown, the threat.

Outer Layer:
-Missing
-Anomalies
Inner Layer
-Vividness
-Orderliness
-Complexity
Values are developed and differentiated through the flow across layers of
consciousness. Observe the values as detached being
Inner Core Layer
-Harmony with
Environment
-Aesthetics
-Cleanliness

List of Path and Goal Oriented human values
Path Oriented Values
 Self-awakening (imagining positive power ),
 Emotional control (Controlling unwanted emotion),
 Systematic (Following planned step ),
 Non self-insulting (Not offending to self),
 Fearless (Feeling of overcoming fear),
 Cleanliness (Neat and tidy),
 Non work-family conflict (Maintaining balance
between family and work demand ),
 Niskam principle(Working without expectation of
reward),
 Challenging (Competing against one),
 Self-understanding Feedback to self about own
success and failure),
 Doubtless(Confidence and certainty in belief),
 Free from fear of failure ( Freedom from anticipated
fear),
 Resolute (Determined in purpose and action),
 Active (Avoidance of laziness).
Goal oriented Values
 Peace (Free from conflicts with others ),
 Universalization (Thinking for everyone),
 Enlightenment (Having true understanding),
 Positive Feeling (Feeling of happiness),
 Family Security (Taking care of loved ones),
 A Sense Of Accomplishment ( A lasting
contribution),
 Pleasure (An enjoyable life),
 Inner Harmony (Freedom from inner conflict),
 Self-Respect (Pride in oneself),
 Salvation (Saving self from bad effect),
 Self-Empowerment (Enabling power to self),
 Security (Protection from attack),
 Significance In Life (Finding meaning in life),
 Altruism (Considering good of others before
own).

Overlapping of values form
clusters
values do not exist in isolation but cluster in some
coherent fashion to value domains with more specific
meanings.
To this end, the Rabindrik human value items were
subjected to cluster analysis as data sets are ordinal in
nature.
Grouping human values are not uncommon. Feather
(1991) employed principal component analysis to
determine structure of Rokeach’s human values.

Objective
To explore cluster of Path and goal oriented
human values.
To examine how the cluster of values is
differentiated by gender and interests.

Participants
Questionnaire was administered to 123 male and 88 female voluntary student and
teacher participants of different disciplines – psychology, management,
environmental science, performing arts, statistics and mathematics.
Participants included all the major cities of India.
Their mean age was 29.42 years with SD 11.28. Most of them were post-graduates
and Ph.D fellows. The Inclusion criteria used in the study was the
age range of the sample selected for the study which was between 23 years to
41 years. The exclusion criteria for the study was that the sample should be
devoid of any chronic psychiatric illness during the administration of the
questionnaire.
Respondents had interest in performing arts (n=21), statistics (n=44),
management (n=63), environmental science (n=32) and psychology (n=27).

Instruments:
a)Personal Information Schedule: Individual information specifically,
name, age, sex, education, marital status etc. were collected through
one information schedule.
b) Value Survey Questionnaire- Value survey questionnaire was
developed to assess relative importance of 14 path and 14 goal
oriented human values. Each value is operationally defined like
Rokeach’s value scale. Respondents were asked to rank the values in
terms of relative importance in their everyday life. Most preferred
value would get rank 1 and least one would get rank 14.

Path
Relative preference to Path
Values
Media
n
Sorted
Rank
Self-awakening (imagining positive power) 4 1
Systematic (following planned step) 5 2
Self-understanding Feedback to self about own success and failure) 6 3.5
Active (Avoiding laziness) 6 3.5
Emotional control (Controlling unwanted emotion) 7 6.25
Cleanliness (Neat and tidy) 7 6.25
Non work-family conflict (Maintaining balance between family and
work demand ), 7 6.25
Resolute (Determined in purpose and action) 7 6.25
Fearless (Feeling of overcoming fear) 8 9
Non self-insulting (Not offending to self) 9 11.5
Challenging (Competing against one) 9 11.5
Niskam principle(Working without expectation of reward) 10 14
Doubtless(Confidence and certainty in belief) 10 14
Free from fear of failure ( Freedom from anticipated fear) 10 14

Relative preferences to Goal
oriented values
Goal Median Sorted Rank
Family Security (Taking care of loved ones) 4 1
Peace (Free from conflicts with others ) 5 3
Positive feeling (Feeling of happiness) 5 3
Self-Respect (Pride in oneself) 5 3
Universalization (Thinking for everyone) 6 5.5
Enlightenment (Having true understanding) 6 5.5
Pleasure (An enjoyable life) 7 7
Inner Harmony (Freedom from inner conflict) 8 8.5
Significance In Life (Finding meaning in life) 8 8.5
A Sense Of Accomplishment ( A lasting contribution) 9 11
Salvation (Saving self from bad effect) 9 11
Self-Empowerment (Enabling power to self) 9 11
Security (Protection from attack) 11 13.5
Altruism (Considering good of others before own) 11 13.5

Data were ordinal. Therefore, clustering among
the values was based on hierarchical cluster
analysis with Euclidean distance
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
1. SAW 0.0
2. EMO 86.6 0.0
3. SYS 73.9 78.7 0.0
4. SLF 94.8 85.9 96.6 0.0
5. FEAR 81.9 74.8 82.5 77.0 0.0
6. CLEAN 94.0 87.3 79.6 87.5 85.0 0.0
7. FMC 87.5 78.5 76.5 84.3 83.7 75.2 0.0
8. NISK 102.6 92.2 101.2 81.7 85.1 94.6 87.6 0.0
9. CHALL 92.1 91.1 88.3 75.5 76.0 85.3 86.9 85.9 0.0
10. SLFU 80.0 85.9 78.1 86.0 85.3 85.0 80.5 91.8 83.4 0.0
11. DOU 96.2 84.3 92.0 74.6 78.8 84.8 86.7 82.4 74.5 78.4 0.0
12.FAIL 102.2 88.0 96.0 75.1 74.3 93.4 90.3 77.6 73.6 82.8 61.1 0.0
13.RES 85.6 86.9 84.2 88.4 78.5 92.6 83.6 91.5 86.4 72.4 74.2 80.0 0.0
14.ACT 86.1 88.1 80.9 93.9 81.3 82.5 86.0 101.1 87.4 80.7 87.7 90.4 78.1 0.0

Euclidean distances in Goal oriented values

Clusters of Path oriented values
T r e e D ia g r a m fo r 1 4 V a r ia b le s
C o m p le te L in k a g e
E u c lid e a n d is ta n c e s
L in k a g e D is ta n c e
S L F A W A K E
S Y S T
S L F U N D R S
R E S O L U T E
A C T IV E
E M O C O N T
F E A R
C L E A N
F M C O N F
S L F IN S U
C H A L L
D O U B T
F A IL U R E
N IS K A M
5 5 6 0 6 5 7 0 7 5 8 0 8 5 9 0 9 5 1 0 0 1 0 5
Self-directed cluster: It was composed of
nine values as self-awakening, systematic,
self-understanding, resolute, active,
emotional control, fearless, cleanliness
and non work-family conflict. When all
the nine values were taken into account,
the median value was 6.00.
Accomplishment cluster: Rest of the five
path oriented values as non self-insulting,
challenging, doubtless, failure and niskam
were grouped in this cluster. When all the
five values were taken into account, the
median value was 9.00.
There were two broad clusters namely self-directed and accomplishment in path value
orientation . Following the medians of two values, it can be concluded that respondents
gave more priority on self-directed values in comparison with accomplishment oriented
values.

Clusters of Goal oriented values
There were two broad clusters
namely positive feeling and
salvation.
Positive feeling cluster: It
included peace, positive feeling,
universalization, enlightenment,
pleasure, harmony,
empowerment, significance and
respect.
Salvation cluster: It was
composed of five clusters as
accomplishment, altruism,
salvation and security.
T r e e D ia g r a m fo r 1 4 V a r ia b le s
C o m p le te L in k a g e
E u c lid e a n d is ta n c e s
L in k a g e D is ta n c e
P E A C E
P O S F L IN G
F M S E C
U N IV
E N L IG H
P L E A S U R E
H A R M O N Y
E M P O W E R M
S IG N IF C N
R E S P E C T
A C C O M P L
A L T R U S M
S A L V A T IO
S E C U R IT Y
6 5 7 0 7 5 8 0 8 5 9 0 9 5 1 0 0 1 0 5

Conclusion
To conclude, both path and goal oriented Rabindrik human values can be grouped
into two clusters separately.
Path oriented values are grouped into self-directed and accomplishment. Self-directed
cluster is more preferred to accomplishment.
Goal oriented values are grouped into positive feeling and salvation. Positive
feeling is more preferred to salvation.
In gender wise differences, self-directed cluster is more preferred to female than
male.
In interest wise difference, students of statistics and performing arts preferred
self-directed cluster. Management professionals preferred accomplishment
values more.

Clustering of Rabindrik Human Values

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