Who determines what goods, services, and experiences are worth? Do they have a right or a responsibility to do so? Are they well-informed about the potential impacts of their valuations on daily life, or on individual and collective identities? How are our beliefs and decisions about value and spending shaped by social and cultural forces and to what extent are we susceptible to persuasion? How does valuation intersect with our own core individual and communal values? What psychological and developmental factors impact our values about money and financial habits? How might we reshape cultural and institutional determinants of worth in a time of political and environmental upheaval?
This program will explore the many facets of value in society, including units on:
- Pricing strategy in theory and in practice, relevant to consumers, individuals who plan to work for money, business owners, managers, freelancers, and more
- Behavioral economics, including principles from cognitive psychology and neuroeconomics, consider why people often make irrational financial decisions, and how we may influence people's perceptions of value
- Social and Cultural psychological perspectives that examine how cultural practices, social norms and group dynamics impact both valuation and spending behaviors
- Clinical and Developmental Psychology provide lenses to explore how psychological issues and life experiences can disrupt valuation processes and/or lead to unhealthy spending patterns , as well as interventions for related difficulties
- Economic theory, how attitudes toward value have changed over time, and what forces have shaped these attitudes
- Valuation, subjective practices which somehow determine what a business, entity, hour of work, or body of work is worth
- Interested students may also explore tools and resources for financial planning, further applying program concepts to their own financial lives and visions for the future.
Students will emerge from the program with a deeper understanding of their own relationship with value, money, pricing, financial planning and decision making. This program will be useful for anyone with an interest in business, management, or freelancing, or genuine curiosity about how the world of money may be changing, for better or for worse.