PSYCHOLOGY OF VALUE FORMATION IN EARLY CHILDHOOD: A PATH TO SUSTAINABILITY OF AFRICAN CULTURAL HERITAGE

Values in a wider perspective are important and lasting beliefs or ideals shared by the members of a culture in a communal setting about what is good or bad and desirable or undesirable. Values have major influence on a person’s behaviour and attitude; they serve as broad guidelines in all situations. Values are general principles that regulate our day-to-day behaviour. The emotional, social and physical development of young children has a direct effect on their overall development and on the adult they will become. That is why understanding the need to invest in young children is so important, so as to maximize their future well-being. A child’s early years are the foundation for his or her future development, providing a strong base for lifelong learning and learning abilities, including cognitive and social development. Well established research, continues to emphasize the importance of early childhood education as an essential building block of a child’s future success. The society is filled with children and adults that are untaught in values system, as a result of it the society is facing vices like; violence, cultism, prostitution, bloodshed, thievery, (armed robbery), examination malpractice, destroying and manipulating of social values system and order, etc. This research therefore, suggested the importance of inculcating values in a child at the early stage. This if achieved in children at their early developmental stage will help them to maintain ethical values system in their adulthood. The researcher adopted Bandura’s social learning theory which states that people learn from one another, via observation, imitation, and modeling. If children will be trained by modeling of values at their early stage of childhood it will help to instil important values in them. The researcher therefore, used secondary data collection methodology to generate other scholars’ opinions in this discourse.

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