Pop Doris

Personal
Values
validated models

ISBN 978-973-0-41055-6
Baia Mare
2024
 Chapter I. Introduction to personal values

Identity, personality and values

Personal values are part of the human identity,

conscious or unconscious, like personality, will, motivation,
attitudes. A person's value system is a motivating factor in
lifestyle choices, major decisions and resilience to opportunities
and challenges. An eloquent illustration is the differentiation
identified by the NorLAG research program studying life course
in Norway. Individuals assessed perpetuated different sets of
personal values. Those who maintained values oriented towards
self-enhancement, self-enhancement and openness to change
found fewer new sources of lifestyle satisfaction in retirement.

The others who were guided by self-transcendence

(self-transcendence) or conservatism (conservation) and did not
show a pattern for retirement, so these values were not
associated with certain behavioral tendencies or satisfaction
(Blekesaune & Hansen, 2021). Another interesting way in which
values are a component of identity is reflected in the ideology
with which they agree, with the data providing different portraits
for those educated in the Soviet zone than those gathered in the

1
European continent, even if the differences are small, they are
significant (Inglehard & Baker, 2000).

Personal values are a guide to how we would ideally

and abstractly like reality to be constructed, but they can also be
influenced by other cognitive factors. Fulfilled or unfulfilled
needs can mobilize us to prioritize some values, for example,
heightened needs to mentally perceive that an event, period,
chapter of life or stage is over, generally value conformity and
stability more than others.

In contrast to these, those for whom this need was low

developed an orientation towards new activities, creativity,
independent thinking and a desire to act. What is interesting in
the results observed by this study? The pattern was the same
regardless of participants' age, gender or desire for social
desirability (Calogero, Bardi, Sutton, 2009).

Why do personal values matter in identity if we have

access to assess personality and this is complex and stable
enough to predict professions, adaptation to lifestyles and
behaviors in personal relationships? Values tend to become-
stable from the age of 7-11 years, maintaining throughout life.
Personality becomes stable after adolescence, so values become
mentally sedimented before personality and have their role in
2
adult functioning. Researchers interested in this cognitive factor,
have tested the validity and fidelity of these values in different
age groups and have found that the circular arrangement of
values holds across age groups. The chapter on personal value
models presents the circular value dispositions (Cieciuch,
Davidov, Algesheimer, 2016).

There are associations between personality and

personal values, which reconfirm the validity of both
components of human motivation and functioning. Openness to
change in the personal values portrait correlates with openness
to experience in personality. The labels used to denote these
concepts provide some intuitive association, which is
substantiated by research results.

Self-transcendence (desire to care for others, group,

environment, animals well-being) in the value system has a
positive relationship with agreeableness (desire to have harmony
in relationships, to be agreeable, to be considerate of others) in
the personality.

Agreeableness has a negative relationship with

developmental values. Conscientiousness in the personality
system d is associated with the values of conservatism, but not

3
with openness to change, a phenomenon that is easily intuited,
but proven by results (Fischer, Boer, 2015).

Needs differentiation in motivation

As presented above personal needs and values are

distinct concepts in psychological functioning and their didactic
description. Motivational tendencies and individual differences
in motivation are essential in understanding humans and
predicting their behaviors.

Of course, needs are the basis of functioning,

considering that needs are necessary in functioning, personal
values are optional for a life in which the orientation is to fulfill
basic needs such as food and shelter. Needs alert us to what we
need, from food to the need for actualization or affection and
affiliation.

Values are abstract representations of an ideal world,

not an optimal one, so although they guide us to strive to build a
world that conforms to them, that ideal is never actually
achieved. They are like guiding stars in the path of our lives. A
joke without poverty is utopian, but we go out of our way to help
others find gainful employment, provide financial and other
4
assistance, and create programs to raise the economic level in
disadvantaged areas.

So we act according to our values, we manifest them,

but the ideal remains abstract and is represented by the concrete
goals we formulate and accomplish (Buss & Cantor, 1989;
Emmons, 1995; MacDonald, 1995; McAdams, 1995; McAdams
& Pals, 2006; McClelland, 1951; Murray, 1938; Winter, John,
Stewart, Klohnen, & Duncan, 1998).

According to the Murray model, from which Maslow's

model has been adapted, needs are primary and secondary.
Primary needs are predominantly those of the body and its safety
and secondary needs are predominantly those of the psyche. This
table describes the needs in the model:

Relevant primary needs

Positive, we feel attracted Air

to the object
Water

Food

Knowing what's going on

Sexual contact

Lactation

5
Negative, we feel the need CO2 Expiration
to move away from the
object Other elimination processes in
the body

Avoiding injuries

Avoiding the cold

Avoiding noise

Avoiding excessive heat

Secondary needs
To be close and loyal to
another person, to
Membership please them and get
their friendship, their
attention
Helping the helpless,
Feeding feeding them, keeping
Condition them out of danger
Having fun, relaxing,
Play
having a good time
To separate from the
object or being,
Reject
perceived as negative,
to exclude and abandon

6
 Someone or something
else to fulfill personal
needs, including being
Addiction
loved, cared for, helped,
forgiven, forgiven,
consoled
Succeed at difficult
tasks, overcome
Success
obstacles, become an
expert
Impress others with
Exhibitio- your own thoughts,
Ambition nism actions, words, even
shocking ones
Seeking praise and
Recognition awards for
achievements
Seeking validation for
Superiority
power
Understanding, being
curious, asking
Knowledge
questions, seeking new
knowledge
Info
Identify and
demonstrate
Exhibition
relationships between
real facts
Accumula-
Materialism Owning objects
tion

7
 Conserva- To maintain the
tion condition of an object
Organize and construct
Building
one or more objects
To clean, tidy and tidy
Order
up
Retention Keep objects
Power To admire a superior
Adolatri-
person, to praise him, to
zation
follow his rules
Controlling the
environment through
Dominate
command and
persuasion
Avoiding Avoid humiliation and
humiliation shame
Resisting the influence
Autonomy of others, enjoying life
independently
Power The lust for power
Sadomasochism To obey and be
submissive to others, to
Subjugation accept blame and
punishment, to enjoy
pain and misfortune

To dominate, control,
Aggression
push and hurt others

8
 Social Avoiding Inhibiting behavior to
conformity guilt avoid guilt
Compensating for
failures by trying again,
Counter
seeking to overcome
obstacles
To defend oneself from
Disengage-
attack and guilt, to obey
ment
any failure of self
Status
Avoiding Avoiding failure and
failure humiliation

Non- Prevent damage to self-

violence esteem and reputation

Isolating yourself from

Isolation
others

Of these concepts described as needs, some are very

similar to the validated descriptions for values. One can observe
the motivational basis of need for values in the similarity
between the two types of components.

Differentiating attitudes

9
 Attitudes are a mentally state of being, based on
experiences, expressing a directive or influence on a person's
reaction to objects, situations that are relational to him or her. It
is a mindset that predisposes us to one type of response.
Attitudes are more complex than values, they are a component
of them besides personality, beliefs motivation and behavioral
element. For example, say, "She has a positive attitude about
work." Attitudes comprise the viewpoint, emotions about that
factor, and behaviors determined by thoughts and emotions.

Values and personality as components of attitudes

correlate, a review conducted in the same year as the study
presented in comparing personality with values found similar
results. The value of autonomy (self-direction) is, on average,
positively associated with agreeableness and openness to
experiences.

The two personality traits are also positively associated

with universalism and stimulation. Extraversion strongly
correlates with stimulating importance, power, success and
hedonism. Conscientiousness and conformity are positively
related, as is success with the same trait (Parks-Leduc, Feldman,
Bardi, 2015).

10
 An interesting and useful aspect of the contribution of
personal values in shaping attitudes is their usefulness in
predicting political preferences. For example, valuing power
correlates negatively with pro-sexual minority attitudes. Various
studies described in Abdallah's (2022) article explain the
mechanism as minorities being perceived as weak, powerless
groups.

Values can be group, shared, not just individual

We already know that values at the personal level are present,

can be measured, matter and are useful. What other researchers
wondered was whether these values can be observed in work
groups, teams, more specifically, and checked whether
autonomy, stimulation, success, power, strength, security,
conformity, tradition, goodwill and universalism are common to
those in the same team.

These are values that may be related to work, and

spirituality and hedonism were not assessed in this study because
they are not as relevant to work. Why did they study in teams?
Because shared values, like personal values, influence group
behaviors and group decisions. The results confirmed that if
individuals in the group had more or more intensely correlated
values when forming the work group, they had more shared
11
decisions, and the values remained shared across work stages
(Adair, Hideg & Spence, 2013).

12
References

Inglehart, R., & Baker, W. E. (2000). Modernization, cultural change,

and the persistence of traditional values. American sociological
review, 19-51.

Cieciuch, J., Davidov, E., & Algesheimer, R. (2016). The stability and
change of value structure and priorities in childhood: A longitudinal
study. Social Development, 25(3), 503-527.

Calogero, R. M., Bardi, A., & Sutton, R. M. (2009). A need basis for
values: Associations between the need for cognitive closure and value
priorities. Personality and Individual Differences, 46(2), 154-159.

Parks-Leduc, L., Feldman, G., & Bardi, A. (2015). Personality traits

and personal values: A meta-analysis. Personality and Social
Psychology Review, 19(1), 3-29.

Fischer, R., & Boer, D. (2015). Motivational basis of personality traits:

A meta-analysis of value-personality correlations. Journal of
personality, 83(5), 491-510.

Macdonald, K. M. (1995). The Sociology of the Professions: SAGE

Publications.

Adair, W. L., Hideg, I., & Spence, J. R. (2013). the culturally

intelligent team: The impact of team cultural intelligence and cultural
heterogeneity on team shared values. Journal of cross-cultural
psychology, 44(6), 941-962.

Abdallah, S. (2022).The Relative Importance of Self-Focused and

Society-Focused Values in Explaining Political Attitudes in
[Link] Psychology.

13
Schuster, C., Pinkowski, L., & Fischer, D. (2019). Intra-individual
value change in adulthood. Zeitschrift für Psychologie.

Blekesaune, M., & Hansen, T. (2021). Human values and retirement

experiences: A longitudinal analysis of Norwegian data. Social
indicators research, 157, 1001-1019.

Buss, D. M. (1991). Evolutionary personality psychology. Annual

review of psychology, 42(1), 459-491.

Emmons, R. A. (1995), Levels and domains in personality: An

introduction, Journal of Personality, 63(3), 341-364.

McAdams, D. P. (1995). What do we know when we know a person?

Journal of personality, 63(3), 365-396.

McAdams, D. P., & Pals, J. L. (2006). A new Big Five: fundamental

principles for an integrative science of personality. American
psychologist, 61(3), 204.

McClelland, D. C. (1951). Measuring motivation in phantasy: The

achievement motive. Groups, leadership and men; research in human
relations, 191-205.

Pickens, J. (2005). Organizational behavior in health care, 4(7), 43-

76.

Winter, D. G., John, O. P., Stewart, A. J., Klohnen, E. Traits and

motives: toward an integration of two traditions in personality
research. Psychological review, 105(2), 230.

Costa Jr, P. T., & McCrae, R. R. (1988) From catalog to classification:

Murray's needs and the five-factor model. Journal of personality and
social psychology, 55(2), 258

14
Chapter II. Defining personal values

Personal value is a psychological, abstract concept that

explains and labels a factor in mental functioning. According to
bio-physiological-psychological theories explaining human
psychological functioning, any psychological process or fact has
a genetic influence, whether or not identified and an
environmental one. That is, there is a set of genes that are
associated with personal values, according to a study that boldly
concluded that values have a hereditary basis, that they are not
just shaped by the environment (Schermer et al., 2011).

Researchers in the field of developmental psychology

have been consistently interested in the environmental rather
than the genetic component, as expected. The factors considered
most impactful are economic and social changes that alter
lifestyle and life course (Schoon, Mortimer, 2017; Conger &
Donnellan, 2007; Greenfield, 2009; Oishi, 2014; Silbereisen,
2005).

Personal values are, according to the initial description

proposed by Rokeach (1973), general, important life goals that
guide our perception, help us to evaluate reality from their
perspective, to choose behaviors that make sense to us even if

15
their alternatives are less costly or have fewer advantages
(Rokeach, 1973).

The second scholar who redefined the field of study of

personal values, Schwartz (1992), conceptualized them as
cognitive representations of desirable, abstract goals of the
person. A very important note here is that his use of the word
goal refers to an ideal, abstract way of constructing the world,
not to goals in the normal, expected sense of specific, time-
bound, measurable, and attainable goals. Personal values are like
stars that guide us towards them, but they are not completely
attainable, like a goal. Success value is an umbrella term for a
subtle guide by which we set goals.

It is usually easiest to understand by examples, so an

illustration is necessary here. Valuing success and autonomy
predisposes to choosing occupations, organizing leisure time,
prioritizing, seeking opportunities and accepting them in
accordance with the desire for success. A psychology student
who wants to become a successful therapist will choose master's
studies in psychotherapy, volunteering to talk to those with soul
problems, develop listening skills, etc.

Another student, also in psychology, who has the same

values but wants a successful career in forensic science, will
16
watch specialized documentaries, choose courses that will serve
them for potential interviews, etc. If another psychology student
values family and relationships, will pay more attention and
effort to quality time spent with loved ones, will actively seek a
life partner, or already has one, will insist on getting to know and
help family.

In defining personal values, it is important to add that

they are part of cognitive motivation, guiding actions, just like
needs (Rohan, 2005). They are mental representations
constructed verbally, textually, that determine patterns of
behavior, just like personality (Wilson & Dufrene, 2009).

The personal values that certain people consider to be

moral, in accordance with their philosophy of life or religious
dogma, influence judgment, the way in which right and wrong
are determined from the perspective of the person who values
them.

A short exemplifying portrait is of a person who values

self-transcendence and belongs to a cult in which it is considered
as the standard of living, may negatively evaluate a person who
chooses not to help the needy or a neighbor who moves away,
considering it as a behavior not in accordance with the chosen
subjective criteria (Oyserman, 2015).
17
 Personal values have also been found to influence
attitudes related to sensitive and less sensitive topics. Although
attitudes are more complex than values, they make a significant
contribution to the choice of attitudes to agree with (Oyserman,
2015).

We mentioned earlier that personal values are one of the

sources of inspiration for meaningful activities and individual
decisions, but they also have an input in group decisions,
whether they are shared and decisions are a consensus or they
are different and each participant who has a different value or
does not value what is expressed by the decision made tries to
modify and influence the decision (Oyserman, 2015).

Values are cognitive representations that guide the

course of a person's life, not completely, but through meaningful
decisions, prioritizations and actions. Using the system proposed
by Schwartz, a paper synthesizing other studies resulted in
confirming the stability of personal values over the life course.
Specifically, even those who experienced life situations that
changed their life course remained with the same hierarchy of
values.

There are some examples in this dataset that conform to

the change hypothesis, but with small, significant and
18
hypothesis-neutral effects. In contrast, when the effect of
controlled interventions was measured, personal values changed
their original place in the hierarchy (Schuster, Pinkowski &
Fischer, 2019).

Personal values are assessed throughout life from the age

of ten in children. Of course, their stability is proven from late
adolescence onwards to the end except for those who experience
certain major life events and whose priorities change. The
instruments to measure values in children do not use interview
with text or questionnaire with textual questions, but pictures
and scenarios with descriptions that help children to be able to
report verbally or in writing whether they identify with what is
presented in the pictures. Harmoniously developed children at
that age have access to abstract thinking and can cognitively
process information from values they can identify with (Bubeck,
Bilsky, 2004).

Differentiation of work values

Work values differ from personal values in their

narrower scope. They are formulated and chosen to describe
ideal workplace behavior and the ideal work environment

19
created. More specifically, in one study, ideological business
values differed in terms of hierarchy, and lifestyle values were
the same for all participants, regardless of age and education
level.

About the same group of people evaluated, it was found

that cultural and legal-organizational values were the same,
regardless of their work interests and type of employment
contract. A possible interpretation is that people who work
generally share the same work values which, along with other
factors in work motivation (Alas, 2009).

Differentiation of individualism and collectivism

Another useful way of categorizing and representing

values to guide life are individualistic and collectivistic.
Throughout human history and in the data collected for research
in the field the results have shown that there are some differences
between those who value a collectivist culture and society,
designed to sustain the success of society at the expense of the
individual, and those who prefer an individualistic society in
which everyone in society is sustained towards success so that
society and culture are constantly developing and moving
forward.

20
 A group of researchers tried to observe whether there
were differences in how clear and specific the personal values
were for each of those assessed. The group results showed that
regardless of the country they came from, collectivist or
individualistic culture, the participants were able to categorize
and differentiate the values in the system proposed by Schwartz
(Schwartz, Cieciuch, Vecchione, Torres, Butenko, 2017). What
is even more interesting, that the circular model of the
disposition of values was the same, it retained its validity
regardless of culture.

Differentiation of social values

Because they could be confused with social values,

personal values need to be differentiated from them as well. The
World Values Survey has defined and validated the existence of
five dimensions for social values: religiosity, neutrality, fairness,
skepticism, social stability. The five are social dimensions,
studied in fifty-six countries, where they have an effect
measured in the national context (Allison et al., 2021).

21
Differentiating attitudes about the environment

In the study of climate change, the environment and

environmentalism, a trend has emerged in the study of personal
values and how they express themselves in behaviors of ignoring
or engaging in pro-environmental behaviors. People who tend to
value transcendence of self also have pro-environmental
attitudes, while those who value power more, do not engage in
or ignore environmental attitudes.

It's not only proven by data, but also by common sense,

because valuing self-transcendence includes caring for the
living, not just humans, but animals, plants, and the universe in
general. One surprising result is the positive prediction of the
value of openness to experiences in environmental attitudes and
some environmental stewardship behaviors, in agreement with
research by Zibenberg et al. (2018).

In similar research personal values of autonomy and

security predicted higher engagement in pro-environmental
behaviors. In contrast, a value of (free enterprise) enterprise to
be free and conservatism predicted lower pro-environmental
attitudes (Agissova & Sautkina, 2020).

22
 The positive relationship between self-transcendence
and engagement in environmental causes is not a straightforward
one, just as in any relationship between values or motivational
behaviors, facilitating mechanisms may be interposed. One
possible mechanism identified to explain this relationship is the
way in which humanity is portrayed from the perspective of the
one being evaluated (Cheung, Luke & Maio, 2014).

Two experiments tested negative and positive regard for

humanity in order to test whether their effect depends on
personal values. Specifically, self-transcendence was evaluated
for the possibility of partially explaining the aforementioned
effect (Cheung, Luke & Maio, 2014).

The results indicated that people who attach less

importance to the transcendence of self tend to have lower levels
to ecocentrism if they also have positive regard for humanity,
unlike those who were in the condition of negative regard for
humanity. They also exhibited lower personal norms, hence
lower intention for ecological behaviors (Cheung, Luke & Maio,
2014).

23
Differentiation of parental and family values

Personal values are general expectations that describe an

ideal for behavior. Parenting values are a category of values that
focus on behavior in relation to one's own child or children in
care. Familism and respect are such values, which can be
identified in family members. Family cohesion was positively
associated with these two values, family conflict negatively
(Lorenzo-Blanco & al., 2012).

In the medical field it is known that some parents are

reluctant to vaccinate their children, so a specific instrument has
even been developed to assess parents' values about vaccines.
The PVV scale was cross-checked with the classic Schwartz
scale, with which it had moderate associations of sufficient
discriminant validity to be valid (Cataldi, Sevick, Pyrzanowski,
2019).

Conformity and vaccine reluctance positively correlated,

vaccine safety and vaccine benefit were associated with
universalism. Autonomy and vaccine benefit predicted late
childhood immunization (Cataldi, Sevick, Pyrzanowski, 2019).

24
25
References
Alas, R. (2009) The impact of work-related values on the readiness to
change in Estonian organizations. Journal of Business Ethics, 86(2),
113-124.

Bubeck, M., & Bilsky, W. (2004). Value structure at an early age.

Swiss Journal of Psychology, 63(1), 31-41.

Schwartz, S. H., Cieciuch, J., Vecchione, M., Torres, C., Dirilen-

Gumus, O., & Butenko, T. (2017). Value tradeoffs propel and inhibit
behavior: Validating the 19 refined values in four countries. European
Journal of Social Psychology, 47(3), 241-258.

Schermer, J. A., Vernon, P. A., Maio, G. R., & Jang, K. L. (2011). A

behavior genetic study of the connection between social values and
personality. Twin Research and Human Genetics, 14(3), 233-239.

Conger, R. D., & Donnellan, M. B. (2007). An interactionist

perspective on the socioeconomic context of human development.
Annu. Rev. Psychol. 58(1), 175-199.

Greenfield, P. M. (2009) Linking social change and developmental

change: shifting pathways of human development. Developmental
psychology, 45(2), 401.

Oishi, S. (2014) Socioecological psychology. Annual review of

psychology, 65(1), 581-609.

Silbereisen, R. (2005). Presidential Address Social change and human

development: Experiences from German unification. International
Journal of Behavioral Development, 29(1), 2-13.

26
Lorenzo-Blanco, E. I., Unger, J. B., Baezconde-Garbanati, L., Ritt-
Olson, A., & Soto, D. (2012). Acculturation, enculturation, and
symptoms of depression in Hispanic youth: The roles of gender,
Hispanic cultural values, and family functioning. Journal of youth and
adolescence, 41(10), 1350-1365.

Cataldi, J. R., Sevick, C., Pyrzanowski, J., Wagner, N., Brewer, S. E.,
Narwaney, K. J., ... & Kwan, B. M. (2019). Addressing personal
parental values in decisions about childhood immunization: Measure
development. Vaccine, 37(38), 5688-5697.

Agissova, F., & Sautkina, E. (2020). The role of personal and political
values in predicting environmental attitudes and pro-environmental
behavior in Kazakhstan. Frontiers in psychology, 3660.

Allison, L., Wang, C., & Kaminsky, J. (2021). Religiosity, neutrality,

fairness, skepticism, and societal tranquility: A data science analysis
of the World Values Survey. PloS one, 16(1), e024245231.

Cheung, W. Y., Luke, M. A., & Maio, G. R. (2014). on attitudes

towards humanity and climate change: The effects of humanity esteem
and self-transcendence values on environmental concerns. European
Journal of Social Psychology, 44(5), 496-506.

Schuster, C., Pinkowski, L., & Fischer, D. (2019). Intra-individual

value change in adulthood. Zeitschrift für Psychologie.

Zibenberg, A., Greenspan, I., Katz-Gerro, T., & Handy, F. (2018).

environmental behavior among Russian youth: the role of self-
direction and environmental concern. environmental management,
62, 295-304. environmental management, 62, 295-304.

27
Chapter III. Explanatory models of personal values

The Rokeach model

According to this model values are beliefs that a certain

way of behavior is socially and personally preferable. Two lists
have been designed, one describing and labeling general goals,
personal aspirations and one describing and labeling behaviors
meant to be preferable and ways considered suitable to reach the
aspirations.

Values are listed on the initial lists according to

importance, and according to her theory once added into one's
own value system, it is organized into the already mentally
formed structure. This value system is constructed to serve as a
blueprint in the life course, as a general guide for making
decisions and resolving conflicts between interests and options.

Each of the two lists, the terminal values and the

instrumental values, constitutes a separate system. These two
systems are functionally connected, as one instrumental value
can serve several terminal values. Also, several instrumental
values can serve a single terminal value.

28
 Descriptive table for Rokeach value lists

Categories Value
Terminal values - social World peace

Equality

Freedom

National security

An aesthetic world

Family safety

Mature love

Social recognition

True friendship

Terminal values - personal A comfortable life

An adventurous life
Accomplishment
Joy
Inner harmony

29
 Pleasure
Salvation
Self-respect
Wisdom
Instrumental - moral values Open-minded
Forgiving
Help
Lover
Obedient
Politicians
Responsible
Instrumental values - Ambitious
proficient
Capable
Clean
Brave
Imaginative
Independent
Intellectual
Logic
Self-control

30
The Schwartz model

The value system according to Schwartz is different, the

values are more general and closer to the currently accepted
definition of values as abstract, not overly specific and
universally valid. It is also called the circular model. Both
systems propose universally valid values, i.e. any culture could
understand and identify with them.

The circular model summarizes a person's potential

priorities as belonging to one of the four categories, as shown in
the table. An important aspect is the convergence of values in
the same group, explained as follows: if tradition is highly
valued, according to the data, conformity and security are
similarly valued.

The opposing categories in the system are polarized in

pairs, self-transcendence and self-development, conservatism
and openness to change. These categories are not mutually
exclusive but tend to correlate negatively. Self-developing
values are those that drive demonstrating ambition and
perseverance, becoming powerful and successful, having control
over others and resources, being up to social standards and being
successful.

31
 These values are in conflict with those that emphasize
selfless prosocial behaviors, demonstrating care and concern for
loved ones or those with whom interactions are frequent,
expressing acceptance, tolerance and caring concern for all
people regardless of degree of intimacy.

The second polarization was observed between the focus

on autonomy of thinking, freedom in deciding actions, noted and
stimulated by enthusiasm expressing components of the value of
openness to change and the focus on those personal values that
maintain the status quo: commitment to past habits and beliefs
(tradition), adherence to social norms, to the expectations of the
social group (conformism) and preference for stability of the self
and proximal, preference for personal safety and the safety of the
group of belonging (security).

Hedonism is framed in two sections, openness to

experiences and self-development, not just in one, like the other
values. One explanation for this approach is its opposition to
self-transcendence and conservatism (Cieciuch, Roccas &Savig,
2017).

Shalom Schwartz, his teams of collaborators, and

independent research teams interested in these issues have been
studying how values are prioritized, how they are influenced,
32
how they are expressed in behaviors, and how they guide major
decisions since 1992, since the proposal of the validated scale
for assessing these concepts. It has been observed that although
there is a clear hierarchy, there tends to be a roughly close
evaluation of them, i.e. they are almost equally important, if they
are important to that person.

Expectedly, the data show that there is no one important value

for most people, from different cultures and different
backgrounds, but if they are important, they are about equally
important. This is an important point because it can be inferred
that the measurement instrument can cover all possible personal
values a person may have without excluding potential life course
orientations (Schwartz, et al., 1997).

Descriptive table with personal values according to the

Schwartz model

Categories Value Defining aims

Conservatism Security security, harmony,
stability of society,
stability of self,
stability of
relationships

33
 Tradition respect,
commitment,
acceptance of a
culture's customs,
procedures,
protocols, ideas,
acceptance of a
religion's rituals
and ideology
Conformism inhibition of
actions,
inclinations,
impulses that
might upset others,
refraining from
violence,
emotional or
physical abuse,
resisting disrespect
for social norms
and expectations
Self-transcendence Universalism understanding,
appreciation,
tolerance and
protection of
people and nature,
a desire for good
for nature and all
people

34
 Benevolence or maintain and
goodwill restore the well-
being of those with
whom you interact
frequently, those in
your immediate or
wider social group
Personal Good luck the main goal is
development personal success in
areas of interest,
demonstrating
personal and
professional
competence,
achieving social
standards
Power social status,
prestige, level of
control, dominance
of others,
dominance of
resources
Open to change Stimulation excitement,
novelty, challenge,
stepping out of
your comfort zone
Autonomy independent
thinking, actions
decide personal,
independent,

35
 choices, creation,
exploration

Mixed Hedonism pleasure through

the senses,
gratification,
rewards, especially
immediate rewards

This system of personal values has been studied at the

level of region, country, continent, peninsula, etc. Even
international panels assessing the psychological, physical and
emotional state and development of the whole or most of the
planet use it. It is predominantly used in association with the
assessment of social values, political ideology, well-being, life
satisfaction, standard of living and religious beliefs (Borg et al.,
2017).

Individual analysis has shown it can be studied at the

participant level, i.e. it makes sense for each individual as
conceptualized, not just at the regional, political or cultural
group level (Borg et al., 2017). Although averages and
hierarchies are more visitable and statistically more easily

36
differentiated at the panel group level, differences can also be
observed for each individual, through questionnaires and
interviews, in the way each person expresses important values,
how they relate to them and conceptualize them.

An important adjustment made by the two scales that

measure a person's self-reported personal values is the
reformulation of the values and items from the original SVS
scale into portrait items. Each value is portrayed in descriptions
of a person who holds that value, and raters have confirmed that
they find it easier, overwhelmingly, to relate to those small
exemplifications in the PVQ than to the original definitions that
describe specifically but abstractly what that value is (Borg et
al., 2019).

In all the languages and cultures studied this system was

validated, and the participants equally understood the values,
recognized them and could identify with them. There are still
some cultures where it has not yet been validated, but its
universality is partially confirmed for America, Europe, Asia,
part of Africa, Australia (Aavik & Allik, 2002).

In an attempt to explain the results that confirm that some

values are opposite to others and correlate with others,
researchers have proposed the hypothesis of the need for
37
coherence and meaning in the life story, in the continuation of
lifestyle. Cognitive dissonance is another possible explanation,
because for a person who values the stability of relationships, of
society, changes are evaluated negatively (Bardi et al., 2014).

38
References
Aavik, T., & Allik, J. (2002) The structure of Estonian personal values:
A lexical approach. European Journal of Personality, 16(3), 221-235.

Bardi, A., Jaspal, R., Polek, E., & Schwartz, S. H. (2014). values and
identity process theory: theoretical integration and empirical
interactions. identity process theory: Identity, social action and social
change, 175-200.

Borg, I., Hermann, D., Bilsky, W., & Pöge, A. (2019). Do the PVQ
and the IRVS scales for personal values support Schwartz's value
circle model or Klages 'value dimensions model?. Measurement
instruments for the social sciences, 1(1), 1-14.

Cieciuch, J., Roccas, S., & Sagiv, L. (2017). Values and behavior:
taking a cross-cultural perspective. Exploring the Complicated
Relationship Between Values and Behavior, 237-247.

Ariail, D. L., Smith, K. T., & Smith, L. M. (2020). Do United States

accountants' personal values match the profession's values (ethics
code)?. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 33(5), 1047-
1075.

Tuulik, K., Õunapuu, T., Kuimet, K., & Titov, E. (2016). Rokeach's
instrumental and terminal values as descriptors of modern
organizational values. International Journal of Organizational
Leadership, 5, 151-161.

Schwartz, S. H. (2012). An overview of the Schwartz theory of basic

values. Online readings in Psychology and Culture, 2(1), 11.

39
Schwartz, S. H., Verkasalo, M., Antonovsky, A., & Sagiv, L. (1997).
Value priorities and social desirability: Much substance, some style.
British journal of social psychology, 36(1), 3-18.

Rokeach, M. (1967). Rokeach value survey. The nature of human

values.

Rokeach, M., & Regan, J. F. (1980). The role of values in the

counseling situation. The personnel and guidance Journal, 58(9), 576-
582.

Borg, S. (2017). Teachers 'beliefs and classroom practices. In The

Routledge handbook of language awareness (pp. 75-91). Routledge.

40
Chapter IV. Expressing personal values in behavior

Generally discussing these, values are cognitive

structures of meaningful words, representations that guide the
decisions made. Although abstract they can be observed in
behaviors and inferred from them (Oyserman, 2015).

Value functions:

- guides behavior, one of the reasons they are studied

- are the foundation for defining what is right and wrong, in

evaluation, for each individual

- from this emerges a whole field of study of moral values,

moral decisions and philosophical systems of interpreting
ethics

- helps prioritize actions and events

- based on them we observe patterns in the behavior of others

- if the person is trustworthy, if they are friendly - we make

value judgments

- gives meaning to personal actions and decisions

41
 - it makes sense to volunteer in Africa because I am a person
who believes that it is important to help others, to believe
in the common good

- support the creation of norms, laws and social expectations

about what is moral to do, at the level of a group, a culture, a
nation or even globally

- Adoption of political ideologies, religious, social attitudes

One of the behaviors influenced by personal values is

television use, according to one study. The sample is too small
to make a generalization, but for the fifty-eight participants, the
hierarchy of values correlated with the number of hours of
television viewing (Becker, Connor, 1981).

Consumers of fashion and home decor goods believe,

according to the results of another research, that security,
convenience and emotions matter a lot when deciding whether
to make purchases on their phone. Some travelers appeal to
epistemic and conditional values to book a stay through
platforms accessible on the phone (Assarut, Eiamkanchanalai,
2015).

These are examples of the use of values to guide

behavior, but the character of choice remains, personal values
42
can be used in behaviors or they can be ignored, not expressed
in behaviors (Roccas, Savig, Knafo, 2002).

In an attempt to capture the expression of values in

behaviors, a study team found that, unexpectedly, benevolence,
conformity, and security did not correlate with behaviors
specific to them, but with behaviors in other domains.
Incentivization and tradition had the strongest associations with
their specific behaviors (Bardi, Schwartz, 2003).

In panel samples personal values statistically more

visibly predict behaviors. Self-transcendence values predicted
community service attendance, social gatherings, caring for
people outside the home (Miles, 2015).

Before continuing with the presentation of the results, it

is important to mention that associations, not implying causality,
are used in the study of the relationship between values and
behaviors, but they do not imply a certainty of the results and
interpretations and deserve to be critically evaluated.

In one panel, valuing conservatism was positively

associated with preferring to consult with a doctor, and valuing
self-transcendence was positively associated with the opposite
of the behavior (Aloha, 2020). Self-transcendence was

43
positively related to resource sharing in children, and openness
to experience was unrelated to behaviors (Abramson, Daniel &
Knafi-Noam, 2018).

Behaviors are initiated and maintained by a multitude of

factors, some motivational, some contextual. Although the
associations with behaviors are significant, personal values only
partially explain the emergence of certain behaviors or decisions
over the life course. In theory, everyone is responsible for a
meaningful life, a life lived according to values, but in reality,
behaviors are chosen according to other criteria, sometimes
completely ignoring personal values.

Again, self-transcendence predicted innovation-oriented

attitudes, hypothesizing that openness to change would predict
those attitudes. Employees of organizations that held these
attitudes and values engaged more often and extensively in
behaviors relevant to organizational development (Edgar et al.,
2023).

44
45
References
Oyserman, D. (2015). Psychology of values. International
encyclopedia of the social & behavioral sciences, 36-40.

Miles, A. (2015). The (re) genesis of values: Examining the

importance of values for action. American sociological review, 80(4),
680-704.

Bardi, A., & Schwartz, S. H. (2003). Values and behavior: Strength

and structure of relations. Personality and social psychology bulletin,
29(10), 1207-1220.

Oyserman, D. (2015). Values, psychology of. international

encyclopedia of the social and behavioral sciences, 25, 36-40.

Roccas, S., Sagiv, L., Schwartz, S. H., & Knafo, A. (2002). The big
five personality factors and personal values. Personality and social
psychology bulletin, 28(6), 789-801.

Ahola, S. (2020). Are personal values associated with preferences in

seeking health advice or treatment in Europe?. Psychology, health &
medicine, 25(3), 282-295.

Assarut, R., & Eiamkanchanalai, S. (2015). Consumption values,

personal characteristics and behavioral intentions in mobile shopping
adoption. Market-Tržište, 27(1), 21-41.

Becker, B. W., & Connor, P. E. (1981). Personal values of the heavy

user of mass media. Journal of Advertising research.

Abramson, L., Daniel, E., & Knafo-Noam, A. (2018). The role of

personal values in children's costly sharing and non-costly giving.
Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 165, 117-134.

Edgar, F., Zhang, J. A., Podgorodnichenko, N., & Akmal, A. (2023).

Understanding Sustainable Work Behavior: The Role of Personal
Values, Attitudes and Sustainable HRM. In Academy of Management

46
Proceedings (Vol. 2023, No. 1, pp. 13845). Briarcliff Manor, NY
10510: Academy of Management.

47
Chapter IV. Personal values from the perspective of
psychotherapists

In psychotherapy the emphasis in psychotherapy is on

life domains, on meaning and significance, on adjustment to
symptoms of disorders and health. It can be seen that the models
used by researchers are basically addressed to the healthy
adapted, mature environment of humankind.

The assessment instruments in psychotherapy are

dedicated to people who have been diagnosed with a clinical
disorder, have experienced or are experiencing symptoms of
disorders, or are impaired in their functioning by them.
Questionnaires and interviews for people presenting for therapy
are therefore slightly different.

Following are some lists of values and areas of concern

that may be considered important by clients. It is important to
note that in psychotherapy or clinical practice, these appraisals
are not only made in relation to the present. For example, for a
client with depression, the past-tense formulation is used, if
those values were important before they lost their zest for life. It
works in this way to know what areas we need to bring back to
the forefront for that person to facilitate healing, alleviation of
symptoms, increased well-being.
48
 In coaching practice, present values are mainly assessed
in the present, the same in counseling. In career counseling
sometimes values are assessed over a period of time prior to
interviews because there is a need to verify the stability of
motivation for career decisions.

A first set of values is the one proposed by Emmons

(1986), entitled effort evaluation:

Level Concept
Level 1 Motivational dispositions
Level 2 Personal endeavors
Level 3 Interests, projects, work tasks

Level 4 Concrete actions

It may be observed to consider the influence of other

motivating factors on strivings and how they get in stages
towards concrete behavior. The following list shows some of the
abstract strivings a person may have:

• Commit
• Importance
• Good luck

49
 • Opportunity
• Effort
• Difficulty
• Social desirability
• Happiness
• Values

• Progress

More concrete examples are:

• Getting attractive women to notice me

• Do as many good deeds as possible
• Meeting people
• Maintaining good health
• Avoiding conflict
• Making life easier
• Avoiding gossip
• Having fun

It is obvious that for each individual respondent there

may be nuances and variations of these values, of striving. The
assessment can also be done openly, asking what the person
strives for, without giving examples or a list to choose from. This
type of interview helps not to influence the interviewee.

50
 Another questionnaire and system quite often used in
international clinical practice is the valued living questionnaire
(Wilson et al., 2010). It is centered on the main social roles an
individual can have, main life domains and areas of interest.

Enjoying life Therapeutic open questions

Family (excluding marriage) What are the most important
Marriage, couple, intimate values overall?
relationships
Parenting How could you prioritize
Friends, social life these values?

Work
Education, training
Recreation, fun What daily actions and
decisions can you take to live
Spirituality, meaning of life, according to your values?
purpose of life
Citizenship, community life
Self-care, nutrition, rest,
exercise

From the system proposed by Schwartz, mental health

correlated most strongly positively with stimulation, success and
autonomy. Tradition predicted low mental health. Also, positive

51
emotions have a positive relationship with conformity and
security (Sagiv, Schwartz, 2000).

52
References

Sagiv, L., & Schwartz, S. H. (2000). Value priorities and subjective

well-being: Direct relations and congruity effects. European journal of
social psychology, 30(2), 177-198.

Ostermann, M., Huffziger, S., Kleindienst, N., Mata, J., Schmahl, C.,
Beierlein, C., ... & Lyssenko, L. (2017). Realization of personal values
predicts mental health and satisfaction with life in a German
population. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 36(8), 651-
674.

Emmons, R. A. (1986) Personal strivings: An approach to personality

and subjective well-being. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 51(5), 1058-1068. [Link]
3514.51.5.1058

Wilson, K. G., & Murrell, A. R. (2004). Values work in acceptance

and commitment therapy. Mindfulness and acceptance: Expanding the
cognitive-behavioral tradition, 120-151.

Kelly, T. A., & Strupp, H. H. (1992). Patient and therapist values in

psychotherapy: Perceived changes, assimilation, similarity, and
outcome. Journal of Consulting and Clinical psychology, 60(1), 34.

53
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