Values

Introduction

The goal of this entry is to summarize current approaches to human values assessment. Values are (1) beliefs about preferable end states or behaviours, and (2) internal criteria that guide information processing, evaluation of the internal and external world of a person, and selection of behaviour. Values are part of the system of personal meanings, including personal identity and purpose in life.

The entry begins with a summary of theories of values and methodological dilemmas concerning the measurement of values. Following this, selected measures are described and the entry ends with a short review of current research trends and future perspectives in the field of value assessment.

Theory and Definition of Value

There have been two general and contrasting approaches to the study of human values: an objectivistic and subjectivistic approach. According to the objectivistic approach value is an autonomous property: an objective quality inherent in the structure of reality which can be recognized and described (realism – Aristotle, Aquinas), or a metaphysical idea which cannot be observed, but which is knowable by intellectual [Page 1083]intuition (idealism – Plato, Sheler). From this point of view, a person lives in a world of values which are given, and human recognition of values can be in agreement or in disagreement with the objective order of values.

According to the subjectivistic approach human values are the results of a valuing process. One of the most important characteristics of a human being is an ability to create values of different kinds: spiritual values like moral, aesthetic, cognitive, and religious ones, or economic and material values.

This basic distinction can give rise to controversy about the status of value judgements which can be right and true or wrong and false, or which are arbitrary and incapable of any justification. A social scientist's approach to the study of values is usually derived from the subjectivistic conception, for the main subject of his or her study is the personal (subjective) construction of the world. Thus, in social sciences, a value is a belief about what is good or bad, right or wrong, worthy or unworthy, desirable or undesirable, and so forth. However, on the social or cultural level values are treated as intersubjectively valid conventions – ‘objective’ – which means that values on a collective level are shared by groups of people and/or organizations.

According to economic criteria which influence the current theory of values, value is the worth of a thing, and valuation is estimation of this worth. In psychology, values are defined in terms of beliefs about preferable end states or behaviours, and/or internal criteria that guide evaluation of the internal and external world of an individual and the selection of behaviour. The idea is expressed in a classic definition given by Kluckhohn: ‘A value is a conception, explicit or implicit, distinctive of an individual or characteristic of a group, of the desirable which influences the selection from available modes, means, and ends of action’ (1951: 395).

Personal values as beliefs are closely related to the self. Both cognitively and humanistically oriented writers have pointed to the general relevance of values for personality integration and well-being (Allport et al., 1960; Feather, 1975; Maslow, 1971; Rokeach, 1973). Values stand for a sense of continuity in life in spite of the changes, and in this way contribute to personal identity. The system of personal values underlies the process of meaning-making concerning oneself, the external world, and one's relation with it. Moreover, commitment in personal goals and strivings which are formulated in close correspondence to personal values contribute to our understanding of the world and provide the basis for meaning of life.

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