What are Values? A Folk-Conceptual Investigation Bertram F. Malle and Eric Edmondson University of Oregon Politicians communicate the values they hold, and educators try to instill values in their students. Travelers are surprised by the values of a different culture, and people get along far better when they share the same values. Few things seem clearer than the role of values in social life: Values exert a powerful force on social and political decisions, moral judgments, and self-regulation. But what exactly are values?1 The contemporary social-psychology literature does not provide a clear answer (Rohan, 2000). Definitions of the values concept vary widely and often seem based more on the subjective opinion of the researcher than on solid empirical or conceptual foundation. This is a small sample from the diverse pool of definitions: Kluckhohn (1951) argued that ?a value is a conception?of the desirable? (p. 395); Schwartz (1994) defined values as ?desirable transsituational goals?that serve as guiding principles? (p. 21); Rokeach (1973) claimed that a value is ?an enduring belief that a specific mode of conduct or end-state of existence is personally or socially preferable? (p. 5); and Feather (1996) suggested that values are ?beliefs about desirable or undesirable ways of behaving?or otherwise of general goals.? (p. 222). So are values just a special case of goals or beliefs? This is unlikely to be true, because children acquire the concepts of goal and belief quite a bit earlier than they acquire the concept of value. Also, we can easily conceive of organisms ? perhaps human ancestors ? that have goals and beliefs but not thereby have values. Finally, values lack conceptual features that are characteristic of either goals or beliefs: For example, beliefs represent states of the world and can therefore be true or false, whereas values cannot. Perhaps values are attitudes, if quite abstract ones (England, 1967)? But some characteristics of attitudes don?t seem to hold for values, such as the ease of conditioning attitudes (Staats & Staats, 1958), the bipolarity of their affective tone, and their object- directedness (you may have a positive or negative attitude toward a given object, but you don?t have a value, positive or negative, toward it). Conversely, some characteristics of values don?t 1 There is already an unfortunate polysemy in the term value, such that it refers to the worth of an object (e.g., cash value, exchange value) as well as to desirable social constructs (e.g., freedom, equality, fairness). My discussion ignores the first meaning ? the value of objects ? and attempts to clarify the second meaning. 2 seem to be captured by the attitude construct, such as that people are willing to fight for their values and that values seem to entail moral evaluations. So, once again, what are values? Rather than adding another subjective, professional opinion, we decided to examine empirically how lay people conceptualize values and how they differentiate them from related phenomena such as goals, beliefs, and attitudes. Our goal is not to provide the best definition of the value concept (if there even is a way to rank-order such definitions) but rather to investigate whether ordinary people have a consistent concept of values and what its components might be. In this sense, our investigation has much less affinity to moral psychology than to the fields of social cognition and theory of mind. Just as it is, for example, people?s concept of intentionality that guides their perceptions and judgments of actions (Malle & Knobe, 1997; Malle, Moses, Baldwin, 2001), so it is people?s concept of values that guides their perceptions and judgments of behaviors, persons or cultures and underlies their self-regulation of political and moral action. We chose two methods to gather initial data about values and related phenomena. In Study 1 we relied on a rating task that listed a number of expressions (phrases or words) and asked participants to identify each of these expressions as a value, goal, principle, conviction, or attitude. The purpose of this study was to identify those expressions that would be consensually seen as values and contrast them with words or phrases that would be consensually seen as goals, principles, convictions, or attitudes. In Study 2 we administered a computer-presented interview that asked one group of the people about their definitions of values, the kinds of values they ascribe to themselves and others, and the presumed function of values; another group was asked the same questions about goals. People answered all questions in their own words and their responses were content coded. Study 1 Methods Participants. Participants were 324 University of Oregon students who took part in group testing session for which they received partial credit in their introductory psychology class. Of these 324, 100 were randomly sampled to be used for analysis. Participants ranged in age from 18-22? and were 71% female and 29% male. They designated their ethnicity as follows: African American: 2%, Asian/Pacific: 12%, Caucasian: 73%, Hispanic: 2%, Native American: 3%, Other: 7%. 3 Procedure and Material. Participants arrived at the prescreening site and were asked to fill out a questionnaire packet that contained the one-page measure entitled Social Abstractions. A total of 87 items were distributed over four forms, such that each participant completed one form (with 21-22 items), and each item was rated by approximately 78-85 participants (though only 25 per form were analyzed here). These items were sampled from previous studies on values (Rokeach, 1973; Sundberg, Rohila, & Tyler, 1970; Struch, Schwartz, & van der Kloot, 2002) and complemented by items that appeared to us to fall under the relevant categories. On the measure, participants were asked to classify each item as a goal, principle, value, conviction, or attitude. The actual instructions read: ?Below you see a list of words or phrases (on the left) that describe something that is important to people. Please read each of them carefully and then mark a 1 next to the term on the right that best describes the word or phrase. If you think that another term is almost equally appropriate, mark a 2 next to that second term (but you don?t need to write a 2 if the first term is by far the best). If you don?t understand the meaning of a word or phrase, just skip it.? (See Appendix A for a sample questionnaire). Results The data were examined using items as units of analysis. Each item was assigned points of ?fit? within each category (value, goal, attitude, etc.): If a given participant marked a rank of 1, two points were assigned; if the person marked a rank of 2, one point was assigned; otherwise no point was assigned. These points were then averaged across 25 participants, yielding a profile of fit indices for each item within each category. (See Appendix B for all fit profiles.) A first analysis compared the five categories to each other. We formed average fit indices for each category across the 87 items (see Appendix B for all average indices). Convictions had a significantly lower fit index than all the other categories (ps < .001), and principles had a significantly lower fit index than attitudes and values (ps < .02) as well as a marginally significantly lower fit index than goals (p = 0.11). Second, we marked, for each item, whether any one category was clearly more strongly endorsed than the others categories, with the marking criterion being a fit index of at least 1.0 for that item and category and no alternative item/category fit index above 0.7. This way, 49 out of 87 items were clearly assigned to one category, and the most frequently assigned categories were values (19), goals (14) and attitudes (12). The other two categories, principles and convictions, were rarely assigned (3 and 1, respectively). Taken together, these results suggest that the present item pool was reasonably representative of values, goals, and attitudes but not of principles and convictions. We therefore limited subsequent analyses to values, goals, and attitudes. 4 The fit indices for the three remaining categories were negatively correlated (values with goals, r = -.38, values with attitudes, r = -.46), indicating a distinctness among the item sets that fell under each of the categories. To identify the items that were most representative of each of the categories we computed three ?dominance? scores: V = values ? mean(goals, attitudes); G = goals ? mean(values, attitudes); A = attitudes ? mean(goals, values). Items with the highest V score were thus the best exemplars for the value category, and likewise for G and A and the other two categories. Table 1 displays these best exemplars, the specific items of which are of course constrained by the pool of items we presented to participants in the first place. For example, no effort was made to cover a broad range of attitudes (see Saucier, 2002, for such an effort). Nonetheless, what these sets of best exemplars suggest is at least two hypotheses about the features that differentiate values from goals and attitudes. Table 1. Items most reliably classified as values, goals, and attitudes Values M Goals M Attitudes M Tradition 1.6 World peace 1.5 Passion for cars 1.3 Honesty 1.4 Go to college 1.3 Sexism 1.3 Helping other people 1.3 Wealth 1.3 Opposing taxes 1.2 Forgiveness 1.3 Fitness 1.2 Racism 1.2 Generosity 1.2 Get married, have kids 1.0 Sometimes it is all right to tell a lie 1.1 Family relations 1.2 Being accomplished 0.9 Work hard, play hard 1.0 Loyalty 1.1 Healthiness 0.9 Obedience 0.8 A relationship with God 0.9 Fame 0.8 One?s first duty is to one- self rather than to others 0.7 Self-respect 0.9 National security 0.8 Perfectionism 0.6 Politeness 0.9 Equality 0.7 Open-mindedness 0.6 Note: Scores could range from 0 to 2. 1. The three categories differ along what might be called scope. Most attitudes single out well-defined targets (e.g., a social category [sexism, racism], a class of objects [cars], or types of actions [work, play, lie]). Goals can single out well-defined targets [get married, have 5 kids, go to college] as well as broad targets [world peace, wealth, fame]. Values are typically broad and abstract [honesty, generosity, loyalty]. 2. The three categories also differ in what may be termed beneficiary. Attitudes typically benefit at most the attitude holder [work hard?play hard, perfectionism], sometimes they even disadvantage others [opposing taxes, sexism, racism]. Many goals are directed to and benefit the self [college, wealth, fitness, health, fame], only few benefit others as well [world peace, equality]. The opposite is true for values, which are directed to the community, either benefiting other people [honesty, helping, forgiveness] or connecting with others [tradition, family relations], and only rarely benefit only the self [relationship with God, self-respect]. Discussion The results of this first exploratory study suggest that people distinguish among values, goals, and attitudes. The fit indices for 78 items with respect to these three categories are considerably differentiated such that more than half of the items are clearly assignable to a single category. Moreover, the most representative items within each category form distinct clusters that are characterizable by at least two features: the scope of the category (well-defined vs. broad) and the beneficiary of the category (self vs. others). Attitudes are narrow in scope and, at best, benefit the self; goals can be either narrow or broad in scope and tend to benefit the self; values are broad in scope and tend to benefit other people. There are obvious limitations to this first study. Several of the words and phrases presented in the questionnaire were taken from the literature, complemented by those provided by the researchers, but no effort was made to provide an exhaustive list. The generalizability of the present results to other values, goals, and attitudes is therefore unclear. Moreover, participants had to classify given words or phrases into given categories rather than providing either their own phrases or their own categories. Study 2 therefore employed a more open-ended format, which allowed people to produce those items that they thought best characterize a given concept (e.g., values) and thereby cast a wider net over the kinds of things that are encompassed in that concept. Because such an open-ended format is less suitable for comparisons among many different categories (such as goals, attitudes, principles and values), we confined ourselves to a comparison between values and goals, Goals tended to be closer to values than were attitudes and have also been frequently used to define values (e.g., Feather, 1996; Schwartz, 1994). 6 Study 2 Methods Participants. Sixty-two University of Oregon students (19 male, 43 female) participated in this study and received partial credit in their introductory psychology class. They ranged in age from 18-22, with about 75% self-described Caucasians. Procedure. For efficiency, this study was combined with another experiment. Two participants arrived at a designated time and, upon being greeted, whoever stood closest to a particular experiment room completed the computerized interview on values/goals first (whereas the other participant took part in a study on behavior explanations). After half an hour, the two participants switched experiments. During the instruction phase, the experimenter sat at the computer while participants sat in a chair next to the computer. After the experimenter provided information about the study, participants learned how to maneuver through the computer-based interview. Then participants moved to the chair in front of the computer and answered the interview questions by typing their responses directly into the computer file. A 3? by 5? card was placed in front of the computer with reminders on how to maneuver through the computer file. The interview took approximately twenty minutes to complete. During this time the experimenter checked twice to see if the participant had any questions. Materials. An Apple PowerMac computer was used to present the written interview, which contained 29 questions, 19 of which had a free-response format. (See Appendix C for a copy of the entire questionnaire.) The interview came as a Microsoft Word file with form fields that allowed participants to check response options and write their responses into a predetermined amount of space. In one version of the interview all questions asked about values, in a second version, about goals. The questions we focus on in this report are the following: 1. How would you describe or define a value [goal]? 2. What are your most important and cherished values [goals]? 3. What are some of Americans? most important and cherished values [goals]? 4. In your opinion, what is the function of human values [goals]? Coding. Individual responses to each of the four questions of interest were first collated into separate response files for each question but combining the corresponding values and goals forms. For example, all thirty-one responses to question 1, ?How would you describe/define a value?? were placed in one file along with the thirty-one responses to the question, ?How would you describe/define a goal?? Next, we highlighted those phrases or words that represented 7 codable answers to the specific question (agreement = 95%, ? =.85). These highlighted phrases were then sorted into a flexible category system, whereby responses that were very similar in wording or meaning were classified into the same category and novel responses defined new categories (agreement = 87%; ? not applicable). Because the category system was to capture the convergence as well as diversity of responses to each question of interest, no limit was set to the number of categories for each of the four questions. Once the entire set of responses per question was classified, we examined the category list once more and combined any two or more categories that were redundant with each other. In the end, we reached 60-80 categories for questions 1.-3. and 11 categories for question 4. Results We report analyses of the categorized interview responses beginning with the lay definitions people offered for values vs. goals (question 1), followed by the actual values vs. goals that are cherished by self (question 2) and other Americans (question 3). Finally, we examined people?s ideas about the function of values vs. goals (question 4.) Question 1: Lay definitions. After classifying each response to the question ?How would you describe or define a value [goal]?? and consolidating the resulting categories, we computed the frequencies of statements that fell into each of the categories (displayed in Tables 2 and 3) and formulated descriptive synopses of the lay definitions of values and goals. Table 2. Frequency Histogram of Coding Categories for Lay Definitions of Values Very important, worth defending 4 4 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 20 22 22 25 Guides life, helps deciding 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 10 10 10 10 Belief, idea 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 8 8 A moral 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 Defines who you are 13 13 13 13 18 18 27 Ideal, principle, 5 5 5 5 28 31 One tries to uphold 2 2 2 2 2 Varies 11 14 14 Learned 12 12 12 Gives meaning 17 17 Worth 26 26 Person or group can hold 6 Tangible 15 Positive or negative 19 Serves as explanation 24 Very personal 29 Social construction 30 8 The data in Table 2 suggest that, in people?s folk conception, values are primarily beliefs [1] or morals [3] or ideals [5] that one tries to uphold [2] because they provide guidance [9], help [10], and meaning [17] in life decisions. They are very important [7] ? i.e., one is willing to defend them [22], and one doesn?t compromise about them [4] ? because they define who one is [13], but they are also learned [12] through family and upbringing and therefore can vary from person to person [11, 14]. Table 3. Frequency Histogram of Coding Categories for Lay Definitions of Goals Something to strive for 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 36 36 55 One works toward it 39 39 39 39 39 39 39 39 39 39 62 62 A want, wish 45 45 45 45 45 45 45 45 45 45 45 60 Future, one doesn?t have 34 34 34 34 34 42 42 42 50 Attainable 37 37 37 51 52 53 Expectation, belief, idea 1 8 8 21 41 Helps to decide, improve 23 40 40 49 Has time limits 47 47 47 Achievement 54 54 Moral 3 16 Very important 7 61 Ideal, principle 5 Give meaning 17 Sequence 38 Vary in importance 43 By contrast, the data in Table 3 suggest that people define a goal primarily as a striving [35] or want [45], occasionally as an expectation [1,8], to accomplish/attain something that lies in the time-limited [47] future [34] and that one doesn?t have [42] but that is realistically attainable [37] and one therefore works toward [39] as it helps one to improve [40, 49]. When we directly compare the definitions people offer for values and goals, we find very little overlap. None of the top five categories in goal and value definitions are shared, and the total overlap among all definitional categories is 8%. Even though both values and goals help a person make decisions and guide action, values are important, morally imbued ideals that people defend and uphold whereas goals are desired future states that the agent works to bring about. Questions 2 and 3: Specific values and goals in self and other. As with lay definitions, the specific statements people listed in response to the question ?What are your most important and cherished values [goals]?? were classified into a variety of content categories. (See Appendix D for the complete list of categories). The frequencies of statements that fell into each 9 of the categories are displayed in Table 4. Reminiscent of Study 1, items mentioned under the values heading were predominantly oriented toward the community (e.g., prosocial virtues, family, friendships, and morality) whereas items mentioned under the goals heading were predominantly beneficial to the individual (e.g., career, finances, wealth, and happiness). Table 4. Frequencies of participants? own values and goals Category Values Goals Prosocial virtues (e.g., be fair, loyalty, honesty, justice, compassion, be nice to others) 35% 7% Family 11% Personal virtues (e.g., chastity, dignity, courage, honor, individualism) 9% Friendships 8% Freedom 5% Morality/law < 5% Survival < 5% Career related < 5% 44% Financial security 9% Wealth 9% Happiness < 5% 9% Personal effort 5% 7% Health < 5% Religion < 5% Travel < 5% Marriage < 5% Next we contrasted the values and goals that people themselves cherish with the values and goals that they think other Americans cherish. Just as with people?s own endorsements, those ascribed to others also make the clear distinction between values that are more community- oriented (e.g., freedom, social virtues, liberty, equality) and goals that are self-oriented (e.g., wealth, career, possessions, and status). But there are also some differences between the values people ascribe to themselves and the values they ascribe to other Americans. Prosocial virtues and family are among the most cherished own values whereas wealth and freedom are among the values perceived to be cherished by others. In general, values ascribed to other Americans somewhat resemble self-ascribed goals, also illustrated by the fact that ?family? ? the second most frequent value for self ? is one of the top goals for others. It is as though the value/goal distinction is sharp for one?s own case but somewhat blurred when considering other people, at least generic ?other Americans.? 10 Table 5. Own values vs. perceived other Americans? values Category Own Values Other Americans? Values Prosocial virtues 35% 11% Family 11% < 5%* Personal virtues 9% < 5% Friendships 8% Personal effort 5% Morality/law < 5% Career < 5% Happiness < 5% < 5% Survival < 5% < 5% Wealth and financial security 14% Freedom 5% 13% Power 7% Liberty 7% Equality 7% Status < 5% Material possessions < 5% Aspects of in-group favoritism < 5% Capitalism < 5% * Family was mentioned by 16% of those respondents who described Americans? goals. Question 4: Functions of values and goals. As before, the responses to the question ?In your opinion, what is the function of human values [goals]?? were coded and classified, but this time the category system was more circumscribed. Table 6 contrasts the categories distilled for goals and values conditions, respectively, along with sample statements that fell under each category. The results bolster the observations made in the previous analyses. Whereas goals are seen as having self-directed functions, regulating motivation, emotion, and action, values are seen as having community-directed functions, regulating interpersonal relations, moral conduct, and society as a whole. Moreover, the functions ascribed to values and goals are non- overlapping except for the category of evolution, but even here the tone for goals? evolutionary function emphasizes the individual (e.g., survival, betterment) whereas that for values? evolutionary function emphasizes the community (e.g., not destroy ourselves, live in peace). 11 Table 6. Lay perceptions of the functions of goals and values Values Goals Regulate society (49%). Regulate society; that society functions in some sort of fundamental order; keep us in line. Direction (41%). Give us some direction..in life; give us something to work for, to achieve. Moral (38%). Help the individual know and distinguish right from wrong; instill good behavior in people; provide people with a moral code. Betterment/meaning (37%). To better us as a person; adds focus and meaning to our thoughts and actions; creates meaning in life. Interpersonal (24%). Help people in how they treat others; provide a basis for community and higher social functions. Motivation (26%). Instills motivation, desire to live another day; to motivate us. Decisions (24%). To influence the decisions that we make and the actions that we perform; personal standards on which to base our decisions. Evolution (15%). survival on the most basic level; to continue life and evolution in the direction of betterment; allow for advancement of the race. Evolution (14%). Help the progress of human evolution; make sure that we don?t destroy ourselves; without values the human race couldn?t live in peace. Fulfillment (11%). Fulfilling one?s life; find happiness; to make one feel good about oneself and others around. Identity (14%). Help make people who they are; help to define who you are and what you see as important in life. Other (7%). Instill competition; the only thing that some people can rely on; help us understand the world. Discussion The interview responses in this study paint a relatively clear picture of the difference between values and goals. In lay definitions, values emerge as ideals or morals that are very important to people and provide guidance and meaning in life. Goals, by contrast, emerge as wants or strivings that people work toward to attain in the future what they don?t have now. In listings of cherished values, prosocial virtues dominated, followed by family, friendships, and personal virtues, whereas listings of goals centered on the individual?s career, financial security, wealth, and happiness. The functions ascribed to values, finally, center on the regulation of society through morals and interpersonal standards whereas the functions ascribed to goals center on the regulation of the individual through direction and motivation in life leading to betterment and fulfillment. There are also areas of overlap between values and goals. Both are seen as offering guidance for decisions and actions and as serving an evolutionary function of survival and betterment. Values also look a bit more like goals when people ascribe values to ?other Americans.? In fact, a number of values ascribed to others have the more self-directed character that people normally reserve for their own goals. One might read a certain amount of cynicism or 12 at least skepticism into this overlap, but more research is necessary to determine whether the same results would hold if one asked people to consider the cherished values of specific others, especially those that one knows and likes well. General Discussion The results of these two exploratory studies suggest that participants have a distinct concept of values and that this concept differs from related concepts such as goals or attitudes. In Study 1, people classified under the values category a circumscribed set of constructs (such as tradition, honesty, and forgiveness) that are characterized by a broad scope of content and a strong orientation toward community benefits. In Study 2, people defined values by a distinct set of features ? as important, morally significant ideals that people defend and try to uphold. And in the same study people listed as cherished values such constructs as prosocial virtues, family, friendships, and morality, which are oriented toward the community. It bears remembering that our results demonstrate characteristics of the folk concept of values. Scientists sometimes have an aversion to adopting folk concepts when studying psychological phenomena. But what speaks for the alternative here? If there is a well-developed conceptual structure that characterizes people?s understanding of values, shouldn?t we take this structure seriously? Or would we rather want to stipulate that values are some version of belief, goal, or attitude, as previous scholars have done? There are two sources of evidence that gauge the scientific usefulness of a model of a particular folk concept such as values. The first, provided here, is evidence for folk concepts as psychological phenomena in their own right. This work explores how a particular folk concept differs from others and what functions it serves in social perception and social interaction, including the social processes of affirming, denying, and negotiating the ascriptions of the concepts. Such work also examines cognitive functions of the concept, as when people use it to perceive, explain, predict, or evaluate human behavior. Finally, this research helps us develop models about the developmental and evolutionary emergence of the particular concept and its accompanying social and cognitive functions. The second source of evidence for the scientific usefulness of a model of, say, the value concept lies in the predictive power that science gains when ascribing values to people and predicting their behavior, cognitive states, status, etc. from those values. People?s own conception of values do not necessarily reveal the most important ways in which values influence human behavior; but the folk concept of values is a perfectly good starting point, one 13 that surely surpasses the rather arbitrary claims made by individual researchers about the ?nature? of values and what they ?really? are. The present results also allow us to critically analyze existing value research and the models it relies on. For example, a lexicon-based taxonomy of human values was recently presented by Renner (2003), yielding five broad factors: Balance (e.g., fairness, community, trust, co-operation), Intellectualism (e.g., reflection, open-mindedness, humanity, consensus), Conservatism (e.g., tradition, duty, patriotism, puritanism), Salvation (e.g., belief in God, piety, firmness of faith), and Profit (e.g., wealth, career, comfort, success). If we apply the relatively sharp distinction between values and goals to Renner?s taxonomy, we would have to consider at least the Profit factor to be misrepresented as a value (because it contains circumscribed, self-benefiting items that emerged in our studies under the goal heading, not the value heading). One might also have doubts about Salvation, because it is largely self-benefiting and its constituents were mentioned at least as often under goals as under values in our study. The discrepancies between the value-goal distinction we found and the taxonomy results by such researchers as Renner (2003) or Schwartz (1992) may not be all that surprising, given that researchers tried to be particularly inclusive when selecting the items for their questionnaires. Nonetheless, if certain subscales of the resulting questionnaires measure goals rather than values, we have a conceptual and theoretical problem, and a pairing down of those subscales to genuine values, as conceptualized by ordinary people, may be wise. In sum, this paper provides initial data on the folk concept of values ? data that do not exist in the literature ? and sketches a model of values that focuses on their broad scope and prosocial nature. Much research needs to be done to fill in the details of this model and secure its location in the conceptual space of other constructs, such as principles or norms. There are also numerous questions left unanswered about the development and evolution of values as well as their social use and impact. But these and other interesting questions can now be posed and examined more clearly, with a definition of values available that does not rely on inconsistent scholarly intuitions but on the actual way people conceptualize this fascinating construct of human cognition. 14 References England, G. W. (1967). Personal value systems of American managers. Academy of Management Journal, 53?68. Feather, N. T. (1996). Values, deservingness, and attitudes toward high achievers: Research on tall poppies. In C. Seligman, J. M. Olson, & M. P. Zanna (Eds.), The Ontario symposium: The psychology of values (Vol. 8, pp. 215-251). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Kluckhohn, C. K. (1951). Values and value orientations in the theory of action. In T. Parsons & E. A. Shils (Eds.), Toward a general theory of action. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Malle, B. F., & Knobe, J. (1997). The folk concept of intentionality. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 33, 101-121. Malle, B. F., Moses, L. J., & Baldwin, D. A. (Eds.). (2001). Intentions and intentionality: Foundations of social cognition. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Rohan, M. J. (2000). A rose by any name? The values construct. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 4, 255-277. Rokeach, M. (1973). The nature of human values. New York: Free Press. Schwartz, S. H. (1994). Are there universal aspects in the structure and contents of human values? Journal of Social Issues, 50, 19-45. Staats, A. W., & Staats, C. K. (1958). Attitudes established by classical conditioning. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 57, 37-40. Struch, N., Schwartz, S. H, & van der Kloot, W. A. (2002). Meanings of basic values for women and men: A cross-cultural analysis. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28, 16-28. Sundberg, N, D., Rohila, P. K., & Tyler, L. E. (1970). Values of Indian and American adolescents. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 16, 374-397. 15 Appendix A. One-Page Measure (?Social Abstractions?) in Study 1 Below you see a list of words or phrases (on the left) that describe something important to people. Please read each of them carefully and then mark a 1 next to the TERM ON THE RIGHT that best describes the word or phrase. If you think that ANOTHER TERM is almost equally appropriate, mark a 2 next to that second term (but you don?t need to, if the first term is by far the best). If you don?t understand the meaning of a word or phrase, just skip it. Which of the following TERMS fits best (1) and which fits second-best (2) to describe the word/phrase on the left? Intimacy __ GOAL __ PRINCIPLE __ VALUE __ CONVICTION* __ ATTITUDE Healthiness __ GOAL __ PRINCIPLE __ VALUE __ CONVICTION __ ATTITUDE Open doors for underrepresented groups __ GOAL __ PRINCIPLE __ VALUE __ CONVICTION __ ATTITUDE Harmony __ GOAL __ PRINCIPLE __ VALUE __ CONVICTION __ ATTITUDE Experiencing art and beauty __ GOAL __ PRINCIPLE __ VALUE __ CONVICTION __ ATTITUDE Sympathy for the less fortunate __ GOAL __ PRINCIPLE __ VALUE __ CONVICTION __ ATTITUDE Democracy __ GOAL __ PRINCIPLE __ VALUE __ CONVICTION __ ATTITUDE ? Capitalism __ GOAL __ PRINCIPLE __ VALUE __ CONVICTION __ ATTITUDE Protecting the environment __ GOAL __ PRINCIPLE __ VALUE __ CONVICTION __ ATTITUDE One should believe what is taught by schools __ GOAL __ PRINCIPLE __ VALUE __ CONVICTION __ ATTITUDE Good manners __ GOAL __ PRINCIPLE __ VALUE __ CONVICTION __ ATTITUDE Follow in parents footsteps __ GOAL __ PRINCIPLE __ VALUE __ CONVICTION __ ATTITUDE Enjoyment __ GOAL __ PRINCIPLE __ VALUE __ CONVICTION __ ATTITUDE National security __ GOAL __ PRINCIPLE __ VALUE __ CONVICTION __ ATTITUDE 16 Appendix B. Fit Indices for All 87 Items in Study 1 Fit Indices (0 ? 2) Item Goal Princip. Value Convic. Attit. Form Average Fit Index 0.50 0.40 0.66 0.24 0.54 1 Intimacy 0.5 0.2 1.0 0.0 0.5 Healthiness 1.3 0.2 0.3 0.1 0.6 Open doors for underrepresented groups 0.7 0.6 0.4 0.2 0.5 Harmony 0.8 0.4 0.6 0.1 0.4 Experiencing art and beauty 0.2 0.2 1.0 0.2 0.8 Sympathy for the less fortunate 0.2 0.3 0.7 0.5 0.8 Family relations 0.1 0.6 1.3 0.2 0.1 Fitness 1.5 0.0 0.3 0.2 0.3 Being an atheist 0.0 0.4 0.4 1.0 0.3 Being accomplished 1.3 0.2 0.5 0.1 0.3 Relying on one?s own judgment 0.1 0.6 0.6 0.5 0.8 Believe in yourself 0.4 0.2 0.6 0.4 0.8 Democracy 0.3 0.9 0.7 0.3 0.2 Capitalism 0.2 1.0 0.6 0.3 0.3 Protecting the environment 0.9 0.3 0.8 0.3 0.2 One should believe what is taught by schools 0.1 0.6 0.5 0.8 0.5 Good manners 0.3 0.6 1.2 0.2 0.4 Follow in parents footsteps 0.8 0.5 0.4 0.4 0.5 Enjoyment 0.7 0.2 0.5 0.1 0.9 National security 1.1 0.6 0.5 0.2 0.1 Perfectionism 0.6 0.2 0.3 0.3 1.1 Form Item Goal Princ. Value Conv. Attit. 2 Racism 0.0 0.5 0.1 0.4 1.2 Anti abortion 0.1 0.5 1.0 0.6 0.4 World peace 1.8 0.1 0.3 0.1 0.2 Equality 1.2 0.2 0.8 0.2 0.2 17 Liberty 0.7 0.5 0.8 0.2 0.2 Open-mindedness 0.5 0.1 0.6 0.0 1.1 Learning new things 1.1 0.2 0.4 0.0 0.7 Comfort 0.6 0.3 0.6 0.0 0.6 One?s first duty is to oneself rather than to others 0.0 0.4 0.6 0.2 1.0 Having lots of friends 0.8 0.0 0.7 0.0 0.8 Adventure 0.9 0.1 0.4 0.1 0.8 Resisting temptations 0.7 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.4 Wisdom 0.9 0.4 0.6 0.1 0.1 Tradition 0.0 0.7 1.6 0.0 0.0 Social welfare 0.7 0.4 0.6 0.2 0.2 Doing the best you can 1.2 0.2 0.3 0.2 0.7 Go to college 1.5 0.2 0.3 0.1 0.2 Inner peace 1.0 0.1 0.6 0.2 0.4 Sharing with others 0.5 0.2 1.0 0.1 0.4 Social conformity 0.4 0.2 0.4 0.2 0.7 Modesty 0.2 0.4 0.9 0.2 0.7 Bigamy 0.0 0.1 0.3 0.5 0.7 Form Item Goal Princ. Value Conv. Attit. 3 Discipline 0.4 0.8 0.5 0.4 0.5 Terrorism 0.2 0.4 0.2 0.8 0.6 Women?s right to choose 0.4 0.8 0.9 0.2 0.1 Get married, have kids 1.4 0.3 0.3 0.0 0.5 Forgiveness 0.0 0.4 1.5 0.1 0.4 Courage 0.0 0.2 1.0 0.2 1.0 Trust in our government 0.4 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.7 Diversity 0.5 0.6 0.9 0.1 0.2 Power 0.0 0.4 0.2 0.2 0.6 Fairness 0.3 0.6 1.1 0.1 0.3 Civil-rights activism 0.5 0.6 0.5 0.3 0.4 Self-discipline 0.6 0.6 0.5 0.2 0.6 Politeness 0.0 0.3 1.3 0.0 0.7 18 Being religious 0.1 0.5 1.0 0.3 0.5 Passion for cars 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.0 1.5 Opposing taxes 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.6 1.3 Evil has to be eradicated 0.5 0.1 0.1 0.6 0.8 Sexism 0.0 0.2 0.3 0.3 1.4 Loyalty 0.1 0.5 1.3 0.1 0.3 Young people should make their own life choices 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.2 1.0 Justice 0.6 0.7 0.7 0.0 0.2 Monogamy 0.3 0.7 1.0 0.0 0.1 Form Item Goal Princ. Value Conv. Attit. 4 Work hard, play hard 0.3 0.2 0.4 0.1 1.4 Self-respect 0.2 0.4 1.3 0.1 0.5 Taking responsibility 0.2 0.6 0.9 0.4 0.4 Helping other people 0.3 0.5 1.5 0.2 0.0 Having ambition 1.0 0.4 0.4 0.1 0.6 Health care for everybody 0.7 0.3 0.6 0.4 0.2 Obedience 0.1 0.4 0.4 0.2 1.1 Being admired 0.8 0.2 0.5 0.1 0.8 Freedom of speech 0.0 1.1 0.6 0.5 0.1 Fame 1.2 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 A relationship with God 0.3 0.3 1.2 0.6 0.1 Honesty 0.2 0.6 1.5 0.2 0.0 Generosity 0.1 0.4 1.4 0.2 0.3 Socialism 0.4 0.6 0.3 0.2 0.7 Doing good things for other people 0.4 0.2 1.1 0.2 0.4 Serve your country 0.3 1.0 0.5 0.4 0.2 Living by moral rules 0.5 0.8 0.9 0.2 0.1 Happiness 0.8 0.1 0.4 0.2 1.0 Wealth 1.5 0.2 0.2 0.1 0.3 Sometimes it is all right to tell a lie 0.0 0.5 0.4 0.2 1.3 Children should do what their parents say 0.1 0.7 0.6 0.3 0.8 Serenity 0.4 0.4 0.8 0.2 0.4 19 Appendix C. Computer-Presented Questionnaire in Study 2 We are interested in how people think about values [goals], what role they play in their lives, and to what other important aspects of life such values [goals] are connected. There are no right or wrong answers in this questionnaire; we are truly interested in what you think. Because the questionnaire is entirely anonymous, please be honest in your responses and try to answer all the questions. Thank you! How would you describe or define a value? [Type here up to 300 characters] What are YOUR most important and cherished values? [Type here up to 300 characters] What are some of AMERICANS? most important and cherished values? [Type here up to 300 characters] What are some other values that are important in countries OTHER than the U.S.? [Type here up to 300 characters] 20 Please describe someone you know about whom people say, ?he/she has values.? [Type here up to 300 characters] Please describe someone you know about whom people say, ?he/she has no values.? [Type here up to 300 characters] Describe a case in which two people?s or two groups? values are in conflict. (Identify the parties involved and the values that are in conflict.) [Type here up to 300 characters] Would you describe yourself as religious? Yes No Would you describe yourself as spiritual? Yes No 21 Do your religious or spiritual convictions come with certain values? Yes No What are these values? [Type here up to 300 characters] Where would you locate yourself politically on the broad left-right spectrum? (Check the box that best applies) LEFT RIGHT 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Does your political position come with certain values? Yes No If Yes, what are these values? [Type here up to 300 characters] In your opinion, how do human values develop? [Type here up to 300 characters] 22 Do you think that values are genetically inherited? Yes No Do you think that there are universal human values? Yes No If Yes, what might be such universal values? [Type here up to 300 characters] Would you say that chimpanzees have values? Yes No If Yes, what might they be? [Type here up to 300 characters] Would you say that cats have values? Yes No If Yes, what might they be? [Type here up to 300 characters] 23 Would you say that insects have values? Yes No If Yes, what might they be? [Type here up to 300 characters] In your opinion, what is the function of human values? [Type here up to 300 characters] When a person lives by societal values, what kinds of emotions will that person feel? [Type here up to 300 characters] When a person does NOT live by societal values, what kinds of emotions will that person feel? [Type here up to 300 characters] 24 When a person lives by societal values, how do other people typically respond? [Type here up to 300 characters] When a person does NOT live by societal values, how do other people typically respond? [Type here up to 300 characters] Thank you for participating in this study! 25 Appendix D. Coding Categories and Classified Entries for Lay Definitions of Values and Goals (Question 1) in Study 2 1. strongly held belief, highly believe in, underlying belief, shows certain beliefs, believes in, believe in, belief/stance, a belief that you stand by, a conviction, belief, 2. tries to uphold, something that you want to follow, holds true to themselves, something that you want to follow and accomplish in life, admire it in other people, they strive to be this way 3. somewhat of a moral, like morals, value and morals coincide many times, help a person determine right from wrong, what you feel is right or wrong, on a moral level., kind of like a moral, reflect their morals, reflect our morals and values, helps to establish a person's moral code, synonymous with "moral,", personally place some sort of moral importance in, [values are important]whether if it is morally or ethically, 4. never compromise; wouldn't compromise, 5. ideals or principles, a principle by which one conducts oneself, ideal or principle, set ideal, important ideals, 6. someone or group holds, 7. very important, hold as being very important, holds to be important, important to themselves, hold in high regards, something of importance, holds in high esteem, strong feelings about, cherish in your life, feels strongly about completing or reaching, is important to people, hold up highly, holds close to them, something that is important, 8. thought or idea, idea, an idea or thing, 9. guides; they help us, lives their life by, standard for living, a standard you hold for yourself or others, conduct your life by, you live by, attempts to incorporate in his or her daily life, set your standards of living by, [something you want to] accomplish in life, a foundation when they are in complicated situations, They help us, 10. helps them make decisions, affects decisions you make, use to help make decisions, will determine how one acts, often dictates the decisions, 11. may change, 12. learn through experiences, education, family, passed down through tradition and parenting, gathered from past experiences or from family, learned, 13. define who you are, a strong personality trait, [affects] views you may have, 14. things are valued by some people but not by others., can range from person to person 15. tangible thing, 16. reflects your values, 17. have a significant meaning, things that have meaning in life, give purpose to one 's life, 18. embedded in your soul, deeply embedded in you life, 19. can be positive or negative, 20. is sacred, 21. expectation that a person would like to reach, 22. worth actually taking action to defend or propagate, can be emotionally and strongly defended, 23. decide on something you want, 24. serves as explanation of behavior 25. You live these actions in your life even when faced with pressure, 26. quality or quantity of something, worth you assign to different objects or actions, 26 27. characteristic, 28. relationship ideals, 29. very personal, 30. a social construction 31. a rule or law in your life that you may wish not to break, 34. future, future oriented, future, 35. strives, aspiration, strive to achieve, strive to accomplish, sought, tries to attain, strive for, life-long aspiration that one strives to achieve, task that someone sets for themselves to achieve, strive toward, one strives to attain 36. plans, plan 37. attainable, attainable, something that is to be achieved, can be achieved, 38. sequence of events, 39. work to attain and accomplish, can work to get, work towards, techniques and ways one could go about achieving this goal, something that you work to accomplish, to achieve and work towards, works toward achieving, through hard work, something you work towards, working to achieve, 40. help us to do better, to better yourself or something around you, 41. abstract idea, 42. do not currently have, not achieved, something that they don't have at the moment, 43. vary in importance, 45. want, a wish to accomplish, something you want, want to achieve, one wishes to achieve or obtain, you wish to achieve, anything you want to achieve in the future through actions, produced by desire(s), something that is to be achieved, wants or needs, 47. have time limits, over a certain amount of time, that can be short or long term, 49. to help one reach a certain point, 50. looks forward to, 51. realistic dream, 52. An ultimate object[ive], 53. milestone, a foothold, a mark, 54. displays an amount of achievement., to receive the reward, 55. shoot for in life, 60. what we wish to gain out of our life, 61. be willing to sacrifice along the way to get what you want, 62. deciding to do something about achieving, set by a person to be accomplish, 27 Appendix E. Coding Categories and Classified Entries for ?Cherished? Values and Goals (Questions 2 and 3) in Study 2 1. having a family, have a great family, support a family, have a family that I love, Family, family, having a stable[family], beautiful, healthy, and well rounded family, start a family, raise a big family, strong family, close family relations and a close family bond, Family is also an important goal to many. They wish to have a wife and kids, families, kids, raising a family, good family structure, keep family as the number one priority, good family relationship, devotion to family, relatives and family are number 1 in their lives, family lifestyles, the well- being of one's family, Integrated family life, Serving the family, good family relationships, 2. have a successful career in the Army, become successful in those areas, successful career, succeed, successful at everything I do, be successful, successful college experience, achievement, accomplish their meaning of success in their lifetime, success, success, personal success, 3. to get married, get married, get married, 4. [creative/artistic activities] write screenplays, direct movies, act, play music, Finding myself through music, Songwriting, becoming an accomplished guitar player, 5. to serve God, religion, be a godly woman, be a strong Christian, building my relationship with God through reading His word, religion, my relationship with the one true God and Jesus Chris his son, faith, Christianity, higher dedication to God, relationship with god, follow religious doctrine, to unite with religious groups, religious beliefs, 6. to finish college with some kind of degree in a field that interest me, college, graduate college, complete my education, go to Nursing School, get my Masters degree, graduate from college, go to graduate school, get a PHD in Psychology, educational, Graduating college, Physical Therapy school, graduate with a Masters degree in Elementary Education, finish my bachelor's degree, earning my masters and teaching certificate, graduate from college, graduating from college with honors, school, a college education, 7. never to short hand my self, working to my fullest potential, to do everything to the best of my ability, to put a lot of effort into things, always work hard, always try, work, practice, doing my best, work hard, work, to always try my hardest, always shoot for the stars because sky?s the limit, individual effort, elitism, the individual, Hard work, 8. take advantage of all opportunities that might help me in the long run, take full advantage of all opportunities that I have around me, 9. 3.0 GPA, 10. enjoy college life, Cherish every day, always have a good time, 11. live healthy, healthy citizens, a very healthy, life long health, my health, Health, healthy, 12. not get to stressed out, 13. make some difference with my life, being a contributing member of society, affecting as many people as possible in positive ways, trying to help as many people as I can throughout my life, a job that contributes in some way to the greater good, would like to be of some use to others, meaningful work and not be praised about it, help others, ability to give to myself and then others, willingness to help people who need it, 14. be able to afford to travel, ability and resources to travel around the world, travel and see more of the world than what I already know, 28 15. to live a happy life; be happy, very happy home life, happiness, Happiness, Happiness, live our lives as fully as possible, to be happy in what I'm doing, lead a life that I enjoy, happy in life, try to be happy, be happy, live a life that pleases them, Pursuit of Happiness, find true happiness, well being, 16. [social virtues] being nice to others, treat others as I want to be treated ; not harm others or myself in any way, respect others, honesty, be fair, Never to judge anyone before getting to know them; NEVER cheat on a significant other; compassion, honesty, loyalty, have understanding toward others of different beliefs, not to act out of purely my own self interest, to think of others, sharing, how individuals are treated, Treatment of the poor, either kindly or harshly, trustworthiness, loyalty, honesty, loyalty, respect, not to lie to others, treat others as I would like to be treated, Respecting others rights and values, integrity, always try to be honest, want to be treated in a way that makes me comfortable to be open and safe with people I am close to, honesty, trust, JUSTICE, trying to be fair, golden rule, to treat each other with respect and love, politeness, To love one another, trust, help other countries, helping other, help one another, 17. [personal virtues] be a good person in general, purity and chastity, purity, devotion, no premarital sex, be as good of a person as I can, dignity, courage, staying true to myself, being my own person, not following the crowd, individualism, honor 18. [general morality] being a law abiding citizen.; do things that I know are right, be moral most would agree that murder is wrong, laws of the government, 19. financial security, get by with financially, Financial and economic stability, have well paying jobs, get out of financial debt for their country, pay off all of my financial debt, don't owe anything to anyone, being able to support them, provide for my family, financial stability, makes decent money, financial stability, secure economy, make enough to get by, get more money for all the starving people in their country, financial issues, 20. a job I enjoy getting up for, have career that I can enjoy doing, have a job that I am happy with, get a stimulating job, choose and pursue a career that is satisfying, get a good job they like, 21. do what I like, comfortable lifestyle 22. [specific occupational goals] become a Nurse Practitioner, become a teacher, becoming a successful Physical Therapist, become a MD, become a successful photographer, an elementary school teacher, become a well known (but not famous) writer, become certified to teach elementary school, coaching football, 23. my children can attend college with no worries. 24. NEVER try to manipulate or use a girl for my own physical pleasure, 25. friends, belonging friendship, friendship, friends, friends, community relationships, friend relationships, community, 26. truth, 27. love, finding their "true love"., finding the "perfect partner", 28. my future, future, my future, 29. Life, survival, survival, human life, LIFE, survive, be able to live, 30. Meaning, things that have meaning in life 31. wealth, attaining wealth, money, wealth, make a lot of money, prosperous, monetary goals, get rich or at least make as much money as they possibly can, involve money, wealthy future, get the most money out of the least amount of work possible, wealth, Wealth, become rich, make a lot of money, income, monetary wealth, wealth, 29 32. power, Power, power, power- power in gov't, or their own individual power, become more powerful, ultimate power over its people, domination, domination of a country 33. social status, have a high place in society, fame, wants to be the biggest, the best and the most distinguished, popularity, individual identity, be better than everybody else, being number one in everything, being on top, 34. finding something to eat, provide food for their families, to have enough food to make it through the week, have enough food, getting enough food, to feed one's self and one's family, food to eat, feeding [their people], food, 35. conquer other lands, domination of a country 36. make peace with the rest of the world, living in peace, Peace, achieve peace through out the whole country, trying to find peace, 37. move to America, 38. send their children to school here, 39. to be safe, security, 40. similar materialistic goals that Americans do, material possessions, possessions, good home, nice car, live in a large quantity of material possessions, nice home, being able to own material objects, have a house, possessions, economic value of their materials, 41. proper vaccinations for their children, medical supplies for the people, receiving access to basic medical attention, 42. adequate housing, running water, to have a place to live, clothes, clothing their people 43. men's "superiority" over women, female subservience, clearly defined gender roles, 44. liberty, equality and liberty, Liberty, 45. good food, 46. connection to nature, the environment, land, 47. [in-group favoritism] Their nation, the group, society, community and family over the individual, honor their family, our nation, standing up and by the flag of the USA, patriotism, have a country to call their own, defend our country at any cost, 48. respect for ancestors, respect to elders, Respect for your heritage, 49. history, pass on important traditions and customs to their children, Maintaining tradition, to lengthen the legacy of the family, 7 generations 50. the country?s image internationally, 51. pride 52. working together to accomplish common goals, All people should expect to and in fact receive and give support, look out for its citizens, the well being of their families and cultures, community oriented, serving the community, society, 53. democracy, to lead a sustainable developed society 54. capitalism, capitalistic, capitalism, 55. dissent, independent thought, 56. supporting the government, conformity, the system of government, 57. condition of their country, stimulate income, keep the country running well 58. Spiritual growth, 59. knowledge, teach, become fluent in German, accomplishing the needed assessments, a life long learner, to be somewhat learned, be well-educated, education, freedom from ignorance 60. Sex, to be the sexual icon, sex 61. stability, stable [family], 62. [negative aspects] not be oppressed, [not be] poverty stricken, defeat oppression, 30 63. Not to have the U.S dictate every government they do not like, keep the US off their backs, 64. to develop modern agriculture techniques, 65. some day go to heaven, being a good person in life to attain rewards in the afterlife, 66. to be content with my self, remember that I am only one person, I am only my own person, not to do what everyone else is doing, to look back on my life and have no regrets, being your own person, 67. to see what is, as it is, the natural, 68. Be conscious of your actions, the decisions you are making, 69. [negative aspects of religion] do not believe in religious constraints, idea of a wrathful god, 70. career, good job, ideal career, well paying job, career, get a good job, career, jobs, holding a steady and well-paying job, occupational goals, job, 71. diversity of culture, diversity, melting pot of people/diversity, 72. freedom, Freedom, freedom, the freedoms of choice in the US, independence, freedom, freedom from ignorance, independence, freedom, maintain freedom, freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, 'freedom' to do whatever we want, the ability to be whatever they choose, 73. live the "American Dream", live out the American dream, American dream, American dream, 74. something to be proud of, making my parents, family and loved ones proud of me, making ones family proud, 75. owning a business, 76. hope, 77. art, the beautiful 79. equal opportunities, equality, a country without prejudice, 80. privacy, 82. an ability to move up in the world, 83. youthfulness,