82 Questions
Which dimension categorizes ideals?
Time and concreteness
What is the primary driver of human behavior according to evolutionary theorists?
Inclusive fitness
What did Freud's theory postulate about consciously accessible goals?
Serve the unconscious motive to have sex
What are goals categorized as?
Concrete ideals
What do values reflect according to the text?
Subjective beliefs influenced by culture and childhood learning
What do theories of human values differ in according to the text?
The number of values they postulate
What did another influential theory propose about human's primary motives?
To maximize pleasure and minimize pain (hedonism)
Why is a simplistic version of hedonism easily refuted according to the text?
Humans often do unpleasant things for future gains
What is more realistic and practical to assume according to the text?
A number of motives that vary in importance across individuals and cultures
What are we typically aware of?
Our goals, but not our values
What is at the core of personality psychology?
The Big Five and specific traits
What influences human behavior apart from past experiences and current situations?
Ideals about the future
What term is used to refer to any valued belief about the future?
Ideals
Who introduced the term 'human concerns' in relation to ideals about the future?
Cantril
What creates human diversity apart from the Big Five and specific traits?
Ideals about the future
What do some people want their lives to be like, according to the text?
All of the above
Which term refers to any valued belief about the future?
Values
Apart from traits and the Big Five, what else influences human diversity according to the text?
Values
Who introduced the term 'values' in relation to ideals about the future?
Rokeach
'Personal projects' in relation to ideals about the future was introduced by whom?
Roberts & Robins
What is the biggest problem for hierarchical models that place one motive on top of another?
They do not allow for individual and cultural differences in the importance of motives
Who proposed a revised model of needs that replaced self-actualization with parenting?
Evolutionary psychologists
What did Schwartz propose a more manageable list of?
10 universal values
What is one reason why hierarchical models are not very useful for the study of variation in motives?
They do not allow for individual and cultural differences in the importance of motives
What are the two dimensions in which the 10 values are represented in Schwartz's model?
Self-enhancement versus self-transcendence and openness-to-change versus conservation
Which Big Five trait is negatively related to self-enhancement versus self-transcendence?
Agreeableness
What strategy is used to deal with the challenging problem of validating self-report measures of values?
Both a and b
Which value is positively related to Openness to Experience?
Self-direction
What do Schwartz's model assume about the order of importance for the 10 values?
There is no fixed order of importance for 10 values, varying across individuals and cultures.
What do values tend to correlate with?
Specific goals
What has been studied in relation to the relationship between values and the Big Five traits?
The relationship between values and the Big Five traits
What does validating self-report measures of values face challenges due to?
Social desirability bias
What are the two dimensions in which the 10 values are represented in Schwartz's model?
Self-enhancement versus self-transcendence and openness-to-change versus conservation
What does subtracting the overall mean from each rating aim to address?
Response bias in self-report measures
What do twin studies show about the influences on values?
Higher MZ correlations than DZ correlations, indicating genetic influences
What did Canadian twins show about the effects of shared environment on values?
No evidence of shared environment effects
What do cross-cultural studies reveal about the variation in values?
Pronounced differences between cultures, accounting for over 10% of the variance in values
What does the World Value Survey (WVS) measure?
Values across the world with national representative samples
What does wealth correlate with in relation to values?
Openness to change and self-transcendence
What is the primary driver of human behavior according to evolutionary theorists?
The influence of environmental factors
What did the WVS include in the last two waves (2006, 2010)?
A brief measure of Schwartz's values
What do twin studies suggest about heritability and shared environment effects?
Suggests that 20% of variance is heritable and 10% is due to growing up together
What do self-enhancement and self-transcendence levels correlate with across different regions?
Highest self-enhancement levels in Eastern Europe and highest self-transcendence levels in Western Europe
What does the survival versus self-expression dimension measure?
The perception of personal freedom
What does the map based on Schwartz's dimensions show about nations from the same region?
They cluster together
What is notable about the influence of British culture on countries in different regions of the world?
It is significant and observable
What is the main difference to other Western nations in central Europe according to the text?
Higher score on the secular-rational dimension
What does a single item strongly correlated with the survival versus self-expression dimension measure?
Perception of personal freedom
What distinguishes countries where religion and tradition influence laws and social norms from countries that separate religion and politics?
Secular-rational dimension
What does a map based on Schwartz's dimensions show about nations from different regions?
They cluster together based on cultural dimensions
What does a single item strongly correlated with the survival versus self-expression dimension measure?
Perception of personal freedom
What distinguishes countries where religion and tradition influence laws and social norms from countries that separate religion and politics?
Secular-rational dimension
What distinguishes European nations from other Western nations in central Europe according to the text?
Higher score on the secular-rational dimension
What is the retest correlation for the stability of values at age 11?
r ~.3
Which dimension do women score higher on, according to the research on values?
Benevolence
What do the gender differences in values explain to some extent?
The increased number of women in powerful positions
What is the one-year retest correlation for the stability of values at age 18?
$r ~.6$
According to the text, what increases during adolescence in terms of values?
$r ~.3$ retest correlation
What does the increased number of women in powerful positions show about cultural factors?
They play a significant role in shaping values
What do the stability of values and traits have in common, according to the text?
They both increase during adolescence.
What is one reason for the stability of values, as mentioned in the text?
People are motivated to maintain a consistent self-image.
What is the one-year retest correlation for the stability of values at age 20s over a four-year interval?
$r ~.7$
What makes it possible to distinguish cohort effects and age effects in the World Value Survey?
The repetition of the same questions over time
What does a stronger effect of year of survey compared to year of birth suggest?
A cohort effect
What does the difference in scores between a person born in 1910 surveyed in the 1990s and the average 20-year old in 2010 indicate?
A shift in values towards more tolerance
What is the main factor contributing to the changes in values observed over the past decades?
Greater acceptance of homosexuality and legalization of gay marriages
What does the small difference between US and Canadian respondents suggest?
Fairly similar values between the two countries
What does each generation being 'a bit more secular/rational' than the previous generation imply?
Values leaning towards non-religious beliefs
What is suggested by a d ~ 0.4 per decade for year of survey and d ~ 0.2 per decade for year of birth?
Stronger influence of survey year on morality questions than birth year
What does the general shift in values over past decades indicate?
Increased tolerance towards minority groups
What is suggested by somebody born in 1910 surveyed in the 1990s having a score of 2.5 whereas the average 20-year old in 2010 had a score around 5?
Generational differences in values over time
What do combined effects of changes in values suggest about human behavior?
Values influencing attitudes and behaviors over time
What is the strongest relationship observed with political orientation?
Universalism
Which value showed the highest spousal similarity?
Dutifulness
What is the highest similarity between spouses?
Religiosity
In which field are students already high in self-transcendence at the beginning of university?
Psychology
What do surveys show about university professors' political orientation?
More politically liberal than conservative
What do some conservative politicians express concerns about in relation to university education?
Changing students' values to be more liberal
What is one reason why business students' values change little in response to a university education?
They are drawn to business due to their care for others
What is the dimension that influences voting behavior in democracies?
Left-leaning/liberal versus right-leaning/conservative
In which area do values pose more problems according to the text?
Collective actions such as planning joint vacations or making public policies
What is one important behavior in democracies mentioned in the text?
Voting behavior
Study Notes
Understanding Human Values and Motives
- Dreaming about a Caribbean vacation during Covid-19 pandemic reflects positive valuation of spending time in the Caribbean
- Values are subjective and can be rooted in cultural norms or childhood learning
- Values are a normal variation in personality and not objectively good
- Ideals can be categorized along two dimensions: time and concreteness
- Goals are concrete ideals, while motives and values are more abstract
- We are typically aware of our goals, but not of our values
- Theories of human values differ in the number of values they postulate, from a single ultimate motive to theories with a dozen or more distinct values
- Evolutionary theorists argue that the ultimate driver of human behavior is inclusive fitness
- Freud's theory postulated that many consciously accessible goals serve the unconscious motive to have sex, but this theory is not widely accepted today
- Another influential theory proposed that human's primary motives are to maximize pleasure and to minimize pain (hedonism)
- A simplistic version of hedonism is easily refuted because humans often do unpleasant things for future gains
- It is more realistic and practical to assume a number of motives that are all important, but can vary in importance across individuals and cultures
Schwartz's 10 Values Model
- Schwartz's model assumes no fixed order of importance for 10 values, varying across individuals and cultures.
- The 10 values are: Power, Achievement, Hedonism, Stimulation, Self-Direction, Universalism, Benevolence, Tradition, Dutifulness, and Security.
- Values are reflected in specific goals and tend to correlate with each other.
- Values are not totally independent, with some closely related and difficult to separate.
- The 10 values are represented in a two-dimensional model, with opposing and neighboring values easy to prioritize and often going together.
- The two-dimensional structure is self-enhancement versus self-transcendence and openness-to-change versus conservation.
- Validating self-report measures of values is challenging due to the desirability of all values guiding behaviors.
- Two strategies used to deal with this problem: subtracting the overall mean from each rating and forcing participants to compare or rank values.
- Self-ratings of values show moderate convergent validity with informant ratings.
- The relationship between values and the Big Five traits has been studied.
- Agreeableness is negatively related to self-enhancement versus self-transcendence and positively related to benevolence.
- Openness to Experience is related to openness to change versus conservation and positively related to self-direction.
Genetic and Environmental Influences on Values
- Values are less stable during adolescence, indicating influence from environmental factors.
- Twin studies show higher MZ correlations than DZ correlations, indicating genetic influences on values.
- Average MZ correlation was r =.32 and same-sex DZ twins was r =.20, suggesting 20% of variance is heritable and 10% is due to growing up together.
- Canadian twins showed no evidence of shared environment effects.
- Values show little influence of parenting, surprising given the correlation with heritable traits like agreeableness and openness.
- Cross-cultural studies of values reveal pronounced differences between cultures, with national differences accounting for over 10% of the variance in values.
- Self-enhancement is highest in Africa, self-transcendence is highest in Eastern Europe, and Western Europe scores highest on openness to change values.
- The World Value Survey (WVS) measures values across the world with national representative samples, providing data since 1981.
- The WVS included a brief measure of Schwartz's values in the last two waves (2006, 2010).
- Culture accounted for 14% of the variation in openness to change and 11% of the variance in self-transcendence, showing values vary more across cultures than personality traits.
- Wealth correlated with openness to change and self-transcendence, suggesting increasing wealth leads to more open and self-transcending values.
- Moral judgments and the importance of religion also show large variation across nations and form a cultural dimension called traditional versus secular-rational values.
Explore the cognitive capacity and future-oriented behavior that contribute to human diversity in personality psychology. Learn about the core traits and the Big Five in understanding human attributes.
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