Human Values Systems, Part 2 - 4

Today we are going to talk about Shalom Schwartz ‘s The Theory of Basic Human Values. Shalom Schwartz is a Social Psychologist and cross-cultural researcher in the fields of intergroup conflict and basic human values.

Values chart

What the theory states is that there are 10 basic human values that are displayed in all societies and that these values interact with each other to form a circular structure based on the inherent conflict or compatibility of the underlying motivations that we discussed in our earlier post. The picture below illustrates the structure we are talking about…

The reason that they are circularly arranged is because the further away each value is placed from each other the more incongruent they are with each other and vice versa. The closer each value is to another on the continuum the more congruent they will be. So in looking at the chart let’s take the values of Stimulation and Security. These two values are in direct opposition of each other and as such, the actions and environments necessary to provided each will be in conflict with each other.

There are two parallel “dimensions” if you will of the Basic Human Values structure that exist and run in conflict or incongruous with each other.

1.       The first is Openness to Change existing in conflict with Conservation. Self direction and Stimulation emphasize and feed upon independent actions, thoughts and feelings which present a readiness for new experience. Security and Conformity/Tradition rely upon order, self restraint and resistance to change.

2.       The second is Self-enhancement existing in conflict with Self-transcendence. Achievement and Power represents strong self interests whereas Universalism and Benevolence represent interest in the welfare and interests of others.

So the sum up the above, as a value gets further away from another on the continuum they become more and more antagonistic and conflicting with each other. The closer they become the more congruent and complementary they become with each other. Along with this, depending on which quadrant they are in they can become either complementary or conflicting in one of 4 categories which are Openness to Change, Conservation, Self-Enhancement and Self-Transcendence.

What is great about this structure, which by the way is grounded in empirical evidence from 35,000 respondents in 67 nations, is the predictability of associations with specific traits, attitudes and behaviors. What happens is that any associations of one value are extremely similar to associations of the adjacent (right next to) values. Along with this, the further away from the value you get, the associations will change and decrease consistently and incrementally in direct proportion to the distance on the continuum. With regards to HOW and WHAT to talk about or communicate with someone, this offers powerful information… The million dollar question then becomes “how do you find this information out?” We will get to that shortly, but let’s first talk about how these values develop and grow…

There are 6 main stages or arenas where the values are instilled and develop and they are Cohorts, Education, Gender and Life Circumstance. Let’s go through each one briefly to examine them…

Cohorts –Here the term “cohort” refers to a particular generational group. Growing up during the depression, times of war, famine, national security threats, etc… will affect the development of values from generation to generation. As you can imagine, someone who was growing up during the depression is going to have different values regarding conservatism than someone growing up in the mid to late 90’s when the economy was exploding. Major historical events like this have a strong impact on values development.

Life Stage – This refers to the three stages of adulthood someone passes through as they mature:

1.       In early adulthood, normally people are driving toward establishing themselves in one way shape or form in the verticals of career and family. Genetic and cultural pressure is constant and strong on people in this stage of their life to compete for mates and become settled…. This usually results in the pursuit of achievement and stimulation values rather than security, conformity and tradition values.

2.       In middle adulthood people are invested in established family, career and social networks that they want to preserve and grow. Having begun to reach their peak in accomplishment most will begin to constrain risk-taking and other opportunities and begin to stop any real changes from happening.

3.       In later adulthood opportunities to display achievement, power, stimulation and hedonism types of values decrease and as such the importance of security and tradition become more important.

Physical Ageing – Peoples strength, energy, cognitive speed, memory and senses decline as they age and mature. As a result security values generally become much more important as safe, predictable environments and circumstances are necessary for survival. Coping mechanisms and abilities are hindered in a way that dealing with stimulation and potential risk is just too dangerous. Hedonism values also begin to decline with age as the senses necessary to fully enjoy them are systematically decreasing and depreciating the experience. Also, someone’s ability to perform the tasks necessary to obtain achievement, social approval and power decrease with age as well resulting in a decrease in the accompanying values.

Education – Intellectual openness, strength, flexibility and perspective presumably increase with education and as such so will self-direction values due to increase competence. This openness also contributes to the engagement and therefore importance of stimulation activity. These types of experiences can cause people to challenge unquestioned and accepted norms, expectations and traditions which results in an undermining of conformity and tradition. The increase in competency and coping abilities also decreases the need for security values in more educated people.

Gender – There are a vast number of theories from the fields of psychoanalysis, evolutionary psychology and social psychology that explain typical gender roles and where they came from. We are not going to get into all of them here though. Let it be sufficient to say that women are generally much more related and more affiliated with other people whereas men are more individuated. Genetics, evolution and culture have all fostered an environment that promotes this.

Life Circumstance – The combination of all of the above contribute to the circumstances with which people are presented. These circumstances provide opportunities to pursue and/or express certain values and not others. Life can and does make the pursuit of certain values to certain people more OR less rewarding OR costly to them. The result is that people will typically adapt their values to their life circumstances, not the other way around… For example, a woman growing up in a patriarchal home and culture may be rewarded for Benevolence type values and reprimanded for Achievement type values.

Wow… This is powerful stuff… I think you can probably see the potential for not only predictability in a person’s action, but also how to use content and structural presentation when you are communicating with them.

Tomorrow we will talk about how to elicit someone’s values and how you can use them as an effective communication tool.

As always, to learn more about values and how they can help provide effective communication, please visit my site The Communication Expert.

The Communication Expert | David J. Parnell
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