Acceso usuarios
Understanding the nature of the values and superordinate goals is both fascinating and highly consequential. Yet, existing taxonomies diverge in numerous respects, creating a barrier to scientific progress. To come to a fuller understanding, we conducted an integrated empirical analysis. We systematically gathered value-descriptive phrases from numerous past influential measures and item sets, standardized them to a common format, and eliminated redundancies, resulting in 359 items. We then asked two large samples of American adults to rate their commitment to these values, including a convenience sample (n = 312) and census-matched sample (n = 506). Analyses indicated that their structure can be parsimoniously described in terms of five broad domains: individual mastery, social rank, interpersonal relatedness, cultural conventionality, and universal justice. This solution was robust across samples and across many variations in analytic technique. Further analyses suggested that 13 more specific facets can be located within and between these domains, providing a more detailed description. This provides an organizing framework that should allow researchers examining different theories to more easily compare their findings. Further research is certainly needed to examine the generalizability of this structure across cultures. Nonetheless, the current investigation provides an important initial step by providing an integrated description of the structure of values in a Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic cultural context from which many prior models originated. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
