Chapter 1

What Personal Values Are and What They

Are Not: Taking a Cross-Cultural
Perspective

Lilach Sagiv and Sonia Roccas

The construct of values is central to many fields in social sciences and humanities.
The last two decades have seen a growing body of psychological research on
values, investigating their content, structure, and consequences in many cultures. In
research and in everyday life, values are often confused with other personal attri-
butes, such as attitudes, traits, and specific goals. But values are a distinct construct,
differing from other personal attributes in important ways. The unique features of
values have implications for their impact on behavior. In this chapter, we discuss
the commonalities and differences between values and closely related constructs by
taking a careful look at the definition of values. We start by presenting the definition
of values. Then—taking a cross-cultural perspective—we review, organize, and
integrate research on the nature of values. We point to the similarities and differ-
ences between values and other constructs and discuss the implications of value
characteristics for relationships between values and behavior.
Values are cognitive representations of basic motivations. They are abstract,
desirable goals, relatively stable over time and across situations. Values vary in
their importance; the higher the importance a person attributes to a value, the more
likely he is to act in ways that promote the attainment of that value (Kluckhohn
1951; Rokeach 1973; Schwartz 1992). The structure of relationships among values
is dynamic, representing their compatibilities and conflicts (Schwartz 1992).
This definition may seem simple. But it is complex because each element has
important implications for the distinction between value and close constructs, and
for the relationship between values and behavior. Throughout this chapter, we
deconstruct the definition of values and discuss each of its elements, focusing on
their implications for the relationships between values and behavior.

L. Sagiv (&)
School of Business Administration, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
e-mail: lilach.sagiv@mail.huji.ac.il
S. Roccas
Department of Education and Psychology, The Open University of Israel, Ra’anana, Israel

© Springer International Publishing AG 2017 3

S. Roccas and L. Sagiv (eds.), Values and Behavior,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-56352-7_1