Testing the Relative Comprehensiveness of Schwartz’s Ten Value Types with Help from Rokeach

Abstract

The universality of Schwartz’s Theory of Basic Human Values relies on the comprehensiveness of his value types, i.e., they are exhaustive of all human values, no matter where they are found. Schwartz built on Rokeach's (1973) theory of human values, however, by 1994 Schwartz had developed a theory of values that superseded Rokeach's 36 values with ten value types. Drawing on Rokeach, we tested the comprehensiveness of Schwartz's theory by statistically assessing the extent to which Schwartz's model of ten-value types and their underlying structural dimensions incorporate all of Rokeach's 36 values. We performed factor analyses on data collected from Austria, Nigeria, and South Africa with Rokeach's Values Survey Instrument and Schwartz's 21- item Portrait Values Questionnaire (PVQ-21). Our results show that while Schwartz’s theoretical model, measured with the PVQ-21, approaches comprehensiveness, it falls short because it does not statistically accommodate six of Rokeach’s values. However, longer questionnaires based on the same core theory, especially the 56-item Schwartz Value Survey (SVS), contain these six Rokeach values. Were we to repeat our experiment using the SVS, or one of the other longer versions of the PVQ, we would likely find that all of Rokeach’s values are accommodated in Schwartz’s theory.