Value priorities and subjective well‐being: direct relations and congruity effects

Two studies investigated relations of value priorities to measures of subjective well‐being. Samples of students and adults, from Israel and former East and West Germany (N=1261), participated in Part I. Hypothesized direct relations of nine types of values to well‐being, based on ‘healthy’ values from the psychotherapy literature, relations of values to needs, self‐determination theory, and the emotional resources needed to pursue various values were tested in each sample. Achievement, self‐direction, stimulation, tradition, conformity and security values correlated with affective well‐being, as predicted, but not with cognitive well‐being. Part II tested the hypothesis that well‐being depends upon congruence between personal values and the prevailing value environment. Results largely supported specific hypotheses regarding the values conducive to positive and negative well‐being among students of business administration (n=40) and psychology (n=42). Hypotheses were derived from the social sanctions, environmental affordances for value attainment, and internal value conflicts likely to be experienced in each department. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Ontological Security and Public (Mis)Recognition of International Crises: Uncertainty,Political Imagining,and the Self

Public narratives of unexpected international events frequently help (re)imagine uncertainty as something familiar or predictable. This process underlies social and political responses and is deeply significant in relation to identity and boundary security. I propose to read early perceptions of international crises through a reformulation of ontological security principles that find motivation for behavior in self‐identity needs. Political imagining is shown to seek continuous self‐concepts and to routinize new encounters within familiar and self‐affirming frames. This article suggests a new approach to ontological continuity: instead of an unchanging narrative, its security may rest in a continuously positive version of the self, with narratives of others balancing and securing the relationship. In the second half of the article, I draw on interviews about the “Arab Spring” to show how illusions of recognizing unexpected events and the political imagining this produces can be motivated by self‐concepts in need of security.     

Personal values and political activism: A cross‐national study

Using data from 28 countries in four continents, the present research addresses the question of how basic values may account for political activism. Study (N = 35,116) analyses data from representative samples in 20 countries that responded to the 21‐item version of the Portrait Values Questionnaire (PVQ‐21) in the European Social Survey. Study (N = 7,773) analyses data from adult samples in six of the same countries (Finland, Germany, Greece, Israel, Poland, and United Kingdom) and eight other countries (Australia, Brazil, Chile, Italy, Slovakia, Turkey, Ukraine, and United States) that completed the full 40‐item PVQ. Across both studies, political activism relates positively to self‐transcendence and openness to change values, especially to universalism and autonomy of thought, a subtype of self‐direction. Political activism relates negatively to conservation values, especially to conformity and personal security. National differences in the strength of the associations between individual values and political activism are linked to level of democratization.     

Gender differences in personal values of national and local Italian politicians,activists and voters

Theorists of politics of presence postulate that women elected to political office would still hold values similar to ordinary women and therefore represent them better than male politicians. Gender differences in personal values, which underline and give coherence to core political values, have been found among voters: males score higher on self‐enhancement values (power and achievement) and females higher on self‐transcendence values (universalism and benevolence). Our study aims to explore if gender differences in personal values are still present among activists, local and national politicians. We administer a shortened version of the Portrait Values Questionnaire to 233 Italian national politicians (46% females), 425 local politicians (56% females), 626 political activists (44% females), and 3249 ordinary citizens (49% females). Our results confirm only partially politics of presence theory: females at all levels of political involvement score higher in self‐transcendent values that emphasise concern for the welfare of others, but no significant gender differences emerge for self‐enhancement, which favour the pursuit of self‐interest. Our findings support ethical struggles for more balanced gender representation: a higher proportion of women in politics could strengthen the political representation of self‐transcendence values.     

Human Values and Social Identities among Samples of White and Black South Africans

We examined the value correlates of different social identities among two groups of South Africans, those identifying themselves as white Afrikaners or as black South Africans. Respondents indicated the importance of their membership of different groups and also completed indices of National strength and order, and International harmony and equality. Multiple regression analyses showed that the social identities associated with both values for self‐identified Afrikaners were mainly linked with ethnic language (Afrikaans) and religion. Among self‐identified black South Africans, however, the social identities were more encompassing, including the notion of global citizen and South African. The findings are discussed in the light of ongoing political and social change in South Africa and the nature of changing identities, as well as the role of cultural symbols in facilitating in‐group identification among white Afrikaners.     

Self‐affirmation,political value congruence,and support for refugees

This research tested the potential for self‐affirmation on left‐ and right‐wing political values to increase behavioral intentions to provide help and assistance to refugees. We present a pilot study defining left‐ and right‐wing values, and a main study in which participants completed either a self‐affirmation task, a group‐affirmation task, or participated in a control condition on values that were either congruent or incongruent with their own political views. Results show that left‐wing oriented participants showed more supportive intentions in the self‐affirmation condition compared to the group‐affirmation and control conditions, independent of values congruency. In contrast, right‐wing participants showed more supportive intentions in the self‐affirmation condition, but only when they affirmed on values that were congruent with their own political views.     

Personal Values and Intended Self‐Presentation during Job Interviews: A Cross‐Cultural Comparison

This study examined the impact of personal values on intended self‐presentation during job interviews among German, Ghanaian, Norwegian, and Turkish students (total N= 1,474). We also sought to explain cultural differences in self‐presentation among these groups. The Cultural Impression Management Scale for applicants (CIM‐A) and the Portrait Values Questionnaire were administered. A multigroup MIMIC model with invariant measurement and structural weights was supported, in which achievement, security, and benevolence values predicted a latent impression management factor. Intended impression management scores were significantly higher in the Ghanaian and Turkish samples than in the Norwegian and German samples. Values (achievement and security) accounted for 19.6 per cent of the cross‐cultural differences in self‐presentation. Adding acquiescence as an additional predictor (interpreted here as a measure of communication style) decreased the cross‐cultural differences by 52.8 per cent. It is concluded that values are similarly related to intended self‐presentation across these four groups, even though the cross‐cultural differences in mean scores in both sets of variables were considerable.     

Living in a Non‐Communist Versus in a Post‐Communist European Country Moderates the Relation Between Conservative Values and Political Orientation: A Multilevel Study

We performed a multilevel, multinational analysis using the 2012 European Social Survey dataset (N = 41 080, nested in 20 countries) to study how living in a non‐communist versus in a post‐communist country moderates the link between individual conservative values (drawn on Schwartz's theory of basic human values) and political orientation (assessed as self‐placement on the left–right axis and attitude towards economic redistribution). The results supported the moderating role of living in a non‐communist versus in a post‐communist country in the case both of political self‐placement and of attitude towards economic redistribution, even controlling for the countries' degree of individualism, power distance and democracy. Specifically, conservative values were positively related to a rightist political self‐placement among participants living in countries without a communist past, and to a favourable attitude towards economic redistribution in countries with a communist past. The limitations, implications and future directions of this study are discussed. Copyright © 2016 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Themes of Self‐Regulation and Self‐Exploration in the Life Stories of Religious American Conservatives and Liberals

A sample of 128 highly religious (Christian) midlife American adults completed a series of attitudinal and personality trait measures and narrated 12 important autobiographical scenes in their life stories. Individuals high on self‐reported political conservatism tended to accentuate the theme of self‐regulation in their life stories, repeatedly describing important autobiographical scenes wherein they struggled to control, discipline, manage, restrain, protect, or preserve the self. By contrast, individuals high on political liberalism tended to emphasize the theme of self‐exploration, telling stories about expanding, discovering, articulating, or fulfilling the self. Demographics and dispositional traits (especially openness to experience) showed significant associations with conservatism‐liberalism, as well, but these variables did not mitigate the robust relationship between life‐narrative themes and political orientation. The results are discussed in terms of a broadened understanding of personality that conceives of dispositional traits and narrative identity as comprising distinct layers and complementary features of psychological individuality, both implicated in political lives.     

No genuine self‐forgiveness without accepting responsibility: Value reaffirmation as a key to maintaining positive self‐regard

Measures of self‐forgiveness that merely focus on the outcome of positive self‐regard risk neglecting the process through which offenders restore it. They may thus tap pseudo self‐forgiveness where offenders downplay their responsibility for the wrongdoing. For genuine self‐forgiveness, the process should instead involve an attenuation of the negative link between responsibility acceptance and positive self‐regard. In this paper, we examine how acts of value reaffirmation facilitate genuine self‐forgiveness. In Study 1, a role‐play experiment (N = 90), participants either confessed their wrongdoing to the victim or not. Although responsibility acceptance was strongly negatively related to reported self‐forgiveness (i.e., self‐regard), this relationship was tempered when participants confessed their wrongdoing to the victim and, through this, reaffirmed the violated values. In Study 2, a longitudinal study referring to self‐reported transgressions (N = 74), responsibility acceptance was negatively related to self‐forgiveness measures as well as self‐esteem when offenders showed little value reaffirmation, but not when they more strongly reaffirmed the violated values. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Psychological variables underlying political orientations in an old and a new democracy: A comparative study between Sweden and Latvia

This study examines in detail the psychological variables underlying ideological political orientation, and structure and contents of this orientation, in Sweden and Latvia. Individual political orientation is conceptualized on two dimensions: acceptance vs. rejection of social change and acceptance vs. rejection of inequality. Swedish (N = 320) and Latvian (N = 264) participants completed measures of political orientation, Social Dominance Orientation (SDO), Right Wing Authoritarianism (RWA), self vs. other orientation, tolerance for ambiguity, humanism and normativism, core political values, system justification, as well as moral foundations questionnaire and portrait values questionnaire. The results showed that the relation among the measured variables was similar in both samples. Swedish participants showed stronger endorsement of egalitarian attitudes and social values, whereas we found more self‐enhancing and socially conservative values and attitudes among the Latvian participants.     

The evolutionary psychology of small‐scale versus large‐scale politics: Ancestral conditions did not include large‐scale politics

The current research question sought to examine political psychology as it relates to evolutionary mismatch. The basic hypothesis is that people will be more cognitively prepared to think about political situations that are relatively small in scale compared with political situations that are large in scale. This research also examined the effects of whether the political situation is highly relevant to oneself. To test these questions, 49 young adults were presented with four sets of instructions. They were asked to write paragraphs describing (i) a large‐scale, self‐relevant political situation, (ii) a large‐scale non‐self‐relevant political situation, (iii) a small‐scale self‐relevant political situation, and (iv) a small‐scale non‐self‐relevant political situation. Paragraphs generated by the participants were analyzed using Tyler's ( 2013 ) Writing Sample Readability Analyzer. Results demonstrated that paragraphs designed for large‐scale political situations had more sentences and were less readable than paragraphs designed for small‐scale situations—while paragraphs designed for small‐scale political situations were relatively readable and included more words per sentence, suggesting that, consistent with the core hypothesis, participants had an easier time processing information related to small‐scale political situations than large‐scale political situations. Implications for the nature of modern politics are discussed.     

Hard times and European youth. The effect of economic insecurity on human values,social attitudes and well‐being

While economic downturns have adverse effects on young people's life chances, empirical studies examining whether and to what extent human values, social attitudes and well‐being indicators respond to sudden economic shocks are scarce. To assess the claim that human values are less affected by economic shocks than social attitudes and well‐being, two distinct yet related studies based on the European Social Survey (ESS) are conducted. The first employs a fixed effects pseudo‐panel analysis of the 2008–2014 ESS‐waves to detect whether changes over time in the socio‐demographic group's unemployment risk and national youth unemployment affect individual dispositions to varying degrees. The second study captures micro‐ and cross‐national effects in the 2010 ESS cross‐section. Unique for this set‐up is that we can test whether the findings hold for over‐time changes in youth unemployment within countries (pseudo‐panel), as well as for cross‐country differences in youth unemployment (multilevel). Both studies indicate that political trust, satisfaction with the economy and subjective well‐being are lowered by economic risk and hardship, while social trust and self‐rated health are less affected by changes in youth unemployment. Secondly, human values are immune to economic risk, underscoring that values transcend specific situations and are therefore resistant against sudden economic shocks.     

A longitudinal study of Q‐sort attachment security and self‐processes at age 5

Attachment theory predicts that a sense of self emerges from early interactive relationships with significant others. In the current study, concurrent and predictive relations of child–mother Q‐sort attachment security to self‐concept and self‐esteem in 5‐year‐old children is examined. Concurrent attachment security scores are positively related to a puppet interview measure of self‐esteem, and children who are able to admit imperfections in themselves have higher attachment security scores at age 5. Attachment security at age 2 is not positively related to self‐processes, however, and security at either age does not predict overall self‐concept as measured by the Harter Scales. The results suggest that a secure attachment relationship is important for children to feel comfortable in presenting a realistic perspective of themselves.     

Values that Underlie and Undermine Well‐Being: Variability Across Countries

We examined relations of 10 personal values to life satisfaction (LS) and depressive affect (DEP) in representative samples from 32/25 countries (N = 121 495). We tested hypotheses both for direct relations and cross‐level moderation of relations by Cultural Egalitarianism. We based hypotheses on the growth versus self‐protection orientation and person‐focus versus social‐focus motivations that underlie values. As predicted, openness to change values (growth/person) correlated positively with subjective well‐being (SWB: higher LS, lower DEP) and conservation values (self‐protection/social) correlated negatively with SWB. The combination of underlying motivations also explained more complex direct relations of self‐transcendence and self‐enhancement values with SWB. We combined an analysis of the environmental context in societies low versus high in Cultural Egalitarianism with the implications of pursuing person‐focused versus social‐focused values to predict how Cultural Egalitarianism moderates value–SWB relations. As predicted, under low versus high Cultural Egalitarianism, (i) openness to change values related more positively to SWB, (ii) conservation values more negatively, (iii) self‐enhancement values less negatively and (iv) self‐transcendence values less positively. Culture moderated value–SWB relations more weakly for DEP than for LS. Culture moderated value–LS relations more strongly than the socio‐economic context did. This study demonstrates how the cultural context shapes individual‐level associations between values and SWB. Copyright © 2017 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Can appraisals of common political life events impact subjective well‐being?

This study examined the psychological impact of global subjective appraisals of influence exerted on people's lives by common political events. A list of 24 political events was administered to a random sample of 400 adults in Poland. Political self‐efficacy, interest in politics, perceived political social support, and political collective efficacy were also assessed as potential moderators of the link between political stress appraisals and subjective well‐being (satisfaction with life, sense on anomie, positive affect). Perceptions of the negative influence of political stressors on one's life and the life of the country were associated with concomitant variations in subjective well‐being. Among psychosocial resources, political self‐efficacy consistently moderated the influence of appraisals of political stressors on satisfaction with life and positive affect.     

Perception of parents as demonstrating the inherent merit of their values: Relations with self‐congruence and subjective well‐being

This study focuses on the parenting practice of inherent value demonstration (IVD), involving parents' tendency to express their values in behaviours and appear satisfied and vital while doing so. Data from Chinese college students (n = 89) confirmed the hypothesis that offspring's perception of their parents as engaged in IVD predicts offspring's subjective well‐being (SWB) through sense of self‐congruence. Importantly, these relations emerged also when controlling for fundamental autonomy‐supportive (FAS) parenting practices such as taking children's perspective, minimising control and allowing choice. These findings are consistent with the view that parents concerned with their children's sense of autonomy may do well to engage in IVD in addition to more fundamental autonomy‐supportive practices. Future research may examine the role of IVD in promoting authentic values that serve as an internal compass that guides children to act in ways that feel self‐congruent.     

Sociocultural antecedents of academic motivation and achievement: Role of values and achievement motives in achievement goals and academic performance

With a view to understand the influence of culture on achievement motivation, the study aimed to test the hypothesized mediating role of individual‐oriented and social‐oriented achievement motives in linking value orientations (e.g. achievement, security, conformity, hedonism) to achievement goals (i.e. mastery‐approach, mastery‐avoidance, performance‐approach, and performance‐avoidance goals) as predictors of English and mathematics achievements. These hypothesized relationships were tested in the one‐path analytic model with a sample of Indonesian high‐school students (n = 356; 46% girls, M age = 16.20 years). The findings showed that security and conformity values positively predicted social‐oriented achievement motive; self‐direction values positively predicted individual‐oriented achievement motive; and hedonism values negatively predicted both achievement motive orientations. Both individual‐oriented and social‐oriented achievement motives positively predicted mastery‐approach and performance‐approach goals. Interestingly, social‐oriented achievement motive also positively predicted mastery‐avoidance and performance‐avoidance goals, which in turn, negatively predicted English and mathematic achievement. There was also some evidence for the direct effects of values on performance‐approach goals and achievement. Taken together, the findings evinced the relevance of achievement goal constructs to Indonesian students and the psychometric properties of the Indonesian version of the Achievement Goals Questionnaire for further use in Indonesia. The study concludes that the meanings of academic motivation and achievement should be seen from a sociocultural perspective relevant to the context in which they are being studied.     

Ideological Asymmetries and the Essence of Political Psychology

Individuals are not merely passive vessels of whatever beliefs and opinions they have been exposed to; rather, they are attracted to belief systems that resonate with their own psychological needs and interests, including epistemic, existential, and relational needs to attain certainty, security, and social belongingness. Jost, Glaser, Kruglanski, and Sulloway ( 2003 ) demonstrated that needs to manage uncertainty and threat were associated with core values of political conservatism, namely respect for tradition and acceptance of inequality. Since 2003 there have been far more studies on the psychology of left‐right ideology than in the preceding half century, and their empirical yield helps to address lingering questions and criticisms. We have identified 181 studies of epistemic motivation (involving 130,000 individual participants) and nearly 100 studies of existential motivation (involving 360,000 participants). These databases, which are much larger and more heterogeneous than those used in previous meta‐analyses, confirm that significant ideological asymmetries exist with respect to dogmatism, cognitive/perceptual rigidity, personal needs for order/structure/closure, integrative complexity, tolerance of ambiguity/uncertainty, need for cognition, cognitive reflection, self‐deception, and subjective perceptions of threat. Exposure to objectively threatening circumstances—such as terrorist attacks, governmental warnings, and shifts in racial demography—contribute to modest “conservative shifts” in public opinion. There are also ideological asymmetries in relational motivation, including the desire to share reality, perceptions of within‐group consensus, collective self‐efficacy, homogeneity of social networks, and the tendency to trust the government more when one's own political party is in power. Although some object to the very notion that there are meaningful psychological differences between leftists and rightists, the identification of “elective affinities” between cognitive‐motivational processes and contents of specific belief systems is essential to the study of political psychology. Political psychologists may contribute to the development of a good society not by downplaying ideological differences or advocating “Swiss‐style neutrality” when it comes to human values, but by investigating such phenomena critically, even—or perhaps especially—when there is pressure in society to view them uncritically.     

Materialistic values and well‐being in business students

We explored whether values focused on money, image, and popularity are associated with lowered well‐being, even in environmental circumstances supportive of such values. To this end, we administered three widely used measures of a materialistic value orientation to 92 business students in Singapore. As expected, those students who had strongly internalized materialistic values also reported lowered self‐actualization, vitality and happiness, as well as increased anxiety, physical symptomatology, and unhappiness. Results are consistent with past research suggesting that some types of values may be unhealthy. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.