The process of value-meaning construction: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

A cross-sectional study within Portuguese adolescents, young adults and adults is presented in an attempt to explore the process of value-meaning construction. A model of values psychological structure developed by Bilsky (1987, 1990) is evaluated within a sample of 600 subjects. Such a model presupposes the existence of a universal organization of values on 10 content domains or motivational types. Schwartz's value survey was used to measure subjects' value priorities. Results reveal the validity of the predefined motivational types on the three samples although there are some structural variations between the samples. Such variations may be attributed to the development characteristics of each group. Cognitive-developmental theory emerges as an adequate framework for the analysis of results, assuming the active role of the subject on the process of constructing personal-meaning-theories out of reality.

Employees’ individual values as a source of human capital

“…The samples include diverse geographic, age, gender, occupational, cultural and religious groups (Bilsky, Janik, & Schwartz, 2011;Davidov, Schmidt, & Schwartz, 2008;Schwartz, 2006). Schwartz's model has been tested in terms of a model structure and its universal character (Schwartz, 1992;Ros & Schwartz, 1995;Menezes & Campos, 1997;Schwartz & Sagie, 2000;Schwartz & Bardi, 2001;Struch, Schwartz & van der Kloot, 2002;etc. ) as well as its importance in understanding different social phenomena, such as national identity (Grad, 2001), subjective well-being (Sagiv & Schwartz, 2000), trust in institutions (Devos, Spini, & Schwartz, 2002) and organisational behaviour (Smith, Peterson & Schwartz, 2002).…”

Students' Concepts of Democracy

“…They identified five non-democratic attributes such as dismantling parliament and a military takeover of government, and found in 1990 that nearly half of this adult sample endorsed none of these attributes, with a small number endorsing one or two. Menezes & Campos (1997) conducted research in Portugal on the meaning of freedom, documenting in particular the extent to which adolescents take a self-centred perspective: in fact, the meaning of freedom in both young adults and adults gained a more universalistic meaning ('freedom to all individuals'), while in adolescents it clearly was related to issues of personal autonomy ('my own freedom').…”

Valores sociales y adicción: aplicabilidad y propiedades psicométricas del cuestionario val-89

“…Para conocer las relaciones de proximidad y distancia que mantienen entre sí estas dimensiones, se efectuó un escalamiento en dos dimensiones (méto-do PROXSCAL) a partir de la distancia euclídea de las puntuaciones (convergencia de S-stress p<0,0001; p<0,0001). El modelo gráfico resultante (Figura 1) es perfectamente coherente con el propuesto por los autores y validado en estudios posteriores (Menezes y Campos, 1997). Las escalas se distribuyen en torno a 2 ejes principales: Trascendencia vs. Presentismo y Conservación vs. Cambio.…”