Activity 2.8: Identifying Your Dominant Values

The source of this scale is: Shalom H. Schwartz, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

In this questionnaire you are to ask yourself: "What values are important to ME as guiding principles in MY life, and what values are less important to me?" There are two lists of values in this self-assessment. These values come from different cultures. In the parentheses following each value is an explanation that may help you to understand its meaning.
      Your task is to rate how important each value is for you as a guiding principle in your life. Use the rating scale below:

• 0 means the value is not at all important, it is not relevant as a guiding principle for you.
• 3 means the value is important.
• 6 means the value is very important.

• -1 is for rating any values opposed to the principles that guide you.
• 7 is for rating a value of supreme importance as a guiding principle in your life; ordinarily there are no more than two such values.

For each value, select the number (-1,0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7) that indicates the importance of that value for you, personally. Try to distinguish as much as possible between the values by using all the numbers. You will, of course, need to use numbers more than once.

Before you begin, read the values in List I, choose the one that is most important to you and rate its importance. Next, choose the value that is most opposed to your values and rate it -1. If there is no such value, choose the value least important to you and rate it 0 or 1, according to its importance. Then rate the rest of the values in List I.

Values List I