Guiding Actions and Expressing Needs: On the Psychological Functions of Values

Walberto S. Santos,Taciano L. Milfont,Katia Correa Vione,Valdiney Gouveia

doi:10.7764/psykhe.24.2.884

Abstract

Values are often used to examine cultural variability. Yet, little research has focused on the functions that values fulfill and the implications of these functions for understanding cultural variability. This paper describes a theoretical analysis of the functions of values based on 2 widely accepted pan-cultural functions: values guide actions and express needs. The theoretical model proposes that the first function differentiates values according to the goals pursued (personal, central, or social goals), whereas the second function differentiates values according to the needs expressed (survival or thriving needs). A combination of these 2 functions yields 6 basic values (structural hypothesis) with specific marker values (content hypothesis). Support for the hypotheses was obtained in a large convenience national sample (N = 5,176) of Brazilian university students with confirmatory factor analysis and multidimensional scaling. Central values were located between personal and social values, and survival and thriving values separated into 2 regions. Theoretical and cross-cultural implications of the findings, especially the universality of the general structure of motivational aims, are discussed, along with interpretations of existing value scales from a functional perspective.

Highlights

Values are often used to examine cultural variability
Few attempts have been made to explicitly explain the underlying functional characteristics of this structure. Understanding these functional characteristics could help to explain why motivational aims are organized the way they are in the twodimensional structure across cultures
We considered several fit indexes of model fit (Byrne, 2001): the goodness-of-fit index (GFI), the comparative fit index (CFI), the root-mean-square error of approximation (RMSEA) and its corresponding 90% confidence interval (CI), and the standardized root mean square residual (SRMR)

Summary

Introduction

Little research has focused on the functions that values fulfill and the implications of these functions for understanding cultural variability. Theoretical and cross-cultural implications of the findings, especially the universality of the general structure of motivational aims, are discussed, along with interpretations of existing value scales from a functional perspective. Not directly testing cross-cultural predictions in this study, we believe that this theoretical model might prove useful in understanding cultural variability and in the design of future cross-cultural studies. This is so because the theoretical model presented provides an explicit discussion of the two-dimensional structure of the value system that has been shown to be cross-culturally robust. This paper contributes to the literature by providing additional evidence of a parsimonious and theory-driven model of the functions of values

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Conclusion