Understanding Your Values Assessment
What the Values Survey Measures
The values assessment is based on the Portrait Values Questionnaire — Revised (PVQ-RR), developed by Shalom Schwartz and colleagues. It measures 19 basic human values — the motivational goals that guide your decisions, shape your priorities, and define what you consider important in life.
Unlike personality traits, which describe how you behave, values describe what you care about. They are the standards by which you evaluate your own actions and the actions of others.
All scales are reported on a 0–50 scale, with percentiles comparing your score to a reference population.
How the Values Dashboard Is Organized
The dashboard groups the 19 basic values under 4 higher-order value groups, plus an Other Values section for two values that don't fit cleanly into any single group:
- Openness to Change — Self-Direction (Thought, Action), Stimulation, Hedonism.
- Self-Transcendence — Universalism (Nature, Concern, Tolerance), Benevolence (Caring, Dependability).
- Conservation — Security (Societal, Personal), Conformity (Rules, Interpersonal), Tradition.
- Self-Enhancement — Achievement, Power (Resources, Dominance).
- Other Values — Humility, Face.
Each higher-order group is displayed as a gauge card with a percentile interpretation, expanded by segmented score rows for the basic values inside it.
Higher-Order Value Groups
Openness to Change
Belief in the importance of goals relating to the exploration and development of one's own ideas, and to new and exciting experiences generally. Captures autonomy, novelty, and following your own path.
Includes: Self-Direction — Thought, Self-Direction — Action, Stimulation, Hedonism.
Self-Transcendence
Belief in the importance of goals relating to the welfare of others and the welfare of the world around us. Captures care for those beyond your immediate circle.
Includes: Universalism — Nature, Universalism — Concern, Universalism — Tolerance, Benevolence — Caring, Benevolence — Dependability.
Conservation
Belief in the importance of goals relating to safety and security, the preservation of cultural and religious traditions, and conformity with social expectations. Captures stability, order, and continuity.
Includes: Security — Societal, Security — Personal, Conformity — Rules, Conformity — Interpersonal, Tradition.
Self-Enhancement
Belief in the importance of goals relating to the pursuit of personal success, competence, prestige, or power. Captures status and personal advancement.
Includes: Achievement, Power — Resources, Power — Dominance.
Other Values
Two basic values that the dashboard displays outside the four higher-order groups:
- Humility
- Face
In the canonical Schwartz circumplex, Humility sits between Self-Transcendence and Conservation, and Face sits between Self-Enhancement and Conservation. Because each blends two adjacent groups, the dashboard reports them separately.
The 19 Basic Values
Openness to Change group
Self-Direction — Thought
Belief in the importance of independence in pursuing ideas and developing one's abilities or passions. High scorers are curious, autonomous thinkers who resist intellectual conformity.
Self-Direction — Action
Belief in the importance of independence, especially in being free to choose how to act or behave. High scorers prioritise autonomy in how they spend their time and make daily choices.
Stimulation
Belief that it's important to embrace challenges in life and pursue novel experiences. High scorers seek out variety, risk, and the thrill of the unfamiliar.
Hedonism
Belief in the importance of prioritising pursuits that feel good and are gratifying. High scorers value enjoying themselves and satisfying physical and emotional desires.
Self-Transcendence group
Universalism — Nature
Belief in the importance of preserving the natural environment. High scorers care about sustainability and the relationship between humans and the natural world.
Universalism — Concern
Belief that it is important to be committed to justice, protection, and equality for all. High scorers are motivated by fairness and reducing inequality.
Universalism — Tolerance
Belief that it is important to understand and accept those who are different from oneself. High scorers embrace difference and reject ethnocentrism.
Benevolence — Caring
Belief in the importance of being devoted to the welfare of others, especially close family and friends. High scorers are loyal and motivated by the wellbeing of their inner circle.
Benevolence — Dependability
Belief in the importance of being dependable and trustworthy. High scorers believe it is important to be someone others can count on.
Conservation group
Security — Societal
Belief that safety and security at the societal level are important priorities. High scorers care about stable institutions, law and order, and predictable social structures.
Security — Personal
Belief that it is important to prioritise the security of one's immediate, personal environment. High scorers prioritise protecting themselves and those close to them from harm.
Conformity — Rules
Belief that it's important to comply with laws, rules, and formal obligations. High scorers believe it is important to follow rules even when no one is watching.
Conformity — Interpersonal
Belief that it is important to avoid actions or impulses that may harm or upset others. High scorers prioritise social harmony in their interactions.
Tradition
Belief in the importance of maintaining familial, cultural, and religious traditions. High scorers observe traditional practices and accept the role they were born into.
Self-Enhancement group
Achievement
Belief that it's important to pursue goals that demonstrate competence. High scorers are ambitious, motivated by accomplishment, and care about being recognised as capable.
Power — Resources
Belief that it's important to gain and maintain control over resources. High scorers see material possessions and financial security as central to their sense of wellbeing.
Power — Dominance
Belief that it's important to have power or control over other people. High scorers want to be in charge and exert influence over others.
Other Values
Humility
Belief in the importance of recognising one's relative insignificance among all things. High scorers do not seek to stand out, believe everyone deserves equal respect, and avoid drawing attention to their achievements.
Face
Belief in the importance of maintaining one's image among other people. High scorers care deeply about how they are perceived and about protecting their reputation.
The Values Circumplex
The values form a circular structure (a circumplex) where adjacent values share underlying motivations, and opposite values represent competing priorities. The four higher-order groups themselves form two axes of tension:
- Openness to Change ↔ Conservation — Pursuing novelty and autonomy conflicts with maintaining stability and order.
- Self-Transcendence ↔ Self-Enhancement — Concern for others conflicts with pursuit of personal success and control.
Examples of tensions between specific basic values:
- Achievement and Benevolence — success for yourself can conflict with caring for others.
- Stimulation and Security — seeking novelty conflicts with maintaining safety and order.
- Power — Dominance and Universalism — Concern — controlling others conflicts with seeking equality.
Understanding where your highest and lowest values fall in this structure helps explain patterns in your decisions and the kinds of internal conflicts you experience.
Score Interpretation
Scores reflect how important each value is to you relative to the others and compared to the reference population. A high score on Achievement does not mean you are always ambitious — it means that, across a range of situations, this value tends to guide your thinking more than it does for the average person.
Percentiles compare your score to the reference sample. A percentile of 85 on Universalism — Concern means you place more importance on this value than 85% of reference respondents.
Values and Behaviour
Values are motivations, not guarantees of behaviour. Behaviour also depends on context, habits, and capability. Someone who highly values Conformity may still break rules when their Security or Benevolence values feel more urgently at stake.
Values are most useful for understanding why you make the choices you do, and for spotting tensions when two things you care deeply about pull in opposite directions.
Source
Schwartz, S. H., & Cieciuch, J. (2022). Measuring the Refined Theory of Individual Values in 49 Cultural Groups: Psychometrics of the Revised Portrait Value Questionnaire. Assessment, 29(5), 1005–1019. https://doi.org/10.1177/1073191121998760