Values theory
The Schwartz theory of basic values
Shalom Schwartz reduced human motivation to ten values that recur in virtually every culture — and showed that they do not stand apart from one another, but lie in a circle where some values reinforce each other and others pull in opposite directions.
In short
The Schwartz theory of basic values distinguishes ten universal values — Self-direction, Stimulation, Hedonism, Achievement, Power, Security, Conformity, Tradition, Benevolence and Universalism — that together describe what motivates people. Each value stands for a motivational goal. The ten lie in a circle: values next to each other go together, values opposite each other conflict. The model has been tested in more than 80 countries since 1992 and was refined into nineteen values in 2012.
Where the model comes from
Social psychologist Shalom Schwartz published his theory in 1992, building on earlier work with Wolfgang Bilsky. The question he asked was not which values people ought to hold, but which values are recognisable in every society. His answer: values arise from three universal requirements of human existence — the needs of the individual, the demands of coordinated social life, and the survival of the group.
That derivation explains why there are exactly ten. Each value is an answer to one of those requirements. The model is therefore not a list someone compiled, but a structure that emerged from the data and has since been replicated in more than 80 countries.
The ten values, one by one
Self-direction
Independent thought and action
Choosing, creating and exploring on your own terms. This value grows out of the need for control over your own life and for autonomy. Those who score high tend to experience imposed frameworks as confining rather than as support.
Stimulation
Excitement, novelty and challenge
The need for variety and arousal to feel active and alive. Predictability works here not as a safe harbour but as a slow drain on energy.
Hedonism
Pleasure and sensuous gratification
Enjoyment for its own sake. In the circle, Hedonism sits on the boundary between openness and self-enhancement: it is about the self, but without the drive to perform that characterises Achievement and Power.
Achievement
Personal success through demonstrated competence
What counts here is not effort or intention but a result that meets a social standard and that others can see. Self-image and delivered performance become tightly interwoven under this value.
Power
Status, prestige and control
Control over people or resources, and the position that comes with it. Where Achievement is about proven ability, Power is about influence — whether earned or granted.
Security
Stability and harmony
Safety for yourself, those close to you and society at large. This value steers towards avoiding risk and preserving what works, even when that stands in the way of growth.
Conformity
Restraint of impulses that would harm others
Doing what is appropriate, not cutting across expectations. This is not obedience out of fear but an inner brake on behaviour that would disturb the social order.
Tradition
Respect for customs and beliefs
Loyalty to what your culture, family or religion passes on. Tradition and Conformity resemble each other, but Tradition attaches to abstract customs and beliefs, Conformity to the people around you.
Benevolence
The welfare of those close to you
Care, dependability and honesty towards the people you deal with regularly. The circle is small and concrete: your family, your friends, your team.
Universalism
The welfare of everyone and of nature
Understanding, tolerance and protection extended beyond your own circle. Where Benevolence is directed at those you know, Universalism is directed at those you will never meet.
The Schwartz value circle
The ten values do not sit in an arbitrary list but in a fixed order around a circle. That order is the heart of the theory: values next to each other spring from related motives and reinforce one another, values opposite each other demand incompatible things. The two dashed lines mark the axes along which that tension runs.
Higher-order categories
- Openness to change
- Hedonism (on the boundary)
- Self-enhancement
- Conservation
- Self-transcendence
The two axes of tension
- Openness to change ↔ Conservation
- Self-enhancement ↔ Self-transcendence
The four higher-order categories
The ten values group into four broader orientations, forming two opposing pairs. Hedonism belongs fully to neither: it lies on the boundary between Openness to change and Self-enhancement, and research accordingly assigns it to one or the other depending on the study.
→Openness to change(Self-direction, Stimulation) — Oriented towards your own course, new experiences and seeking out the unknown.
→Conservation(Security, Conformity, Tradition) — Oriented towards order, self-restraint and preserving what exists.
→Self-enhancement(Achievement, Power) — Oriented towards self-interest: success, status and control.
→Self-transcendence(Benevolence, Universalism) — Oriented towards the interests of others, from those close to you to the world at large.
Why you cannot want everything at once
The circular form has a consequence that is often skipped over: you cannot prioritise all ten values highly. Someone who puts Self-direction first almost always places Conformity lower — not out of inconsistency, but because the two ask opposite things of you. Steering your own course and adapting to what your environment expects cannot both lead in the same decision.
The same holds for Stimulation against Security, Power against Universalism, and Achievement against Benevolence. These are the four classic collisions in the model, and they explain why certain decisions can hang unresolved for years: every outcome satisfies one value at the expense of the other.
Setting priorities therefore inevitably means letting something go. The model describes this not as a shortcoming but as a structural feature of human motivation. Where it chafes, it chafes for everyone in the same places.
How are values measured?
Schwartz developed four instruments over thirty years. They measure the same model, but not in the same way — which is why scores from different sources cannot simply be placed side by side.
SVS (1992)
The Schwartz Value Survey: 57 values rated on their importance as a guiding principle in your life. Thorough, but cognitively demanding — you are comparing abstract concepts with one another.
PVQ-21 (2001)
Short portrait questionnaire, included in the European Social Survey since 2002 and therefore administered across dozens of countries. Two items per value, designed for large-scale population research.
PVQ-40 (2003)
Forty short portraits of people; for each portrait you indicate how much that person is like you. This indirect format dampens socially desirable answering. This is the version Innerscape uses.
PVQ-RR (2012)
The revised version with 57 portraits, built to measure the nineteen refined values separately. Finer grained, but longer and less comparable with older research.
From ten to nineteen values
In 2012 Schwartz and an international team published a refinement of the theory. On closer measurement, several of the original ten turned out to consist of two distinguishable motives. Power splits into dominance over people and control over resources; Universalism into concern for people, care for nature and tolerance for those who differ. Two values were also added that previously had no place of their own: Face and Humility.
Importantly, the circular structure held. The nineteen values lie in the same order as the ten they come from, only divided more finely. The refinement therefore does not replace the older model — it increases the resolution.
Self-direction — thought
Self-direction — action
Stimulation
Hedonism
Achievement
Power — dominance
Power — resources
Face
Security — personal
Security — societal
Tradition
Conformity — rules
Conformity — interpersonal
Humility
Benevolence — dependability
Benevolence — caring
Universalism — concern
Universalism — nature
Universalism — tolerance
Where the model runs into its limits
Values predict attitudes and preferences better than concrete behaviour. Someone who values Universalism highly votes noticeably in line with it — but whether that person also takes the train more often than the plane is far harder to read off the value profile. Anyone using the model to predict behaviour is asking more of it than it can deliver.
It also remains self-report. The portrait format of the PVQ dampens socially desirable answering because you compare yourself with someone else rather than judging yourself directly, but the effect does not disappear. And because people use the response scale differently, raw scores are not comparable across countries: researchers correct for this by centring scores around a respondent’s own mean.
Finally, the circular structure replicates widely, but the exact position of individual values shifts between samples. The order is robust, the precise distances less so.
Your own value profile
If you want to know how your ten values relate to one another, the Innerscape values test measures exactly that with the PVQ-40. You get no ranking from good to bad, but a profile: which motives come first for you, and which tensions follow logically from that.
Sources
Schwartz, S. H. (1992). Universals in the content and structure of values: Theoretical advances and empirical tests in 20 countries. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 25, 1–65.
Schwartz, S. H., Melech, G., Lehmann, A., Burgess, S., Harris, M., & Owens, V. (2001). Extending the cross-cultural validity of the theory of basic human values with a different method of measurement. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 32(5), 519–542.
Schwartz, S. H., Cieciuch, J., Vecchione, M., Davidov, E., Fischer, R., Beierlein, C., et al. (2012). Refining the theory of basic individual values. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 103(4), 663–688.
Written by Remco Volmer, founder of Innerscape.
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Frequently asked questions
What are the 10 Schwartz values?+
Self-direction, Stimulation, Hedonism, Achievement, Power, Security, Conformity, Tradition, Benevolence and Universalism. Each value stands for a motivational goal that recurs in virtually every culture studied.
What is the Schwartz value circle?+
A circle in which the ten values are arranged so that adjacent values reinforce one another and opposing values create tension. The order is not a ranking by importance — it shows which motives go together and which work against each other.
Are the Schwartz values universal?+
The content of the ten values recurs in more than 80 countries, and the circular structure replicates widely. Universal here means people everywhere recognise the same values — not that everyone weighs them equally. It is precisely the prioritisation that differs sharply between people and cultures.
What is the difference between values and norms?+
Values are personal motivators: what matters to you. Norms are social expectations: what your environment considers appropriate. Values come from within, norms from outside. Friction arises where the two do not coincide.
How many values does the refined theory have?+
Nineteen. In 2012 Schwartz and colleagues split the original ten values into nineteen more narrowly defined values, measured with the PVQ-RR. The circular structure remained intact.
What is the difference between the PVQ-40 and the PVQ-RR?+
The PVQ-40 measures the ten original values with 40 portrait descriptions. The PVQ-RR measures the nineteen refined values with 57 descriptions. The PVQ-40 is shorter and broadly comparable across studies; the PVQ-RR is finer grained.
Can you score high on two opposing values?+
You can, but it is rare and it costs you something. Someone who values both Stimulation and Security highly feels that tension in concrete choices: every adventure chips away at the stability. The model describes no flaw in you, but a structural feature of human motivation.