Schwartz Value Clusters in Modern University Students

Abstract

People differ in their value hierarchies, i.e., in the importance they attach to basic personal values. A large number of studies were performed to establish similarities and differences between national, ethnic, or professional groups in terms of Schwartz's values structure. In addition to this sample-level approach, we found it useful to disclose a number of subgroups within those larger social groups, which are more homogeneous in themselves and reflect the individual-level types of personal values systems. The study was performed on university students (n = 1237) who were asked to fill in the SVS и PVQ Schwartz's questionnaires. The sample was then treated with the K-means cluster analysis, which resulted in the division of the initial sample into three subgroups or clusters according to their values hierarchy being measured separately at the (1) Normative Ideals scale and (2) the scale of Behavioral Priorities. These clusters were equally common among male and female students, but they were unequally found in young people coming from different ethnic groups and regions, demonstrating the role of socio-cultural environment in building up personal values. The results may extend our capabilities for the prediction of the social, economic, and political behavior of the younger generation.

Keywords: personal values; values clusters; values hierarchy.

Figure 1

Ordinal diagram of the distribution of variables obtained from the Schwartz Value Survey (SVS) and Portrait Values Questionnaire (PVQ) projection on two principal components, three cluster solution.

Figure 2

GAP statistics graph for selecting the optimal number of clusters.

Figure 3

Schwartz Value Clusters in students (n = 1237). The items 1–10 indicate the importance of the 10 personal values on the normative ideals (NI) scale measured by the SVS, while the items 11–20 show the rate of the same 10 values on the scale of behavioral priorities (BP) measured by the PVQ.

Figure 4

Occurrence of value clusters in different ethnic groups. Cluster abbreviations: TrU—Traditionalist–Universalist type, TrC—Traditionalist–Conformist type, SuS—Social Superiority Seekers type. Ethnicity abbreviations: Rus—Russian students, Bur—Buryat students, Ukr—Ukrainian students, oth—other ethnic groups.

Figure 5

Occurrence of value clusters in different geographical regions. Region of residence abbreviations: FE—Far East of Russia, Sib—Siberian region, CR—Central Russia, Uk—Ukraine.