In the landscape of social psychology, few works have shaped the way we understand human motivation as profoundly as Milton Rokeach’s The Nature of Human Values . Published in 1973 by the Free Press, this book did more than simply list what people care about; it provided a structural framework for why people care about the things they do. By introducing the Rokeach Value Survey (RVS) and distinguishing between "instrumental" and "terminal" values, Rokeach offered a tool that bridged the gap between abstract philosophy and empirical social science.
Before 1973, values were often viewed as nebulous cultural norms or vague personality traits. Rokeach, however, defined a value as an enduring belief that a specific mode of conduct (means) or end-state of existence (ends) is personally and socially preferable.
The book is not light reading. It is dense with tables, statistical analyses, and the formal language of 1970s social psychology. But for anyone willing to do the work, it offers a return on investment that few psychology texts can match: a clear, usable framework for decoding yourself and the bewildering moral world around you.
—a hierarchy where beliefs are ranked by relative importance. www.emerald.com The Rokeach Value Typology
Values are influenced by culture, institutions, and personality.
The Nature of Human Values is available from Free Press (New York, 1973). For the modern reader, pair it with the original Rokeach Value Survey (freely available online) and take the test before you read the book. You may be surprised by what you rank at #1.
