A Brief Inventory of Values

Abstract

The authors present a brief inventory derived from Schwartz's 56-item instrument measuring the structure and content of human values. The inventory's four 3-item scales, measuring the major clusters called Self-Transcendence, Self-Enhancement, Openness to Change, and Conservation (or Traditional) values, all produce scores with acceptable reliability in two studies of pro-environmental attitudes and actions, and the brief inventory predicts those indicators nearly as well as much longer ones. The authors also present subscales of biospheric and altruistic values that can be used to assess whether Self-Transcendence values are differentiated in this way in special samples such as environmental activists. The brief inventory is suitable for use in survey research and other settings in which the longer instrument might be impractical.