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Abstract: The Rokeach Value Survey (RVS) has been thoroughly explored in the context of personality, behavior, social structure and both national and cross-cultural studies. However, different studies are not congruent in the interpretation of its inner structure. The current study examines the similarities and differences in value hierarchies and value structures between comparable groups of Japanese and Slovenian students using RVS. The results indicate a general similarity between the value systems and a similar underlying structure of values in all of the groups explored. Similarities with other value studies again prove convergences in research of value structures. Despite some conceptual difficulties and methodological dilemmas, RVS still shows relevance for value research, especially in the clear division of values into values as standards of behavior (instrumental values) and values as transcendental goals or ideals (terminal values). According to the results of the current study, standards are more culturally variable than goals or ideals.
Key words: values, value structure, Rokeach Value Survey, Japan, Slovenia
Values are the central element or basic unit of cultural or crosscultural research, in Rokeach's (1973) words ....the core concept across all the social sciences. (p. ix). According to Smith and Schwartz (1997), the value priorities of individuals represent central goals that relate to all aspects of behavior; they are directly in fluenced by everyday experiences in changing ecological and sociopolitical contexts; they are well suited to examining the ongoing processes of cultural and indi vidual change in response to historical and social changes; they can also be used to differentiate among the cultural and sub cultural groups that have emerged as hu man communities have evolved in differ ent directions in response to their unique experiences (pp. 7980).
Following a review of the literature, Schwartz and Bilsky (1987) defined values as ....a) concepts or beliefs, b) about desir able end states or behaviors, c) that tran scend specific situations, d) guide selection or evaluation of behavior and events, and e) are ordered by relative importance. (p. 551).
Schwartz and Bilsky (1987) also made some theoretical assumptions about the nature and source of values. Values are cognitive representations of three types of universal human requirements: biological ly based needs of the organism, social interactional requirements for interpersonal coordination, and social institutional...