Measuring the Four Higher-Order Values in Schwartz's Theory: Validation of a 17-Item Inventory.

Schwartz's theory of basic human values is the dominant framework for assessing values. One of its strengths is that it allows for different levels of analysis. The 10 basic values can be reliably assigned to four higher-order dimensions: Openness to Change, Conservation, Self-Transcendence, and Self-Enhancement. In this paper, we examined the psychometric properties of the Higher-Order-Value Scale-17 (HOVS17), an inventory that economically assesses these higher-order values. We analyzed data from the GESIS Panel, an ongoing large-scale probability-based panel study that fields HOVS17 annually since 2013 and for which HOVS17 was originally developed. We found HOVS17 to have satisfactory psychometric properties. The 17 items were located in the two-dimensional multi-dimensional scaling (MDS) space as hypothesized. All four subscales were unidimensional, showed good fit when modeled as reflective latent variables, and had acceptable reliabilities as well as one-year test-retest stabilities (.65 to .69). The subscales correlated in theoretically plausible ways with a wide range of correlates and criteria, such as personality traits and well-being. This demonstrates that HOVS17 provides a sound basis for studying the development, precursors, and consequences of the higher-order values in the GESIS Panel and in future surveys that adopt HOVS17. We also discuss suggestions for further improvements of the inventory.

One and the same? How similar are basic human values and economic preferences.

Both the basic human values approach and the economic preference approach have been developed and applied to represent fundamental drivers of human behavior in various domains by measuring people's underlying preferences and motivations. Both of them have been used, however, in isolation from each other, the former primarily in social psychology studies and the latter mainly in economic studies. But how similar are they? Finding that they differ may suggest that combining them to explain human behavior might be beneficial. To the best of our knowledge, only a few studies have attempted to explore and empirically examine the theoretical and empirical link between variables in both approaches. The current study tries to fill this gap by examining relations between basic human values and major economic preferences. We examine the associations between the values of self-transcendence, self-enhancement, openness to change and conservation, and the economic preferences of risk aversion (or seeking), altruism, trust, and positive and negative reciprocity. We propose mechanisms as to how they may be associated with one another. For example, we expect an association between conservation and risk aversion as both are motivated by attributing importance to stability and the status quo, or between self-transcendence and altruism, as both are motivated by concern for others. For the empirical analysis we employed convenience samples collected in Poland and Germany. Results in both samples support our expectations: several values and economic preferences are linked in theoretically predictable ways, but only to a weak or moderate extent. We conclude that they are not mutually exclusive but may rather be complementary, and therefore likely both relevant for investigations into explaining behavior.

Stigmatization in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic: a survey experiment using attribution theory and the familiarity hypothesis.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has created a global health crisis, leading to stigmatization and discriminatory behaviors against people who have contracted or are suspected of having contracted the virus. Yet the causes of stigmatization in the context of COVID-19 remain only partially understood. Using attribution theory, we examine to what extent attributes of a fictitious person affect the formation of stigmatizing attitudes towards this person, and whether suspected COVID-19 infection (vs. flu) intensifies such attitudes. We also use the familiarity hypothesis to explore whether familiarity with COVID-19 reduces stigma and whether it moderates the effect of a COVID-19 infection on stigmatization. METHODS: We conducted a multifactorial vignette survey experiment (28-design, i.e., NVignettes = 256) in Germany (NRespondents = 4,059) in which we experimentally varied signals and signaling events (i.e., information that may trigger stigma) concerning a fictitious person in the context of COVID-19. We assessed respondents' cognitive (e.g., blameworthiness) and affective (e.g., anger) responses as well as their discriminatory inclinations (e.g., avoidance) towards the character. Furthermore, we measured different indicators of respondents' familiarity with COVID-19. RESULTS: Results revealed higher levels of stigma towards people who were diagnosed with COVID-19 versus a regular flu. In addition, stigma was higher towards those who were considered responsible for their infection due to irresponsible behavior. Knowing someone who died from a COVID infection increased stigma. While higher self-reported knowledge about COVID-19 was associated with more stigma, higher factual knowledge was associated with less. CONCLUSION: Attribution theory and to a lesser extent the familiarity hypothesis can help better understand stigma in the context of COVID-19. This study provides insights about who is at risk of stigmatization and stigmatizing others in this context. It thereby allows identifying the groups that require more support in accessing healthcare services and suggests that basic, factually oriented public health interventions would be promising for reducing stigma.

Measurement invariance in the social sciences: Historical development, methodological challenges, state of the art, and future perspectives.

This review summarizes the current state of the art of statistical and (survey) methodological research on measurement (non)invariance, which is considered a core challenge for the comparative social sciences. After outlining the historical roots, conceptual details, and standard procedures for measurement invariance testing, the paper focuses in particular on the statistical developments that have been achieved in the last 10 years. These include Bayesian approximate measurement invariance, the alignment method, measurement invariance testing within the multilevel modeling framework, mixture multigroup factor analysis, the measurement invariance explorer, and the response shift-true change decomposition approach. Furthermore, the contribution of survey methodological research to the construction of invariant measurement instruments is explicitly addressed and highlighted, including the issues of design decisions, pretesting, scale adoption, and translation. The paper ends with an outlook on future research perspectives.

Vaccination against COVID-19 reduces virus-related fears: Findings from a German longitudinal study.

During the recent pandemic, fear of COVID-19 has been widespread and is considered to deteriorate mental health. We assessed whether vaccination can effectively reduce the fear of COVID-19 and, thus, contribute to improving people's mental health status. We used two-wave panel data from a German online study collected in April 2021 (t1) and August/September 2021 (t2) and estimated differences-in-differences to determine whether those who were vaccinated against COVID-19 experienced a reduction of fear of COVID-19, and whether the reduction was more evident as compared to people who were not vaccinated for various reasons. Fear of COVID-19 generally decreased between t1 and t2 for all respondents. Moreover, reduction of fear for people who were unvaccinated at t1 but received the vaccine between t1 and t2 was strongest as compared to people who did not get vaccinated during that period, even after we controlled for factors associated with fear (e.g., age, gender). Vaccination reduced fear of COVID-19 beyond some seasonal fluctuation and, therefore, we argue that vaccination partially reduces the psychological distress caused by the pandemic. We recommend that scientists, practitioners, and politicians highlight this additional positive effect of vaccination in health communication.

Correlates of COVID-19 vaccination intentions: Attitudes, institutional trust, fear, conspiracy beliefs, and vaccine skepticism.

Successful campaigns to combat the COVID-19 pandemic depend, in part, on people's willingness to be vaccinated. It is therefore critical to understand the factors that determine people's vaccination intentions. We applied a reasoned action approach - the theory of planned behavior - to explore these factors. We used data from an online survey of adults (18-74 years; n = 5044) conducted in Germany between April 9 and April 28, 2021 and found that attitudes toward getting vaccinated predicted vaccination intentions, while normative and control beliefs did not. In turn, positive attitudes toward getting vaccinated were supported by trust in science and fear of COVID-19 whereas negative attitudes were associated with acceptance of conspiracy theories and skepticism regarding vaccines in general. We advise policymakers, physicians, and health care providers to address vaccination hesitancy by emphasizing factors that support positive attitudes toward getting vaccinated, such as prevention of serious illness, death, and long-term health detriments, as opposed to exerting social pressure or pointing to the ease of getting vaccinated.

The Comparability of Perceived Physical and Mental Health Measures Across Immigrants and Natives in the United States.

The comparative study of perceived physical and mental health in general-and the comparative study of health between the native-born and immigrants, in particular-requires that the groups understand survey questions inquiring about their health in the same way and display similar response patterns. After all, observed differences in perceived health may not reflect true differences but rather cultural bias in the health measures. Research on cross-country measurement equivalence between immigrants and natives on self-reported health measures has received very limited attention to date, resulting in a growing demand for the validation of existing perceived health measures using samples of natives and immigrants and establishing measurement equivalence of health-related assessment tools. This study, therefore, aims to examine measurement equivalence of self-reported physical and mental health indicators between immigrants and natives in the United States. Using pooled data from the 2015-2017 IPUMS Health Surveys, we examine the cross-group measurement equivalence properties of five concepts that are measured by multiple indicators: (1) perceived limitations in activities of daily life; (2) self-reported disability; (3) perceived functional limitations; (4) perceived financial stress; and (5) nonspecific psychological distress. Furthermore, we examine the comparability of these data among respondents of different ethnoracial origins and from different regions of birth, who report few versus many years since migration, their age, gender, and the language used to respond to the interview (e.g., English vs. Spanish). We test for measurement equivalence using multigroup confirmatory factor analysis. The results reveal that health scales are comparable across the examined groups. This finding allows drawing meaningful conclusions about similarities and differences among natives and immigrants on measures of perceived health in these data.

Explaining voting in the UK's 2016 EU referendum: Values, attitudes to immigration, European identity and political trust.

We consider the role of values as determinants of voting in the UK's 2016 EU referendum. First, we consider and clarify 'values' conceptually, before proceeding to utilise Schwartz's basic human values as the most appropriate. Second, we theorise how these basic human values determine both voting in the referendum as well as three of the most consistently demonstrated determinants of voting in that referendum: attitudes to immigration, identifying as European and trust in politicians. Finally, we demonstrate that this psychological theoretical framework effectively predicts voting behaviour in the referendum using multigroup structural equation modelling. Overall, we show that voting dynamics in the referendum are likely to reflect deeper, more personal psychological predispositions than those captured by existing explanations. In doing so, we make an original contribution to the literature on political psychology related to Brexit, Euroscepticism, political attitudes and electoral behaviour.

Stability and change of basic personal values in early adolescence: A 2-year longitudinal study.

OBJECTIVE: We examined patterns of change and stability in the whole set of 10 Schwartz values over 2 years during early adolescence. METHOD: Participants completed the Portrait Values Questionnaire repeatedly throughout the junior high school years. The study involved six waves of data and a total of 382 respondents aged 10 years at the first measurement occasion (43% female). We investigated multiple types of stability in the values: mean-level, rank-order, and ipsative stability. RESULTS: At the mean-level, self-enhancement, and Openness to change values increased in importance. Self-direction and hedonism values showed the greatest increase-about one-third of a standard deviation. Conservation and self-transcendence values did not change with the exception of tradition, which decreased slightly. After correcting for measurement error, rank-order stability coefficients ranged from .39 (hedonism) to .77 (power). Correlations between value hierarchies measured 2 years apart were ≥.85 for 75% of respondents, and ≤.12 for 5% of the respondents. Thus only a small proportion of participants experienced a marked change in the relative importance they ascribed to the 10 values. CONCLUSIONS: Results are discussed and related to earlier findings on patterns and magnitude of value change during other periods of the life span.

Behavioral Signatures of Values in Everyday Behavior in Retrospective and Real-Time Self-Reports.

We identified behavioral signatures of the values distinguished in the Schwartz et al. refined value theory (2012). We examined behavioral signatures for two types of values, value states and value traits. We conducted two studies using innovative approaches. Study 1 used retrospective self-reports whereas Study 2 used self-reports in real time. In Study 1 (N = 703), we sought act frequency signatures of the 19 basic value traits that the Portrait Value Questionnaire-Revised (Schwartz, 2017) measures. We examined the frequency of 209 acts from the Oregon Avocational Interest Scales (Goldberg, 2010) for which there were no expectations that values would necessarily influence them. We computed partial correlations between each behavioral act and each value. We discuss the theoretical links to each value of the 10 behavioral acts that correlated most highly with it. Study 2 analyzed 9,416 behavioral acts of 374 participants. We measured value expressions in current behavior, i.e., value states, using experience sampling methodology (ESM). We asked participants 7 times per day for 7 days what they had been doing during the past 15 min and how important 9 different values from the Schwartz's refined value theory were to them during that activity. Because the questions about activities were open-ended, the set of behavioral acts analyzed in Study 2 was theoretically unlimited. To find signatures of values in behavior, we identified the activities during which participants reported the highest level of importance for each value. Both studies revealed meaningful associations between values and daily behavior.

Values, Attitudes Toward Interpersonal Violence, and Interpersonal Violent Behavior.

The relevance of human values for the study of the motivational sources of interpersonal violent behavior was investigated in various fields of the social sciences. However, several past studies mixed up values with other dimensions like attitudes, norms, or beliefs, and only a few systematically assessed the effect of values on violent behavior relying on a value theory. Furthermore, in other studies, violence was often analyzed as a composite index of different forms of delinquent behavior rather than as violence per se. In the current study we address these gaps in the literature by building upon Schwartz' theory of basic human values. We use it to explain attitudes toward interpersonal violence and interpersonal violent behavior. We analyze data of young people (n = 1,810) drawn from a German study in Duisburg, Germany, which assessed various types of self-reported violent behavior as well as values and attitudes toward violence. We test structural equation models in which we explain interpersonal violent behavior with basic human values, and where attitudes toward interpersonal violent behavior mediate this relation. Results show that self-transcendence and conservation values are associated negatively and power and stimulation values positively with interpersonal violent behavior. In addition, attitudes operate as a partial mediator for the former and as a full mediator for the latter in the relation between values and violent behavior. Despite a dominant association between attitudes and behavior, values themselves can significantly contribute to the explanation of violent behavior.

Universalism, conservation and attitudes toward minority groups.

Findings from previous studies corroborate the hypothesis that universalism and conservation values are associated with negative attitudes toward immigration. In the current study we examine whether universalism and conservation values also play a critical role in the explanation of attitudes toward other minority groups. Drawing on previous research on group-focused enmity, we explore its relations with universalism and conservation values in a German sample. Employing structural equation modeling, we find that individuals who prioritize universalism values approve of various minorities more whereas those who prioritize conservation values exhibit more disapproval.

The comparability of the universalism value over time and across countries in the European Social Survey: exact vs. approximate measurement invariance.

Over the last decades, large international datasets such as the European Social Survey (ESS), the European Value Study (EVS) and the World Value Survey (WVS) have been collected to compare value means over multiple time points and across many countries. Yet analyzing comparative survey data requires the fulfillment of specific assumptions, i.e., that these values are comparable over time and across countries. Given the large number of groups that can be compared in repeated cross-national datasets, establishing measurement invariance has been, however, considered unrealistic. Indeed, studies which did assess it often failed to establish higher levels of invariance such as scalar invariance. In this paper we first introduce the newly developed approximate approach based on Bayesian structural equation modeling (BSEM) to assess cross-group invariance over countries and time points and contrast the findings with the results from the traditional exact measurement invariance test. BSEM examines whether measurement parameters are approximately (rather than exactly) invariant. We apply BSEM to a subset of items measuring the universalism value from the Portrait Values Questionnaire (PVQ) in the ESS. The invariance of this value is tested simultaneously across 15 ESS countries over six ESS rounds with 173,071 respondents and 90 groups in total. Whereas, the use of the traditional approach only legitimates the comparison of latent means of 37 groups, the Bayesian procedure allows the latent mean comparison of 73 groups. Thus, our empirical application demonstrates for the first time the BSEM test procedure on a particularly large set of groups.

Comparing results of an exact vs. an approximate (Bayesian) measurement invariance test: a cross-country illustration with a scale to measure 19 human values.

One of the most frequently used procedures for measurement invariance testing is the multigroup confirmatory factor analysis (MGCFA). Muthén and Asparouhov recently proposed a new approach to test for approximate rather than exact measurement invariance using Bayesian MGCFA. Approximate measurement invariance permits small differences between parameters otherwise constrained to be equal in the classical exact approach. However, extant knowledge about how results of approximate measurement invariance tests compare to the results of the exact measurement invariance test is missing. We address this gap by comparing the results of exact and approximate cross-country measurement invariance tests of a revised scale to measure human values. Several studies that measured basic human values with the Portrait Values Questionnaire (PVQ) reported problems of measurement noninvariance (especially scalar noninvariance) across countries. Recently Schwartz et al. proposed a refined value theory and an instrument (PVQ-5X) to measure 19 more narrowly defined values. Cieciuch et al. tested its measurement invariance properties across eight countries and established exact scalar measurement invariance for 10 of the 19 values. The current study applied the approximate measurement invariance procedure on the same data and established approximate scalar measurement invariance even for all 19 values. Thus, the first conclusion is that the approximate approach provides more encouraging results for the usefulness of the scale for cross-cultural research, although this finding needs to be generalized and validated in future research using population data. The second conclusion is that the approximate measurement invariance is more likely than the exact approach to establish measurement invariance, although further simulation studies are needed to determine more precise recommendations about how large the permissible variance of the priors may be.

Immigrant Integration policies and perceived Group Threat: A Multilevel Study of 27 Western and Eastern European Countries.

Although immigrant integration policies have long been hypothesized to be associated with majority members' anti-immigrant sentiments, systematic empirical research exploring this relationship is largely absent. To address this gap in the literature, the present research takes a cross-national perspective. Drawing from theory and research on group conflict and intergroup norms, we conduct two studies to examine whether preexisting integration policies that are more permissive promote or impede majority group members' subsequent negative attitudes regarding immigrants. For several Western and Eastern European countries, we link country-level information on immigrant integration policies from 2006 with individual-level survey data from the Eurobarometer 71.3 collected in 2009 (Study 1) and from the fourth wave of the European Value Study collected between 2008 and 2009 (Study 2). For both studies, the results from multilevel regression models demonstrate that immigrant integration policies that are more permissive are associated with decreased perceptions of group threat from immigrants. These findings suggest that immigrant integration policies are of key importance in improving majority members' attitudes regarding immigrants, which is widely considered desirable in modern immigrant-receiving societies.

Refining the theory of basic individual values.

We propose a refined theory of basic individual values intended to provide greater heuristic and explanatory power than the original theory of 10 values (Schwartz, 1992). The refined theory more accurately expresses the central assumption of the original theory that research has largely ignored: Values form a circular motivational continuum. The theory defines and orders 19 values on the continuum based on their compatible and conflicting motivations, expression of self-protection versus growth, and personal versus social focus. We assess the theory with a new instrument in 15 samples from 10 countries (N = 6,059). Confirmatory factor and multidimensional scaling analyses support discrimination of the 19 values, confirming the refined theory. Multidimensional scaling analyses largely support the predicted motivational order of the values. Analyses of predictive validity demonstrate that the refined values theory provides greater and more precise insight into the value underpinnings of beliefs. Each value correlates uniquely with external variables.

An SEM approach to continuous time modeling of panel data: relating authoritarianism and anomia.

Panel studies, in which the same subjects are repeatedly observed at multiple time points, are among the most popular longitudinal designs in psychology. Meanwhile, there exists a wide range of different methods to analyze such data, with autoregressive and cross-lagged models being 2 of the most well known representatives. Unfortunately, in these models time is only considered implicitly, making it difficult to account for unequally spaced measurement occasions or to compare parameter estimates across studies that are based on different time intervals. Stochastic differential equations offer a solution to this problem by relating the discrete time model to its underlying model in continuous time. It is the goal of the present article to introduce this approach to a broader psychological audience. A step-by-step review of the relationship between discrete and continuous time modeling is provided, and we demonstrate how continuous time parameters can be obtained via structural equation modeling. An empirical example on the relationship between authoritarianism and anomia is used to illustrate the approach.

Changing attitudes toward immigration in Europe, 2002-2007: a dynamic group conflict theory approach.

Anti-immigration attitudes and its origins have been investigated quite extensively. Research that focuses on the evolution of attitudes toward immigration, however, is far more scarce. In this paper, we use data from the first three rounds of the European Social Survey (ESS) to study the trend of anti-immigration attitudes between 2002 and 2007 in 17 European countries. In the first part of the paper, we discuss the critical legitimacy for comparing latent variable means over countries and time. A Multiple-Group Multiple Indicator Structural Equation Modeling (MGSEM) approach is used to test the cross-country and cross-time equivalence of the variables under study. In a second step, we try to offer an explanation for the observed trends using a dynamic version of group conflict theory. The country-specific evolutions in attitudes toward immigration are shown to coincide with national context factors, such as immigration flows and changes in unemployment rates.

Mortality communication as a predictor of psychological distress among family caregivers of home hospice and hospital inpatients with terminal cancer.

Terminally ill cancer patients and their caregivers experience significant difficulties discussing illness and impending death (herein defined as mortality communication). The current study compares response levels as well as patterns of association between mortality communication and psychological distress among caregivers of home hospice and hospital inpatients. For this study, 231 family caregivers were recruited within a year of bereavement from the south and central health regions of Israel. Contrary to our initial hypothesis, retrospectively reported levels of mortality communication did not differ between groups; however, lower levels of depressive symptomatology were reported by home hospice caregivers. Separate path analytic models indicate statistically significant inverse associations between mortality communication and psychological distress (i.e. depressive symptomatology, emotional exhaustion). Invariance analyses indicate that the strength of association between variables did not differ between path models. The results of this study are discussed in terms of self-selection biases and possible confounds associated with retrospective reporting among bereaved caregivers.

Diabetic retinopathy and health-related quality of life.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the impact of co-morbidities, visual acuity, diabetic retinopathy (DR) grade, and macular edema (ME) on the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) among patients with diabetic retinopathy. METHODS: Analysis of data of 207 patients with diabetic retinopathy from Germany in 2003. HRQOL assessment was done using the generic (SF-12) questionnaire. It was hypothesized that exogenous variables (co-morbidities, visual acuity impairment, DR, and ME) would have an impact on HRQOL. Using a structural equation modelling procedure, the effects of exogenous variables on endogenous variables physical component summaries (PSC) and mental component summaries (MCS) reflecting HRQOL were tested. RESULTS: The number of co-morbidities had a negative effect on visual acuity (b = -0.26, standardized) and a similar negative effect on PCS (b = -0.27). DR grade had a negative effect on visual acuity (b = -0.19) and a positive effect on the variable ME (b = 0.44). ME displayed a negative effect on visual acuity (b = -0.58) and also on MCS (b = -0.29). Visual acuity had a positive effect (b = 0.48) on PCS. CONCLUSIONS: Presence of DR and ME, visual acuity impairment and patient co-morbidities lead to significant impairment of both the physical and mental components of HRQOL.