Exploring the Complicated Relationship Between Values and Behaviour

Abstract

Research on values conducted worldwide and based to a large extent on Schwartz’s model has produced some well-established conclusions about value structure and preferences. The knowledge about values can be a point of departure for the research on value-behaviour relations. In such studies two intuitive assumptions are usually made: (1) the unity of values and motivation (because of the motivational content of values) and (2) the separation of values and behaviour (because of the influence of values on behaviour). In this chapter, another possibility is described and considered: (1) the separation of values and motivation and (2) the partial unity of value preferences and behaviour. This proposal, on one hand, is compatible with current research and Schwartz’s model of values, and on the other hand, opens some new possibilities for theoretical conceptualization and empirical research on value-behaviour relations.