1. Agentic and communal values: their scope and measurement.
- Author
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Trapnell PD and Paulhus DL
- Subjects
- Adolescent, Adult, Female, Humans, Interpersonal Relations, Male, Psychometrics, Reproducibility of Results, Surveys and Questionnaires, Goals, Personality, Self Concept, Self Efficacy, Social Values
- Abstract
Agency is the meta-concept associated with self-advancement in social hierarchies; communion is the partner concept associated with maintenance of positive relationships. Despite the wealth of data documenting the conceptual utility of agency and communion (A & C) as superordinate metaconcepts, no direct measures of global A & C value dimensions are currently available. The first part of this article presents structural analyses of data from 4 diverse data sets (3 archival and 1 new): Each included a broad inventory of values or life goals. All 4 data sets revealed higher order A & C dimensions that were either apparent or implicit. The second part details the development of the ACV, a 24-item questionnaire measuring global A and C values, and documents its psychometric properties. Four studies support their joint construct validity by positioning the value measures within a nomological network of interpersonal traits, self-favorability biases, ideology dimensions, gender, socio-sexuality, and religious attitudes. Potential applications of the new instrument are discussed.
- Published
- 2012
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