Abstract
In Schwartz’s 21-item portrait values questionnaire (PVQ) each item consists of two statements which refer to a single underling value. In each of the 21 items the respondents are asked to give a single response to the two statements. Anecdotal evidence and cognitive response theory alert us to potential measurement error in this two-statements-single-response approach. Respondents might be influenced by different themes contained in the statements and their answers might not be comparable. This paper addresses the question: Do the responses to the 21 items in Schwartz’s PVQ (where each item contains two statements) differ significantly when two separate responses are allowed per item (in the split version) compared to when a single response is allowed (in the combined version)? In order to answer this research question we adopted an experimental design in a two-wave panel study. In the first wave we used Schwartz’s combined version of the PVQ. In the second wave we split the two statements and treated each statement as a separate item, thus requiring responses to each statement. Data was collected from Sociology classes at two universities: one in Austria (n = 52) and the other in South Africa (n = 61). We used statistical and non-statistical methods of analysis. The overall statistical assessment (z test) supports the split version although not all the various z test results unanimously concur. The non-statistical assessment does not support either the split version or the combined version. These mixed results necessitate further interrogation of the continued use of the combined version in the PVQ.
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Notes
Cieciuch et al. (2013) argue that a revised version, which has 19 more narrowly defined motivationally distinct values, has more heuristic power than the old ten values. This recently refined theory gave rise to a revised 57-item instrument that replicated the PVQ methodology (Cieciuch et al. 2013). This new development, which Cieciuch et al. (2013) call a “magnifying glass strategy”, was not available when we started our research and so we worked with the well established ten values and the 21-item PVQ. Furthermore, the shorter questionnaire was less taxing to complete in our two-wave panel experiment. In the future we could repeat our experiment using the refined theory, 19 values and the 57-item instrument.
Schwartz’s two-dimensional value space was developed in order to map empirical data based on Schwartz’s two-dimensional theoretical model.
Schwartz (2009) makes a clear reference to his starting configuration, but in other publications where the two-dimensional value space is computed the starting configuration is not always mentioned. We cannot confirm, therefore, that the same starting configuration is used consistently by Schwartz.
This method of counting the number of necessary moves to fit the theoretical model is taken from Schwartz’s 1994 publication (see Schwartz 1994). However, in other publications (e.g. Schwartz 1992) he does not refer to this method. Sometimes he refers to “deviations” rather than counted moves (see Schwartz 2009, Bilsky et al. 2011), but no detail is provided.
The z values for the combined version test the hypothesis that the number normalised moves for the combined version is smaller than the number of normalised moves for the split version. This hypothesis is the alternative of the hypothesis that the number of normalised moves for the split version is smaller than the number of normalised moves for the combined version. Mathematically speaking the z values for the combined version are the z values of the split version multiplied by −1.
Johann Bacher suggested the generalisation of Stouffer’s combined test.
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Acknowledgments
We wish to thank Johannes Kepler University and the Upper Austrian Government for hosting and financing one of the author’s visits to the University’s Institute for Sociology. We would also like to thank Professor Tim Dunne of the Department of Statistical Sciences at the University of Cape Town for his valuable comments on the final draft of this paper.
Compliance with ethical standards
Ethics approval for the study referred to in this paper was granted by the Humanities Faculty Ethics Committee at the University of Cape Town. Informed consent was obtained from each respondent who participated in the study.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest with respect to the research, authorship or publication of this article.
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Appendices
Appendix 1
See Table 7.
Appendix 2
2.1 Generalisation of Stouffer’s combined test
Stouffer (1949 quoted in Wolf 1986, p. 20) proposed the following combined test for summarising the results of n independent samplesFootnote 6
Stouffer’s combined test is based on the fact that the sum of standard normal distributed variables
has a normal distribution with mean
Because E(z i ) = 0 for standard normal distributed variables.
The variance is
because VAR(z i ) = 1 and COV (z i ,z j ) = COR (z i ,z j ) for standard normal distributed variables.
Assuming a constant correlation COV(z i ,z j ) = φ, the formula for the variance simplifies to
The random variable Z can be transformed in standard normal distributed variable z c be dividing Z with the standard deviation
z c is a generalisation of Stouffer’s formula. Stouffer assumes independent measures. This implies that the correlation φ = 0. The variance of Z becomes \( VAR(Z) = n + n \times (n - 1) \times 0 = n \) and results in Stouffer’s original proposal for z c
In the case of perfect dependency (φ = 1), z c is the average of the individual z statistics:
because \( VAR(Z) = n + n \times (n - 1) \times 1 = n^{2} . \)
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de Wet, J.P., Bacher, J. & Wetzelhütter, D. Towards greater validity in Schwartz’s portrait values indicator using experimental research. Qual Quant 50, 1567–1587 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-015-0221-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-015-0221-1