ANALYSIS OF INDIRECT AND DIFFERENTIAL CONNECTIONS AMONG PERSONAL VALUES

The present study describes ten personal values prioritized by men and women from two countries, and it explores the relationships between two opposing values, Achievement and Benevolence, specifying Stimulation as a mediator between them. It is examined whether such a mediation model could be further qualified by age and gender as moder-ators. The 40-item Portraits Values Questionnaire (PVQ), measuring ten basic values, was administered to 1,000 young adults from two countries. Gender and country differences between the ten values were computed, and hierar-chical regression methods were applied to explore mediation and moderation mechanisms among the three selected values and gender and age. Minor gender and country differences emerged for some of the ten basic values. An indi-rect relationship among the three selected values was identified. Stimulation was found to operate as a mediator be-tween achievement and benevolence. A conditional process model was established with gender moderating the Achievement – Stimulation path (men had a steeper slope than women), whereas age moderated the Stimulation – Benevolence path (younger individuals had a steeper slope than older ones). Gender also moderated the Achievement – Benevolence path (men had a steeper slope than women). For men, the association between achievement and stimu-lation values was stronger than that for women. For the younger persons, the association between stimulation and benevolence values was stronger than for older ones. For women, the level of benevolence was independent of their achievement level. The present analyses shed new light on indirect and differential associations among personal val-ues, adding a novel perspective to research on mechanisms involved in the basic values.