Po Ying Lee
Department of Finance Chao-Yang University of Technology
Many studies which on the relationship between values and other variables adapted Rokeach’s（1973） approach, which assumed that values are guiding principles across all situations, therefore, only the transituational importance of each values was measured in this approach. However, the relationship between values and the given variable can not be revealed directly. The comparisons between groups or correlation analyses were the only way to find out some values which can differentiate the given variable. Nevertheless, the relationship between these values and the given variable remained ambiguous and hard to be interpreted. To solve these problems, this study reviewed an valuation theory, proposed by Lee （1996）, which connects values with situations through valuations. It proposes that the relevant values are activated as reward or cost values in each specific situation, and a person’s attitude toward the situation is determined by the resultant trade-off importance of these two kind of activated values. According to this theory, the Rokeach Value Survey （Rokeach, 1973） and Schwartz’s （1987） value questionnaire were combined and modified to measure three valuation elements which included the activated status, affective status （as reward or cost values） and activated importance of a value. The measurement procedure was then applied to study British subjects’ valuations and attitudes about nuclear weapons and about abortion. The relationship between valuations and attitudes resulted from this study supported the valuation theory fully. Thus, this research provides a theoretical framework and a new way to investigate a person’s valuation about a situation and thereby many other value-related variables.
Keywords：human values, value system, valuation, value and attitude, Rokeach Value Survey