Analyzing the correlational structure of value-systems by means of open ended questions / 19

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1 Analyzing the correlational structure of value-systems by means of open ended questions ESRA 5 th conference of the European Survey Research Association Florian Bader Zeppelin University Friedrichshafen Chair for Political Science 17 July 2013 Analyzing the correlational structure of value-systems by means of open ended questions / 19

2 Agenda 1 Introduction 2 Data 3 Frequency distributions 4 Correlational structure 5 Mental structure 6 Discussion Analyzing the correlational structure of value-systems by means of open ended questions / 19

3 Introduction Values deeply rooted prospective beliefs transcend specific objects and situations ( Attitudes) all values are important (truisms (Maio & Olson, 1998)) value priorities (relations) are important as antecedent for attitudes and behaviour. Analyzing the correlational structure of value-systems by means of open ended questions / 19

4 Data The Survey Name: Ethik-Monitor Year: 2006 Sample: Random sample of german adults N: 1003 face to face (CAPI) Analyzing the correlational structure of value-systems by means of open ended questions / 19

5 Data The open-ended questions 1 One hears nowadays always something about values - be it in the newspaper, on television or in conversations with friends and colleagues. People often mean very different things when they talk about values. Without being to specific, what comes up to you concerning the concept of values? 2 Now I would be interested what specific values are most important to you personally? Analyzing the correlational structure of value-systems by means of open ended questions / 19

6 Data Coding coding by hand 57 categories 10 value-types flag contexts order of the entries remains traceable software: LibreOffice Base; R (R Core Team, 2012). Analyzing the correlational structure of value-systems by means of open ended questions / 19

7 Frequency distributions The most commonly mentioned values ( 10%) honesty 43 faithfulness 22 family 20 friendship respect reliability property trust health acceptance & tolerance decency & behavior humanity discipline & duteousness % 10 % 20 % 30 % 40 % 50 % Analyzing the correlational structure of value-systems by means of open ended questions / 19

8 Correlational structure Theory of Values: The Schwartz Value Circle (Schwartz, 1992) 1 Hypothesis: the correlational structure of the data collected with the open question should correspond to the structure of the value circle. 1 For a refinement of the theory see Schwartz et al. (2012). Analyzing the correlational structure of value-systems by means of open ended questions / 19

9 Correlational structure Analysis I Dataframe (I) with rows (n = 1003) representing the respondents and columns (k = 57) representing the value categories (dummy variables). Correlation: Number of co-occurencies of two values in the anwsers of the respondents (A = I T I ) Compare absolute measure with distribution of the correlation under the assumption of indepence Permutation test random sorting of columns of the dataframe compute correlations based on the randomdata (A Null ) 1000 to obtain the distribution of the correlation under the assumption of independence = 1596 Correlations. Beware of type 1 error! Simulate the distribution of the number of type 1 errors ( 1000) and compare it to the number of empirical significant correlations. Analyzing the correlational structure of value-systems by means of open ended questions / 19

10 Correlational structure Quantile Min. 1st Qu. Median Mean 3rd Qu. Max. empirical 99% Analyzing the correlational structure of value-systems by means of open ended questions / 19

11 Correlational structure Correlations between value types Quantile Min. 1st Qu. Median Mean 3rd Qu. Max. empirical 99% % Analyzing the correlational structure of value-systems by means of open ended questions / 19

12 Mental structure Theory of Values: The Mental Representation of Values (Maio, 2010) Proposition: Negative Correlations between motivationally independent values (in the logic of the value circle) are an indicator for strong associative effects. Analyzing the correlational structure of value-systems by means of open ended questions / 19

13 Mental structure Quantile Min. 1st Qu. Median Mean 3rd Qu. Max. empirical 0.1% Analyzing the correlational structure of value-systems by means of open ended questions / 19

14 Mental structure Activation Spread (Anderson, 1983) in the response to an open ended questions Hypothesis: Mentaly related pairs of values should occur beside each other above average. Analyzing the correlational structure of value-systems by means of open ended questions / 19

15 Mental structure Analysis Associations: Number of side by side occurencies of two values within the response sequences of all respondents. Permutation Test: random sorting of individual answer sequences compute Associations based on random data 1000 to obtain the distribution of the association under the assumption of independence. compute A Null Analyzing the correlational structure of value-systems by means of open ended questions / 19

16 Mental structure Asscociations within and between values Quantile Min. 1st Qu. Median Mean 3rd Qu. Max. empirical 99% Analyzing the correlational structure of value-systems by means of open ended questions / 19

17 Mental structure Asscociations within and between value types Tabelle: Quantiles of the distributions under the null hypothesis, which was exceeded by the empirical values. Association Question 1 Question 2 Universalism Benevolence Conformity Tradition 99 0 Security 99 0 Power Achievement Hedonism 0 0 Stimulation 0 95 Self-direction 0 0 Security & Power 0 95 Analyzing the correlational structure of value-systems by means of open ended questions / 19

18 Discussion summarized up... It is possible to measure the correlational structure of values with open ended questions. The correlational patterns correspond in some parts with the value-circle. There are strong association effects in the data which are incorporated into the correlations. We should be careful in interpreting correlations the same way as we would interpret correlations based on ratings. A lot of information out of two open ended questions. (Alternative to long item batteries?) Analyzing the correlational structure of value-systems by means of open ended questions / 19

19 Literature Anderson, J. R. (1983, Juni). A spreading activation theory of memory. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 22 (3), doi: /S (83) Maio, G. R. (2010). Mental representations of social values. Advances in experimental social psychology, 42, Maio, G. R. & Olson, J. M. (1998). Values as truisms: Evidence and implications. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74 (2), 294. R Core Team. (2012). R: A language and environment for statistical computing [Software-Handbuch]. Vienna, Austria. (ISBN ) Schwartz, S. H. (1992). Universals in the content and structure of values: Theoretical advances and empirical tests in 20 countries. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (25), Schwartz, S. H., Cieciuch, J., Vecchione, M., Davidov, E., Fischer, R., Beierlein, C.,... Konty, M. (2012, Oktober). Refining the theory of basic individual values. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 103 (4), doi: /a Analyzing the correlational structure of value-systems by means of open ended questions / 19