A social-value analysis of postmaterialism

The author investigated the relationship between social values and R. Inglehart's (1971, 1981, 1990) Postmaterialism concept. In his theory, Materialism and Postmaterialism are basic value dimensions motivated by a person's need for security and short-term survival (on the one hand) and the desire to address needs that transcend material concerns (on the other). The aim of the present study was to attempt to locate Postmaterialism relative to politically nonspecific social values. Participants were 161 New Zealand university undergraduate men and women who completed P. R. Abramson and R. Inglehart's (1995) Postmaterialism scale and a 56-item Social Values Inventory (S. H. Schwartz, 1992). Analyses of Postmaterialism scale scores and aggregated scores reflecting the motivations underlying different groups of social values supported the hypothesis that Postmaterialism, as measured by this scale, is positively related to values associated with Self-Direction and Universalism motivations and negatively related to Security motivations. The results indicate that previous research had been limited to the application of values representing only a small part of the overall values space.