The structure of resource preferences

This paper outlines the development and testing of the PW questionnaire (Persönliche Wunschvorstellungen-Resource Preferences)--a German version of the IWIR (Inventory of Wishes for Interpersonal Resources; Foa & Bosman, 1979). The PW is based on a taxonomy of resource classes (love, services, goods, money, information, status) proposed by resource theory (Foa & Foa, 1974). The questionnaire was administered to a stratified sample (447 subjects) for the testing of various structural propositions of resource theory. In general, the results support the predicted theoretical order of resource preferences, but the expected two-dimensional hyperstructure (concreteness, particularism) found in American studies must be eked out with an evaluative dimension. The hypothesized circumplex structure of resource classes is dominated by a general component, partly contradicting some theoretical propositions of resource theory.