Description

The Personal Values Inventory (PVI), also referred to as L’Inventaire des Valeurs Personnelles (SPV), is a psychometric assessment tool designed to examine the core values that guide individuals’ behavior, choices, and decision-making processes. The scale is grounded in perspectives from social psychology and personality psychology and approaches personal values as a multidimensional construct.

Purpose

The primary purpose of the PVI is to identify and prioritize personal values and to explore how these values influence personal, social, and professional choices. The instrument may be used in psychological and social research, personal development programs, career counseling, and clinical contexts such as counseling and psychotherapy.

Structure

The inventory assesses six main categories of personal values:

Social Justice, Freedom and Autonomy, Security and Stability, Personal Development, Solidarity and Cooperation, and Spirituality and Conceptual Exploration.

Participants respond to the items using a 5-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 = “Strongly Disagree” to 5 = “Strongly Agree,” according to the extent to which each statement reflects their own values.

Scoring

Each response is scored from 1 to 5, and mean scores are calculated for each value category. These scores provide an individualized value profile and allow the relative importance of different personal values to be examined. The instrument may also be used for comparisons between groups or across different time points, such as before and after an intervention.

Psychometric Properties

According to the available source material, the PVI demonstrates high internal consistency, with Cronbach’s α > 0.85 across the subscales, as well as satisfactory temporal stability, with test–retest reliability r = 0.82. The source also reports evidence of validity through comparisons with other measures of personal values.

Applications

The PVI can be used to investigate the relationship between personal values and behavior, support personal and professional development, contribute to counseling and educational interventions, and examine potential changes in value priorities following important life transitions or structured interventions.

References

S. Pierre-Yves (2010). L’Inventaire des Valeurs Personnelles: Un Outil pour l’Évaluation des Valeurs Individuelles. Paris: PUF.

Albrecht, R. (2015). Psychologie der Werte: Konzepte, Methoden, Anwendungen. Berlin: Springer.

Karakasidou, G. (2018). Εκπαίδευση και Προσωπικές Αξίες. Athens: Professional Publications.