Alekseeva O.S. Similarity of spouses in value indicators

The aim of the study was to assess the similarity between spouses in 10 basic values. The respondents included 300 married couples with at least one adult child. The average age of the husbands was 51.56 years (SD = 7.85). The average age of the wives was 48.81 years (SD = 7.68). The study did not directly investigate the duration of the marriage, but it can be indirectly inferred from the ages of their children. The average age of the children was 23.53 years (SD = 6.30). The Schwartz Portrait Values Questionnaire, which includes 10 scales: Security, Conformity, Tradition, Self-direction, Stimulation, Hedonism, Achievement, Power, Benevolence and Universalism, was used to assess value orientations.

Results. The value hierarchies of husbands and wives were generally similar. Husbands rated the values of Security, Benevolence, and Self-Direction the highest. Wives rated Security, Universalism, and Benevolence the highest. The lowest scores among husbands were for the values of Hedonism, Achievement, and Stimulation. Among wives, the lowest scores were for Achievement, Power, and Stimulation. Significant differences (using the U-Mann-Whitney test) were found for the values of Security, Benevolence and Universalism. Wives rated these indicators higher than husbands. Overall, these results are similar to previously identified differences between men and women: women tend to rate Security and Universalism higher, while men value Stimulation more (Rzhanova & Alekseeva, 2017). In Schwartz's cross-national study, differences between men and women were observed for the following characteristics: men scored higher in the values of Power, Stimulation, and Achievement, while women scored higher in Universalism and Benevolence. There were no differences in the values of Security, Conformity, Tradition, Hedonism, and Self-Direction (Prince-Gibson & Schwartz, 1998; Schwartz & Rubel-Lifschitz, 2009). Thus, the high ratings given by women to the value of Security can be considered specific to our country.

Correlation analysis was used to assess the similarity between spouses. Significant positive correlations were found for most of the scales in the Schwartz Portrait Values Questionnaire, except for the indicators of Self-Direction, Stimulation, and Hedonism. According to Schwartz's theory, these three values form a higher-order value, Openness to Change. The values of change are based on a desire for personal autonomy in beliefs and actions, and a pursuit of novelty and risk. Values in this group are also considered to belong to the so-called active individualism values (Kapustin & Klyamkin, 1994), which emphasize self-reliance and self-realization (opposite to the values of selfish individualism). Studies have shown that openness to change values is positively associated with tolerance and negatively associated with religiosity and tradition. In sociologist Vladimir Magun's recent work (Magun, 2023), it was shown that over the 15 years from 2006 to 2021, values in this group (particularly Hedonism) underwent the greatest changes toward growth in Russia. Possibly due to the changing importance of this group's values, no similarity was found between spouses.

Key words: Values, Schwartz Portrait Values Questionnaire, Similarity of spouses

For citation: Alekseeva, O.S. (2024). Similarity of spouses in value indicators. New Psychological Research, No. 2, 207–211. DOI: 10.51217/npsyresearch_2024_04_02_11

Acknowledgment

The article was carried out within a State assignment, project FNRE-2024-0016.