How Important are Values for Well-Being? A Multi-Level Meta-Analysis Across 111 Societies
On Friday, April 26, the last day of the 13th LCSR International Workshop, Ronald Fisher (Instituto D'Or de Pesquisa e Ensino, Brazil) presented an honorary paper “How Important are Values for Well-Being? A Multi-Level Meta-Analysis Across 111 Societies”.
The work focuses on the relationship between values and well-being as well as possible detalizations of this link. Many disciplines from philosophy to clinical psychology discuss the connection between values, emotions, and well-being. The author of the presented study draws on the works of Shalom H. Schwartz and his 10 Basic Value model to empirically explore this relationship using meta-analysis of data from 498 samples from all over the world, excluding clinical samples . Doing justice to the complexity of the phenomenon of well-being, Dr. Fischer analyzes its different aspects including positive (e.g. life satisfaction), negative or “non-well-being” (e.g. depression) and worry-related.
Presented meta-analysis has identified such values as Hedonism, and Self-direction to be most positively related to the positive aspects of well-being and most negatively related to the negative aspects. That is, people for whom it is important to enjoy life and develop their own path are more likely to be happy and less likely to be depressed. On the contrary, Tradition and Security were positively related to non-well-being. Interestingly, worry was found to have a different relationship pattern: those who prioritized Conformity and Security were found to be the least prone to anxiety. Overall, these findings support Sortheix and Schwartz’s (2017) prediction that Openness to change values increase well-being and Conservation values decrease it. However, the exact pattern depends both on the type of well-being under analysis and the measurement tool used (e.g. Schwartz Value Survey vs Portrait Values Questionnaire).
Another key point is that within-country variability in values, in most cases, seems to be comparable or even larger in magnitude than the between-country variability. However, the author suggests it is important to examine cross-cultural patterns of relationship between values and well-being and their potential moderators. The analysis demonstrates that objective collectivism (Pelham et al., 2022) moderates the effect between Hedonism and positive well-being; climate and economic wealth – between Achievement and positive well-being; and life expectancy – between Benevolence and positive well-being. Significant temporal effects are highlighted: Dr. Fischer states that observed relationships may change in their magnitude over time. In conclusion, the lecturer outlined the potential of considering the 10 basic values as a system rather than analyzing them as individual determinants of well-being.
by Sofya Kanter