Abstract
Value instantiations—exemplifiers of an abstract or general category—are a new issue in human value research. Experiments have recently highlighted the important role of value instantiations in bridging the gap between abstract values and specific actions. In this chapter, we describe the general role of category instantiations in psychology, drawing on relevant literature in cognitive and social psychology. We discuss the relevance of value instantiations to important topics in the study of values, such as (non-)differences in values between nations, and the application of values to behavior. We then discuss instantiations as a mechanism through which values are related to behavior. We demonstrate that instantiations moderate the relationship between values and behavior: If the measured behaviors reflect typical instantiations of a value, the relationship between the two is stronger. Finally, we illustrate the potential roles of value instantiations by describing a method for measuring them and then examining findings relevant to two values: protecting the environment and family security.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Armstrong, S. L., Gleitman, L. R., & Gleitman, H. (1983). What some concepts might not be. Cognition, 13(3), 263–308. doi:10.1016/0010-0277(83)90012-4
Arthaud-Day, M. L., Rode, J. C., & Turnley, W. H. (2012). Direct and contextual effects of individual values on organizational citizenship behavior in teams. Journal of Applied Psychology, 97(4), 792–807. doi:10.1037/a0027352
Bardi, A., & Schwartz, S. H. (2003). Values and behavior: Strength and structure of relations. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 29(10), 1207–1220. doi:10.1177/0146167203254602
Barsalou, L. W. (1985). Ideals, central tendency, and frequency of instantiation as determinants of graded structure in categories. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 11(4), 629–654. doi:10.1037/0278-7393.11.1-4.629
Barsalou, L. W. (1987). The instability of graded structure in concepts: Implications for the nature of concepts. In U. Neisser (Ed.), Concepts and conceptual development: Ecological and intellectual factors in categorization (pp. 101–140). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Evans, L., Maio, G. R., Corner, A., Hodgetts, C. J., Ahmed, S., & Hahn, U. (2013). Self-interest and pro-environmental behaviour. Nature Climate Change, 3(2), 122–125. doi:10.1038/nclimate1662
Feather, N. T., Woodyatt, L., & McKee, I. R. (2012). Predicting support for social action: How values, justice-related variables, discrete emotions, and outcome expectations influence support for the Stolen Generations. Motivation and Emotion, 36(4), 516–528.
Fischer, R., & Schwartz, S. (2011). Whence differences in value priorities? Individual, cultural, or artifactual sources. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 42(7), 1127–1144. doi:10.1177/0022022110381429
Greenfield, P. M. (2014). Sociodemographic differences within countries produce variable cultural values. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 45(1), 37–41. doi:10.1177/0022022113513402
Hampton, J. A. (1981). An investigation of the nature of abstract concepts. Memory & Cognition, 9(2), 149–156. doi:10.3758/BF03202329
Lord, C. G., Desforges, D. M., Fein, S., Pugh, M. A., & Lepper, M. R. (1994). Typicality effects in attitudes toward social policies: A concept-mapping approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 66(4), 658–673. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.66.4.658
Lord, C. G., Desforges, D. M., Ramsey, S. L., Trezza, G. R., & Lepper, M. R. (1991). Typicality effects in attitude-behavior consistency: Effects of category discrimination and category knowledge. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 27(6), 550–575. doi:10.1016/0022-1031(91)90025-2
Lord, C. G., Lepper, M. R., & Mackie, D. (1984). Attitude prototypes as determinants of attitude–behavior consistency. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 46(6), 1254–1266. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.46.6.1254
Maio, G. R. (2010). Mental representations of social values. In M. P. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 42, pp. 1–43). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
Maio, G. R., Hahn, U., Frost, J.-M., & Cheung, W.-Y. (2009). Applying the value of equality unequally: Effects of value instantiations that vary in typicality. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97, 598–614.
McCloskey, M. E., & Glucksberg, S. (1978). Natural categories: Well defined or fuzzy sets? Memory & Cognition, 6(4), 462–472. doi:10.3758/BF03197480
Monteiro, L. T. (2012). The valley of fear—The morphology of crime, a case study in JoĂŁo Pessoa, ParaĂba, Brasil. In M. Greene, J. Reyes, & A. Castro (Eds.), Proceedings of the eighth space syntax symposium. PUC: Santiago de Chile.
Office for national statistics. (2014). Chapter 2—Homicide. Retrieved from http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171776_352260.pdf
Pozzebon, J. A., & Ashton, M. C. (2009). Personality and values as predictors of self- and peer-reported behavior. Journal of Individual Differences, 30(3), 122–129. doi:10.1027/1614-0001.30.3.122
Rogers, T. T., & Patterson, K. (2007). Object categorization: Reversals and explanations of the basic-level advantage. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 136(3), 451–469. doi:10.1037/0096-3445.136.3.451
Rosch, E. (1973). Natural categories. Cognitive Psychology, 4(3), 328–350. doi:10.1016/0010-0285(73)90017-0
Rosch, E. (1975). Cognitive reference points. Cognitive Psychology, 7(4), 532–547. doi:10.1016/0010-0285(75)90021-3
Rosch, E., Mervis, C. B., Gray, W. D., Johnson, D. M., & Boyes-Braem, P. (1976). Basic objects in natural categories. Cognitive Psychology, 8(3), 382–439. doi:10.1016/0010-0285(76)90013-X
Rosch, E., Simpson, C., & Scott, R. (1976). Structural bases of typicality effects. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 2(4), 491–502. doi:10.1037/0096-1523.2.4.491
Roth, E. M., & Shoben, E. J. (1983). The effect of context on the structure of categories. Cognitive Psychology, 15(3), 346–378. doi:10.1016/0010-0285(83)90012-9
Schwartz, S. H. (1992). Universals in the content and structure of values: Theoretical advances and empirical tests in 20 countries. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 25, 1–65.
Schwartz, S. H., & Bardi, A. (2001). Value hierarchies across cultures taking a similarities perspective. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 32(3), 268–290. doi:10.1177/0022022101032003002
Schwartz, S. H., Melech, G., Lehmann, A., Burgess, S., Harris, M., & Owens, V. (2001). Extending the cross-cultural validity of the theory of basic human values with a different method of measurement. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 32(5), 519–542. doi:10.1177/0022022101032005001
Sharma, A., Gur, R., & Bhalla, P. (2012). Kuppuswamy’s socioeconomic scale: Updating income ranges for the year 2012. Indian Journal of Public Health, 56(1). Retrieved from http://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/20489237/1194520481/name/IndianJPublicHealth561103-2787554_074435.pdf
Shultziner, D. (2003). Human dignity—Functions and meanings. Global Jurist Topics, 3(3). Retrieved from www.researchgate.net/profile/Doron_Shultziner/publication/241002874_Human_Dignity_Functions_and_Meanings/links/00b7d522ad17e53070000000.pdf
Statista. (2014). Ranking of the most dangerous cities in the world in 2013, by murder rate per capita. Retrieved from http://www.statista.com/statistics/243797/ranking-of-the-most-dangerous-cities-in-the-world-by-murder-rate-per-capita/
Tansel, A., Dalgic, B., & Guven, A. (2014). Wage inequality and wage mobility in Turkey (SSRN Scholarly Paper No. Available at SSRN 2519502). Rochester, NY: Social Science Research Network. Retrieved from http://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=2519502
Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge financial support by the School of Psychology, Cardiff University (www.psych.cf.ac.uk), the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC; www.esrc.ac.uk) to the first and last author (ES/J500197/1), and the CAPES Foundation (Brazil, http://www.capes.gov.br/) to the second author. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Hanel, P.H.P., Vione, K.C., Hahn, U., Maio, G.R. (2017). Value Instantiations: The Missing Link Between Values and Behavior?. In: Roccas, S., Sagiv, L. (eds) Values and Behavior. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56352-7_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56352-7_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-56350-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-56352-7
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and PsychologyBehavioral Science and Psychology (R0)