The Structure of Behavioral Values of College Students

A factor analysis of 744 students' social desirability ratings for 95 questionnaire items yielded nine factors of behavioral values, eight of which were considered reliable. The questionnaire was comprised of the universe of responses given by an earlier sample of subjects to the incomplete sentence stems, “I would be ashamed of myself if …” and “I am proud of myself when ….” Thus, the items were not preselected on any theoretical basis, but were established empirically as the stated behavioral values of a group of college students. The resulting factors suggested an organization of values that distinguishes between competence and moral values, between personal and interpersonal values, and between subject and object values.