Social Values Questionnaire (SVQ)

In life an individual should for the most part go it alone, assuring himself of privacy, having much time to himself, attempting to control his own life.

The typical law abiding person who avoids situations in which transgressions occur, rather than acting in such situations to protect those who are being injured, does not deserve the respect of his fellow citizens.

Most satisfying is the knowledge that one is an indispensable and appreciated member of a purposeful and effective group (team or institution).

The members of a group ought to be willing to inconvenience themselves in order to help the group accomplish its goals.

One must avoid dependence upon persons or things; the center of life should be found within oneself.

If a person is not genuinely and spontaneously concerned with the welfare of others he should not engage in social welfare activities.

Spontaneous, vigorous action is more important than taking precautions to minimize the inconvenience one's acts cause to others.

Whether someone works for the welfare of others or devotes himself to his private interests is less important in determining his worth than whether or not he acts on the basis of genuine personal interest.

It is often better for a group to agree upon specific rules to regulate behaviors of importance to the group than to leave the regulation to the individual judgments of the group members.

A person who witnesses an unlawful or immoral act and does not try to prevent its occurrence shares some part of the guilt with the transgressor.

Concern for the welfare of others should go beyond seeing that they have their essential physical needs met.

A person must limit the range of people toward whom he acts with consideration and compassion.

It is immoral for a person to show indifference toward the well-being of members of his immediate circle of friends.

People cannot rely solely upon ministers, policemen and judges to insure moral behavior among the citizens of a community; they must each act to dissuade others from anti-social acts.

It is quite reasonable for the members of a group to try to influence indifferent or mildly dissenting members to go along with the group.

A member of a group which engages in immoral acts shares the guilt of the group unless he does all he can to prevent its immoral behavior.

An individual who has not caused another's misfortune has no obligation to help the other person.

To be superior a man must stand alone.

A man's self-fulfillment through his work and his life with family and friends should almost always transcend his obligations to the larger community in which he lives.

It is wrong to limit the freedom of one man because it inconveniences another.

Although groups are composed of individuals, they have valuable characteristics which cannot be found in any of the individual members.

The feeling of having caused someone harm or discomfort is one of the most painful a human can have.

Some of life's greatest satisfactions are found in working cooperatively with others.

Nature's law for all organisms is the survival of the fittest; to hinder its operation is to endanger the survival or health of the entire community.

Happiness comes when a man puts self interest aside and devotes himself to the welfare of others.

The aims and procedures of a group ought to be arrived at through free give and take discussion and then adhered to by all the members.

People should be as concerned with the rights and conditions of others as they are of themselves or their immediate families.

Whether an individual acts to protect and enhance the welfare of persons beyond his circle of friends and relatives is a matter of personal preference, not moral obligation.

People cannot be considered moral if they are indifferent to the welfare of the members of the community in which they live and work.

A man who is unable to take care of the needs of himself and his family does not deserve the respect of others.

Everyone has an obligation to criticize other members of his community when they behave in an immoral, anti-social manner.

It is worth embarrassing another person in order to make a good joke or carry out a clever prank.

Men are first and foremost individual beings; the identifications they may have with groups never really alters their essential separateness from one another.

It is only natural that the desires of the individual and the desires of the group to which he belongs will come into conflict frequently.

The person who chooses to pay little or no attention to the welfare of persons with whom he has no personal connection is acting immorally.

No limitations should be placed on the freedom of people to do as they please unless their acts unquestionably cause serious damage to others.

Altruistic acts are not sufficiently valued in our society.

It is better for a person to ignore the larger social concerns of the community in which he lives than to force himself to take part in these concerns merely from a sense of obligation.

When one person behaves unjustly toward another, it is wrong for a third person to intervene to correct the injustice unless he is a close friend or relative of one of the parties.

Democracy requires both the free participation by group members in deciding upon the goals and regulations of the group and the willingness of the members to abide by these decisions.

Not only does everyone have an inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, he also has an equally inalienable obligation to protect others from having these rights taken from them.

One's major obligation to other men is to let them alone so that they may sink or swim by their own efforts.

Man's natural state is as a member of a group; the individual who holds himself aloof from active participation in a community is acting against his natural inclinations.

People should leave the prevention of immoral acts up to those whose job is specifically concerned with such prevention.

Minor conflicts between one's own comfort and convenience and that of a neighbor should be resolved in favor of the neighbor more often than not.

It is often more gratifying to work for the accomplishment of a goal held by a group to which one belongs than to work for the attainment of a purely personal goal.

Although altruism and a feeling of responsibility for the welfare of others are admirable qualities, a person should not be required to have them in order to be respected by himself or others.

Most of life's goals are accomplished better by people organizing themselves into groups and working in a coordinated way than by people working as individuals.

A community in which people were very concerned with each other's morality as well as their own would be an intolerable one in which to live.

People should be willing to diminish their own comfort and convenience in order to avoid interfering with the rights and welfare of their neighbors.

An individual most deserves the feeling of satisfaction with himself after he has done something to help someone else.

A person should be willing to speak out against individuals who break the rules agreed upon by the group.

It is important for an individual to be closely identified with at least one group.

No one can be genuinely concerned with the welfare of people whom he doesn't know and has never seen.

A young person's most important responsibility is developing his own skills and capacities and his ability to appreciate what life has to offer.

When groups have to exert pressure on some members in order to accomplish group goals and uphold norms, the goal or norm loses its value.

Individual consciences need the support of laws and social codes in order to function most effectively in producing moral behavior.

Things work best when people concern themselves with their own welfare and let others take care of themselves.

It is natural and proper that a person should approach other people with a view to how they can help him reach his goals.

Group members ought to join in group activities even if they are initially indifferent or mildly opposed to these activities.

The individualist is the man who is most likely to discover the best road to a new future.

A community in which everyone could be sure that his well-being would be protected and fostered by his fellow citizens would soon lose its vitality and cease to develop.

It is better to let someone behave inconsiderately toward another person than to butt into the relationship in order to correct the injustice.

Virtue and honor do not belong to those who merely dissociate themselves from the immoral acts of their fellow men; rather, it belongs only to those who energetically work to prevent such acts.

Conformity to group norms and goals should be left to the consciences of the individual members.

One of the worst feelings a person can have occurs when he has fallen short of what his group expected of him.

It is just as important to work toward group goals and adhere to the established rules of the group as it is to gratify one's individual desires.

When one individual behaves unjustly toward another, it is wrong for a third person to intervene to correct the injustice unless he has been asked to do so.

Every person's values ultimately spring from some group to which he has belonged, currently belongs or aspires to belong.

It is better to ignore a person in need when one feels no personal compassion for him than to act compassionately out of a sense of obligation or guilt.

The most profound happiness is reserved for those who are capable of selfless dedication to a cause.

Regardless of the content of the act, it is better to do something that springs from a genuine personal interest than from a feeling of social obligation.

It is the man who stands alone who excites our admiration.

A man should not be respected for his achievements if they were obtained by interfering with the welfare and development of others.

Only a person who remains aloof from social organizations and group allegiances can fully develop his potential as an individual.

An individual should be concerned with promoting the welfare of persons in communities far removed from his own as well as those in his own community.

The consequences flowing from the limitation of a person's freedom to use his resources and skills as he wishes are often far worse than the discomfort such freedom might cause to others.

Man's natural state is as an independent, unattached individual; he acts in conflict with his essential qualities when he acts jointly with others as a member of a solidary group.

It is dishonorable to feel indifferent towards persons in distant lands who are deprived of their rights or well-being.

The mere fact that one group or nation is prosperous and another is not places no obligation on the 'have' group to improve the lot of the 'have-not' group.

Individuals do not really fulfill their human potentials unless they involve themselves deeply in some group.

Regardless of how democratically a group sets up its rules, it ceases to be a democratic group once it begins to pressure its members to conform to these rules.

Groups and communities which refuse to regulate the behaviors of their members encourage the exploitation of the weak by the powerful.

There is no necessary opposition between an individual's fulfillment of his own needs and his fulfillment of the needs of the groups to which he belongs.

Individuals should be ready to inhibit their own pleasures if these inconvenience others.

People who identify strongly with some group usually do so at the expense of their development and individual self-fulfillment.

Doing something for a friend is more satisfying than doing something for yourself.

When the needs of a group and the preferences of some of its members come into conflict, the latter ought to be given far greater weight in determining the outcome.

It is up to the government to make sure that everyone has a secure job and a good standard of living.

When democratically organized groups begin to influence and regulate the behaviors of their members, they either disintegrate or become transformed into undemocratic, autocratic groups.

An individual's responsibility for the welfare of others extends no further than the boundaries of his immediate circle of friends and relatives.

The absence of rules regulating the social conduct of the members of a community has the effect of implicitly condoning anti-social behavior.

It is not proper for an individual to refuse to actively participate in some of the group activities of the community in which he lives.

Except for one's immediate family and closest friends, people have a perfect right to pursue their own goals without regard to the convenience or comfort of others.

The development of individual consciences and the development of formal group regulations and codes are mutually antagonistic.

Encouraging others to behave in accord with generally accepted moral standards is as important as one's own living up to these standards.

One should accept moderate amounts of unfairness as an inevitable part of life and avoid trying to make people more moral and considerate than they generally are.

A person should be willing to cooperate with democratically selected group leaders, even though they are not the ones he personally preferred.

Group members have a right to resist doing something in which they have no interest even when the action in question is necessary for their group to reach its goal.