The ‘dark side’ of personal values: Relations to clinical constructs and their implications

Personal values are considered as guiding principles in one's life. Much of previous research on values has consequently focused on its relations with variables that are considered positive, including subjective well-being, personality traits, or behavior (e.g. health-related). However, in this study (N = 366) the negative ‘dark’ side of values is examined. Specifically, the study investigated the relations between Schwartz' (1992) ten value types and four different clinical variables — anxiety, depression, stress, and schizotypy with its subdimensions, unusual experience, cognitive disorganization, introverted anhedonia, and impulsive nonconformity. Positive relations between achievement and depression and stress, and negative relations between anxiety and hedonism and stimulation were predicted and found. Multiple regressions revealed that the ten value types explained the most variance in impulsive nonconformity and the least variance in unusual experience. Overall, values were better in predicting more cognitive clinical variables (e.g., cognitive disorganization) whereas clinical constructs were better in predicted more affective values (e.g., hedonism). Implications of the findings for value research are discussed.