The following questionnaire assesses your personal values. Values are a set of attitudes, unique in each individual, which govern our behavior and guide the way we look at the world. Each individual seeks to achieve certain goals in life, and his or her values are in tune with these goals. For instance, some individuals may see their family life as most important to them. They thus hold values that illustrate this- they believe that spending time with their family is more important then working long hours, and they may disagree with individuals whom they perceive as holding a more work-oriented value system. Looking back at their life, they hope to see that their family was always their top priority. Clarifying our values now can help us prioritize our lives in order to avoid disappointment and unhappiness later in life. Living a life in tune with our values is important because they are what determine what means most to us.

The values test that follows is loosely based on the theories of Allport, Vernon and Lindzey, and on Holland's Vocational Interest Types. Both of these classifications of values types were derived from Edward Spranger's Types of Men, a book written in the early 1900's. These researchers theorized that we all have some combination of six different values types, whether it is just one dominant value type, a combination of two or three, or some aspects of all six. We have modernized the six types, but on the whole they are still current today. In order to prevent influencing your responses, the different types will not be shared until after you have finished. While taking this test, it pays to really think about your responses- what you really, truly want out of life, in order to get the most out of the results.