comparative value priorities of chinese and new zealand

� samples of students fit the overall value structure better than
samples of teachers, and samples from Western countries better
than those from non-Western countries;
� the deviations from the average structure exhibit a systematic
pattern: the higher the level of societal development of a country,
the greater the contrast between protection and growth values.
Fontaine et al. conclude that the Schwartz value theory provides an excellent
representation of the average value structure across the samples they studied.
Reliability of the SVS
Schwartz and Sagiv (1995) used the split-half technique using tertiary student and
secondary teacher samples to demonstrate that sampling fluctuations are responsible for
a substantial portion of observed structural deviations across SVS dimension scores;
whilst said to be a validity test, it was actually a test of reliability across cultures.
Investigating Cronbach alpha scale reliability testing, and reviewing Schmitt (1996) and
George and Mallerey (2003), I will accept an alpha of 0.6 being minimal acceptable.
The acceptability of scale reliability across these samples is generally good. In this
study, I found the reliability results depicted in Figure 4.11, ranging from acceptable to
very good. Item-scale relationships are shown in Appendix 4 - Surveys.
Figure 4.11. Cronbach’s Alpha Analyses for the SVS57 for the Two Samples
Comments: All items were a good fit unless otherwise noted.
SVS GZ: Comments NZ: alpha Comments
Dimension alpha for
for
dimension
dimension
Achievement 0.80 0.65
Benevolence 0.87 0.71
Conformity 0.62 Item Obedient has a low itemtotal
correlation and the scale
alpha would be improved to 0.64
if it is omitted.
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0.75