Construction of value-intending mental act scale

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to constract a scale to measure value-intending mental acts, characterized by six types of values (theoretical, economic, aesthetic, religious, social, political) originally proposed by Spranger (1921). A typical test based on Spranger's classification of values, i.e., "Study of Values" (Allport et al., 1951), relates only the socio-cultural objects to which individuals feel the value, without treating the way in which individuals feel the value. Our scale is made to measure the latter subjective experience ("mental act") itself. Basing upon personal interviews and preliminary survey, 54 items (6 mental acts x 9 items) are selected and administered to 493 college students (292 male and 201 female). With factor analysis, six subscales are extracted from those items to construct a Value-Intending Mental Act Scale. Relations of this scale, focused on subjective mental process of valuation, with preference between school subjects and vocational interest, are regarded as objective manifestations of the subjective processes making the object of a discussion.