Under Construction @ Keele 2016 Volume 2 Issue 2 | Page 20

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1. Self-transcendent values (STV) refer to an individual’s concern for the world beyond
their own self-interest
2. Self-enhancement values (SEV) refer to an individual’s concern for maintaining or
improving their own resources
STV imply individuals go beyond their own needs and consider the interest of the
collective when making a decision. This may include biospheric concerns such as caring for
plants, trees and animals, and/or altruistic concerns such as caring for other humans.
Conversely, SEV are likely to cause the individual to focus upon their own costs and benefits
when making a decision. These may include egoistic concerns such as the time or effort
required to complete a task, and/or hedonic concerns such as one’s immediate enjoyment or
gratification. Generally, STV are found to be positively related to PEB whilst the opposite
holds for SEV.7
When deciding upon whether to engage in a specific behaviour, individuals often
consider multiple options and their potential outcomes, ultimately selecting the action that is
most congruent to the values they hold.8 Nevertheless, certain tasks may force individuals
into discriminating between these values; causing them to prioritise one over the other. For
example, when deciding whether to walk or drive to work, individuals may realise that while
driving would be advantageous for reasons such as time or comfort (SEV), walking would be
beneficial to the environment (STV). In cases such as this, individuals have to appraise their
values simultaneously before reaching a decision. Despite this, both SEV and STV are often
investigated as discrete predictors of behaviour and consequently have been evaluated as
such.9

Such methods may not accurately represent how decisions are made, and

furthermore, may result in too great, or too little, significance being attributed to each value.
The current paper instead suggests these values should be considered together as a
collective force shaping our cognitions.
Intermediary Drivers

7

De Groot and Steg. "Value orientations to explain beliefs related to environmental significant
behaviour: how to measure egoistic, altruistic, and biospheric value orientations," 319.
8
Kerrie Unsworth, Gillian Yeo and James Beck. “Multiple goals: A review and derivation of general
principles,” Journal of organisational behaviour 35 (2014).
9
Elena Ojea and Maria L. Loureiro. "Altruistic, egoistic and biospheric values in willingness to pay
(WTP) for wildlife," Ecological Economics 63 (2007).