Personality and values: how traits and values differ and connect

What is a value?

A value is a guiding goal: something you treat as important across situations and use to choose between options. That sets it apart from a preference, which is simply what you like, and from a trait, which describes how you tend to behave rather than what you are aiming at. Preferring quiet evenings is a preference. Believing that people should be free to think for themselves is a value.

Shalom Schwartz gave the idea a structure that could be tested, by identifying values through the motivation behind them rather than by their content, then asking whether the same set turns up wherever it is looked for. Data from samples in 20 countries recovered the ten value types in the table below as reliably recognised across cultures (Schwartz, 1992). Most of the value words people reach for in conversation, from ambition to loyalty to fairness, sit somewhere inside that set of ten.

The ten are not independent. Schwartz found they are organised by compatibility and conflict, so values built on a shared motivation sit near each other while values built on opposing motivations pull against one another (Schwartz, 1992). Achievement and benevolence can both matter to the same person, but they compete for the same hours in a week, which is why a values exercise so often surfaces a trade-off rather than a simple list.

What is a personality trait?

A trait is a description of how you typically think, feel and behave, built to be as neutral as possible about what is good or desirable. The Big Five, the most studied trait model, was assembled from decades of research into which trait words in ordinary language travel together, not proposed as a theory of what people should be like, and the same five broad dimensions kept emerging across that work (Goldberg, 1993).

That history matters for the comparison with values. There is no built-in good side of Extraversion or bad side of Conscientiousness, only two ends of a continuous dimension most people sit somewhere between. A value works the other way around: every item on Schwartz's list describes something people treat as desirable, and none of the ten is written as bad to hold.

How do personality traits and values differ, and how do they connect?

McAdams and Pals argued that a full account of a person needs more than a trait score. They described personality as built from three levels: dispositional traits, the broad tendencies the Big Five describes; characteristic adaptations, the more specific goals, values and coping strategies a person builds for a particular life; and life narratives, the stories people tell to make a life feel coherent (McAdams & Pals, 2006). Values sit at the middle level, which is why two people can share a Conscientiousness score and differ completely in what that discipline serves, one directing it toward achievement, the other toward looking after family (McAdams & Pals, 2006).

Character strengths sit in a similar middle ground. The classification of 24 strengths under six virtues was built to describe dispositions that are also valued, rather than treating description and desirability as separate questions (Peterson & Seligman, 2004). Curiosity, gratitude and fairness count as strengths in that scheme because they read as both a way of behaving and a valued way of behaving, closer to how a value works than to how a neutral trait works.

How do you read your values alongside your personality traits?

The most useful move is to hold the two side by side rather than blend them into one score. Your traits describe the shape of your ordinary behaviour, how outgoing, organised, calm or open to new ideas you tend to be, and your values describe what that behaviour is usually in service of. A personality report read on its own can make a pattern look fixed, while a values reading explains what the pattern is aimed at.

A mismatch between the two is common and worth noticing rather than fixing straight away. Someone whose values put benevolence first but whose ordinary behaviour is not especially agreeable is not living a contradiction, those are two different measurements, and the gap between them is often exactly what a person wants to work on.

• For life purpose and meaning in life scores, and how the ten basic values are organised, see values and life purpose tests.
• For the descriptive idea of personality against the more evaluative idea of character, see personality versus character.
• For what a trait is and is not, including how it differs from a mood or a habit, see what is a personality trait.

How does Wellington measure this?

Wellington is a science-based personality assessment from Therabot Labs LLC. It measures personality as continuous traits, built on the Big Five and HEXACO models, and writes the results back as a personal report rather than a type.

The free Snapshot, 60 questions in about 7 minutes, covers the six broad dimensions of personality structure (Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, Openness to Experience, Honesty-Humility) but not values or purpose. Those arrive later: the Wellington Membership, $4.99 a month, reaches 90 traits through the Portrait's 336 questions, and does not yet report the meaning, values and purpose traits at that point. It then adds one weekly module at a time over 104 weeks toward all 255 traits across eight domains, with 12 weeks given to meaning, values and purpose, including traits such as Values Clarity and Purpose alongside your Big Five results.

Every trait is reported as a percentile against the reference sample. The three bands (Quiet below the 30th percentile, Balanced to the 70th, High above) and the Portrait names exist to make the result easier to talk about; the percentile is the measurement, always shown alongside. Norms are provisional until the norming sample is complete. Wellington is a wellness tool for reflection, not a medical or psychological diagnosis, and it does not replace care from a qualified professional. It is not designed for hiring, and you can export or delete your data at any time.

Questions people ask

Is a value the same as a personality trait?

No. A trait describes how you typically think, feel and behave, built to be as neutral as possible about which end is better (Goldberg, 1993). A value describes what you aim toward, and every item on a values list is written as something desirable (Schwartz, 1992). The two are usually read side by side rather than combined into one score.

How many basic values are there?

Research testing samples from 20 countries recovered ten motivationally distinct values that are reliably recognised across cultures, listed with a one-line gloss in the table above (Schwartz, 1992). Longer values card sorts exist, but almost every word on them maps onto one of these ten, and the ten are organised so that neighbouring values are compatible while opposite values compete for the same time and attention.

What is a character strength, and how does it relate to values?

A character strength is a disposition that is also treated as valuable, rather than a neutral description of behaviour. The classification of 24 strengths under six virtues gives a shared language for measuring them across the lifespan (Peterson & Seligman, 2004). A strength sits between a trait and a value: like a trait, it is something you do; like a value, it is something worth having.

Does Wellington measure my personal values?

Yes, values sit in the Wellington Membership's meaning, values and purpose domain rather than in the free Snapshot. The membership measures traits including Values Clarity and Purpose, each on a percentile against the reference sample, with a written page for your band.