Do Good Old Philosophical Values Work Today? Polish Students’ Value Priorities in 2006 and 2017 – A Comparative Study

Abstract

BACKGROUND. Values are concepts or beliefs about desirable end states or behaviors, that transcend specific situations, guide selection or evaluation of behavior and events, and are ordered by relative importance. Referring to Scheler’s philosophical concept, the hierarchies of values among Polish students were compared between 2006 (Fanslau & Brycz, 2006) and 2017. PARTICIPANTS AND PROCEDURE. 603 (in total) adults participated in two studies. All of them were undergraduate students of various Universities from the Tri-City. They filled in the Scheler’s Value Scale. RESULTS. The results showed that the model hierarchy of values postulated by philosophers is not reflected in the minds of young (18–33 years old) Poles now and it was not reflected over a decade ago either. Moreover, significant differences between the levels of certain values were found. CONCLUSIONS. It turned out that philosophical theories once accepted and adapted to psychology no longer have the same meaning as before. Value priorities change and they are ordered according to subjective validity.