What the Rokeach Value Survey Measures
The Rokeach Value Survey is a ranking tool that forces you to prioritize what actually matters to you. Created by psychologist Milton Rokeach in 1973, it works by presenting you with two lists of 18 values each—one focused on the kind of person you want to be (terminal values like happiness or self-respect), the other on how you want to live day-to-day (instrumental values like being honest or ambitious). You rank each list from most to least important. The result is not a score or a type. It is a personal hierarchy. The values at the top reveal what you claim matters most. The values at the bottom reveal what you actually neglect. That gap between theory and practice is where most lives break down.
Why ranking matters more than rating: when you rate each value separately on a scale, you can say everything is important. Ranking forces a choice. You cannot have both loyalty and independence at the very top. You cannot have both security and adventure driving every decision. The survey makes that trade-off visible. That is the whole point.
Terminal and Instrumental Values: Where Theory Meets Daily Life
Terminal values are end states—the destinations you think you are working toward. Happiness, wisdom, peace, self-respect, accomplishment, freedom. These are the answers you would give if someone asked you in a quiet moment what you actually want your life to be about. Most people say they rank happiness, love, or family at the top. These feel true in the moment of ranking. The test becomes real when you look at what comes next.
Instrumental values are the ways you get there. Honesty, ambition, independence, self-control, intelligence, courage. They are the qualities that supposedly drive you toward your terminal values. A person who ranks "happiness" as terminal but never ranks "self-discipline" or "courage" as instrumental has a theory that does not connect to reality. They expect the outcome without embodying the path. That contradiction is visible in the ranking. Someone who ranks "a comfortable life" terminal but "ambition" or "hard work" nowhere in the instrumental values is saying they want the result but not the method. That inconsistency is often unconscious. The survey surfaces it.
The Gap Between Ranked and Lived Values
The real use of the Rokeach Value Survey is not the ranking itself. It is the honesty audit that follows. You complete the survey. You see your hierarchy on paper. Now look at how you actually spend time, money, and energy in a typical week. The person who ranked "family" in the top three but "self-control" somewhere in the middle, while spending evenings on work emails, has located a practical problem. The person who ranked "freedom" as terminal but never acted on the instrumental value of "independence" is living someone else's script.
This gap exists in most people. It is not a failure. It is a signal. It means either your ranking does not reflect what you truly want, or your life does not yet match your ranking. Either way, the survey has given you something concrete to examine. Many people discover during ranking that they claim to value something—security, respect, adventure—out of habit or what they think they should want, not what they actually want. The ranking process itself surfaces these inherited values. Once you see it, you can decide whether to keep living by them or to rebuild your hierarchy.
When Rokeach Serves You Best
The survey works best when you are at an actual decision point. A career change. A relationship ending. A move. A moment when you realize you have been functioning on autopilot. At those moments, a forced ranking of what matters to you is not a productivity exercise. It is a diagnostic tool. You are not getting the ranking to feel good about yourself. You are getting it to see clearly what you are actually optimizing for. If your top values are family and loyalty but you are considering a job that requires 70-hour weeks and frequent relocation, the survey makes that conflict visible. Now you have information.
The Rokeach Value Survey is also useful in relationships and organizations when applied honestly. A couple who discovers they rank freedom and adventure very differently will have real conflict for years. Seeing it early matters. A team where half the members rank achievement and competition as instrumental values while others rank cooperation and service will have cultural friction. Again, seeing it is the first step to managing it.
The limitation: this survey was built in 1973 and the values reflect that era. Some feel dated now. Some cultural contexts may find the language or the specific values list less resonant. And the survey tells you what you think about your values in one moment, not what you live moment to moment. It is a snapshot, not a time-lapse video of your actual behavior. Use it as a tool to prompt thinking, not as a final word on who you are.
If you want a clearer picture of which values you actually embody—not just claim to hold—a core values assessment can surface what your life is already demonstrating. The goal is the same: to see the gap between the person you think you are and the person your choices reveal you to be. That clarity is where real change begins.
What is the difference between terminal and instrumental values?
Terminal values are the end states you want to achieve, like happiness, wisdom, or peace. Instrumental values are the methods and qualities you use to reach those ends, like honesty, ambition, or self-control. Together they form a complete theory of how you live and what you are working toward.
How do you score the Rokeach Value Survey?
There is no numerical score. You rank each list of 18 values from 1 (most important) to 18 (least important). The ranking itself is your result. The number beside each value shows your personal hierarchy. The interpretation comes from examining which values you placed at the top and comparing that ranking to how you actually live.
Is the Rokeach Value Survey still used today?
Yes, but more in academic and organizational research than in clinical practice. It remains useful for forcing people to clarify priorities, though some practitioners use newer instruments that include contemporary values. Its strength is the ranking method, which creates visible trade-offs you cannot ignore.
Can your Rokeach rankings change over time?
Yes. Major life events, relationships, and shifts in perspective can all change what you rank as important. Retaking the survey years apart often reveals how your actual priorities have evolved. Some people find their rankings stay consistent; others discover they have been chasing values that no longer matter.