Values of men and women in different generations
The study is devoted to the investigation of sex differences in values and personality traits in representatives of four generations. Values are stable life goals that are important for a person, affecting his behavior, judgments and assessments. Values are hierarchically ordered by importance, and this hierarchy has individual variability, different people consider some values more important than others. Sex differences in values and personality traits are revealed at all ages and in different cultural samples. The sample of this study consisted of 969 respondents aged 14 to 79 years. All participants were divided into 4 groups, depending on the time during which they grew up: the period of the “Khrushchev thaw”, “The era of stagnation”, “The era of change” and “Putin’s presidency.” The methods used were the Schwartz Portrait Questionnaire, the Big Five questionnaire, the Tolerance to Uncertainty scale and the Activity scale. Assessment of sex differences according to basic values showed a more pronounced level of women’s preference for the value of Security in all four age groups. Sex differences are least pronounced in the group of the oldest respondents born during the thaw. Analysis of sex differences in personality traits showed that the most pronounced sex differences are characteristic of the youngest generation and for respondents born during the era of stagnation. In three groups, significant gender differences were obtained for neuroticism; women have higher scores for this personality trait. The revealed correlations between value orientations and personality traits showed similar tendencies for men and women: the value of Conservation is associated with consciousness, the value of Openness to change and Self-Enhancement - with openness to new experience; Self-Transcendence - with benevolence.