The ten basic values and what yours say about you

The model comes from Schwartz's values research, which found the same ten values across a wide range of cultures, arranged in the same circle. Values explain things personality does not: why two equally organised people make opposite career choices, or why a perfectly nice partner can feel like a stranger on certain subjects. To find your top three, take the personal values test.

• Self-direction: thinking for yourself, choosing your own path, making your own things. More on self-direction.
• Stimulation: novelty, excitement, challenge. A life that does not repeat. More on stimulation.
• Hedonism: pleasure and enjoying life. The long lunch, the good wine, the day off. More on hedonism.
• Achievement: doing well and being seen to do well. Goals, results, recognition. More on achievement.
• Power: status, influence and control over resources. Having a say in how things go. More on power.
• Security: safety, stability and order, for you and the people you love. More on security.
• Conformity: keeping the peace by not upsetting people or breaking expectations. More on conformity.
• Tradition: respecting the customs, faith or culture you come from. More on tradition.
• Benevolence: caring for the people close to you. Friends, family, your team. More on benevolence.
• Universalism: caring for everyone and everything, including strangers and the planet. More on universalism.

The ten values are arranged in a circle, and the position matters. Values next to each other are easy to hold together. Values across from each other pull in opposite directions.

There are two big tensions.

• Openness to change versus conservation. Self-direction and stimulation sit across from security, conformity and tradition. One side says "try something new". The other says "keep what works".
• Self-enhancement versus self-transcendence. Power and achievement sit across from universalism and benevolence. One side says "get ahead". The other says "look after others".

Hedonism sits between openness and self-enhancement, sharing a little with both.

This is why some decisions feel agonising. If you score high on both security and stimulation, a job offer abroad is not a simple yes or no. Two of your real values are pulling against each other, and you will feel the pull whichever you choose.

Your top three values work together, and the combination tells a story.

• Self-direction, universalism, benevolence: you want freedom to live by your principles and to do good on your own terms. You may bristle at rules that feel unfair.
• Security, benevolence, tradition: you are the steady centre of your people. You keep the family going, remember the birthdays and protect what matters.
• Achievement, power, stimulation: you want to win, and you want the game to be interesting. Comfort bores you quickly.
• Hedonism, stimulation, self-direction: life is for living. You choose experiences over possessions, and freedom over a sensible plan.
• Benevolence, conformity, security: you keep the peace and look after people. You are the friend who notices who has been left out.

Your bottom values are just as revealing. A low score on power does not mean you are a pushover. It means status does not move you, so a bigger title will not make a job feel better.

Our personal values test is our own questionnaire, built on Schwartz's ten values. It has thirty items, three for each value, and takes about five minutes. You rate how important each one is to you.

Then we centre your scores on your own average. That matters. Most people rate nearly everything as important, because nearly everything is. Centring compares your values against each other rather than against a fixed scale, so even if you mark everything as essential, you still get a real ranking and a clear top three.

Values are most useful when you have a choice to make.

• Choosing work. Ask what a role would let you live out. A high-security person will be calmer in a stable organisation. A high-stimulation person will be restless in it.
• Understanding friction. Many recurring arguments are values clashes in disguise. A row about money might really be security against hedonism.
• Making big decisions. Write down your top three, then score each option against them. It is surprising how often the answer becomes obvious.
• Explaining yourself. "I need to feel this is fair" or "I need things to be predictable for a while" is easier to hear than a vague bad mood.

Values sit alongside personality, not inside it. Your Big Five traits describe how you tend to behave. Your values describe what you are trying to achieve. Your interests describe what you enjoy doing.

Put together, they explain a lot. If you have a high-openness personality, a self-direction value and Artistic interests, the creative freelance life will make sense to you in a way it would not to everyone. For the full picture, pair this with the Big Five personality test and the career interest test.

When you are ready, take the personal values test and see your top three.