Values and Life Styles

The groups listed below are one version of VALS. These value and life style groups are used by advertisers as target audiences for advertisements for their products. There are a number of different category schemes for VALS. This one taken from your textbook, shows variation on two dimensions: availability of resources (economic, informational, social) BB top to bottom, and focus on abstract principle vs focus on concrete action BB left to right.

 

                                                                                                                                High on Resources  

 

 

Principle Oriented

 

Status Oriented

 

Action Oriented

 

 

Fulfilleds B mature, satisfied, reflective.  Well educated, often retired or professional,  informed.  Content with life, career, family.  Home centered

 

Believers B conservative, conventional, concrete beliefs, family and church values, follow established routines, moral, deferential to respected leaders

 

 

Actualizers - successful, take-charge, high self-esteem, lots of resources, seek growth, development and the chance to have an impact.

 

Achievers - successful, career-oriented, feel in-control of life, value consensus, stability over intimacy and self-discovery.  Work centered, materialistic

 

Strivers - seek motivation and self-definition from others, seeking security, unsure of self.  Low on economic, social and psychological resources, concerned about others views.

 

Strugglers B narrow lives, chronically poor, low-skilled, weak social bonds, concerned about health, resigned, passive, seeks security and safety.

 

 

Experiencers - enthusiastic, young, impulsive, rebellious, still forming values, changeable, politically uncommitted, ambivalent about many beliefs.

 

Makers - practical, have constructive skills, traditional in family and work life, physical recreation, experience life Ahands-on.  Usually successful.

 

                                                                                                                          Low on Resources  

 

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last updated 2/26/2001