The Measurement of Values in Surveys: A Comparison of Ratings and Rankings

Social values are most commonly measured using ranking techniques,but there is a scarcity of systematic comparisons between rankingsand other approaches to measuring values in survey research.On the basis of data from the 1980 General Social Survey, thisarticle evaluates the comparability of results obtained usingrankings and ratings of valued qualities. The comparison focuseson (1) the ordering of aggregate value preferences and (2) themeasurement of individual differences in latent value preferences.The two methods are judged to be similar with respect to orderingthe aggregate preferences of the sample, but dissimilar withregard to the latent variable structure underlying the measures