Date of Award

12-14-2015

Document Type

Open Access Dissertation

Department

Educational Studies

First Advisor

Kellah Edens

Abstract

The term value is a psychological construct frequently used in the social sciences. This research addresses the issue of stability of ratings of perceived value of participants for monetary, tangible, and intangible items that cross contexts. Also elucidated is the relationship of value to regret. Hypothesis one stated that value would be stable across time and different rating conditions. Forty-four participants rated the value of 72 stimulus items at two time points and in different contexts. Paired samples t-tests indicated 28 participants had no statistical difference in scores. Twenty-eight scores out of 44, when applied to a binomial test, indicates a more than chance proportion of significant scores. The second hypothesis investigated if a difference in stability existed in monetary, tangible item, and intangible item domains. Paired samples t-tests of difference scores for all domains of stimulus items grouped by stimulus item category revealed that all three pair-wise comparisons showed statistical differences. The third hypothesis stated there was a clear and predictable relationship in the ratings of value and regret in a blind choice condition. After rating value and regret in a choice condition for hypothesis three, a statistically significant proportion of the participants fell within the hypothesized relationship between value and regret. This suggests that the construct of value has strong, stable, and predictable elements. These results encourage additional research into the nature of value, and its relationship to regret, to form a more comprehensive future definition that will benefit multiple fields of study.

Rights

© 2015, William Samuel Morris Jr.

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