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Influencing value priorities and increasing well-being:
The effects of reflecting on intrinsic values
a

a

a

a

Natasha Lekes , Nora H. Hope , Lucie Gouveia , Richard Koestner & Frederick L.
Philippeba

Department of Psychology, McGill University, Stewart Biology Building, 1205 Dr. Penfield,
Montreal H3A 1B1, QC, Canadab

Département de Psychologie, Université du Québec à Montréal, Pavillon J.A. De Sève,
local DS-2935, 305 rue Christin, Montreal, QC, Canada
Version of record first published: 11 Apr 2012.

To cite this article: Natasha Lekes, Nora H. Hope, Lucie Gouveia, Richard Koestner & Frederick L. Philippe (2012):
Influencing value priorities and increasing well-being: The effects of reflecting on intrinsic values, The Journal of Positive
Psychology: Dedicated to furthering research and promoting good practice, 7:3, 249-261
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The Journal of Positive Psychology
Vol. 7, No. 3, May 2012, 249–261

Influencing value priorities and increasing well-being:
The effects of reflecting on intrinsic values
Natasha Lekesa*, Nora H. Hopea, Lucie Gouveiaa, Richard Koestnera and Frederick L. PhilippebaDepartment of Psychology, McGill University, Stewart Biology Building, 1205 Dr. Penfield,
Montreal H3A 1B1, QC, Canada; bDe´partement de Psychologie, Universite´ du Que´bec à Montre´al,Pavillon J.A. De Se`ve, local DS-2935, 305 rue Christin, Montreal, QC, Canada

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(Received 1 July 2011; final version received 14 March 2012)
A four-week experimental study (N ¼ 113) examined the effects of reflecting on intrinsic values. In theexperimental group, participants learned about the distinction between intrinsic (e.g. having close relationships)
and extrinsic (e.g. being popular) values, wrote about two personal intrinsic values, and then reflected on thesevalues weekly for four weeks. In the control group, participants completed parallel exercises related to the daily
details of their lives. Results revealed that participants in the intrinsic values group experienced greater well-being
immediately following the written reflection than participants in the control group. Four weeks later, the moreengaged participants felt in the reflection exercises, the more they prioritized intrinsic over extrinsic values andthe greater their well-being. These effects occurred only for participants in the intrinsic values condition. The
implications for changing value priorities and improving well-being are discussed.
Keywords: intrinsic and extrinsic values; value change; values intervention; well-being

Introduction
Can individuals change their value priorities by taking
the time to reflect on what is important to them andfocusing on intrinsic pursuits such as forming close
relationships and self-development rather than extrinsic pursuits such as becoming popular and wealthy?
This question has not been addressed empirically but
its answer may have implications for peoples’ qualityof life given that a substantial body of researchsuggests that the well-being individuals experience isrelated to the types of values they prioritize. In thisarticle, we tested whether inviting university students
to reflect on and write about their intrinsic values
would lead to changes in their value priorities andconsequently, increases in their well-being.
How happy and vital individuals feel is associatedwith the values that they prioritize. Drawing fromhumanistic theories (Maslow, 1954; Rogers, 1964), selfdetermination theory proposes that human beings are
growth-oriented and that a focus on values that
support their needs results in greater well-being andself-actualization (Kasser, 2002a). Self-determination
theorists have distinguished the content of values andgoals as either intrinsic or extrinsic (Kasser, 2002a;
Kasser & Ryan, 1993, 1996). People differ in the degree
to which they place importance on intrinsic versus
extrinsic pursuits. Intrinsic values, such as striving to*Corresponding author. Email: natasha.lekes@mail.mcgill.ca
ISSN 1743–9760 print/ISSN 1743–9779 online
ß 2012 Taylor & Francis
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2012.677468
http://www.tandfonline.com

help others, are thought to be expressive of natural
growth tendencies, whereas extrinsic, materialistic
values, such as striving for popularity, depend on thecontingent reaction of others and are typically engaged
in as a means to an end. Researchers have confirmed
the categorization of values into intrinsic and extrinsic
pursuits, demonstrating across 15 countries, thatvalues are organized in a circumplex structure(Grouzet et al., 2005). In such a circular structure,some values are compatible with each other and somevalues are in conflict with each other. Thus, intrinsic
values tend to group together and to oppose extrinsic
values. The intrinsic/extrinsic distinction allows
researchers to look at centrality (Rokeach, 1973), theidea that values are organized in a system where someare prioritized over others.
A substantial body of research has demonstrated
that prioritizing intrinsic over extrinsic values is
associated with greater well-being, as measured by
self-report and clinical interviews of individuals’ vitality, social functioning, depression, anxiety, and physical ailments (see Kasser, 2002b for a review). The link
between intrinsic value priorities and well-being has
been found among adolescents (Lekes, Gingras,
Philippe, Koestner, & Fang, 2010), university students(Kasser & Ryan 1993, 1996), working adults(Vansteenkiste et al., 2007), and older adults

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N. Lekes et al.

(Sheldon & Kasser, 2001). In addition to North
American samples, the link has been shown in different
nations including Russia (Ryan et al., 1999), Germany(Schmuck, Kasser, & Ryan, 2000), Korea (Kim,
Kasser, & Lee, 2003), and China (Lekes et al., 2010).
Intrinsic and extrinsic values are thought to relatedifferently to well-being because of how they differ inthe degree to which they satisfy individuals’ basic needs
for autonomy (feeling volitional and authentic in one’s
actions), relatedness (feeling connected and cared for),and competence (feeling effective and efficacious)(Deci & Ryan, 2000; Kasser, 2002a). Intrinsic values
are congruent with the psychological needs for autonomy, relatedness, and competence while extrinsic
values are associated with a lack of psychologicalneed fulfillment.
The majority of research on intrinsic versus extrinsic values and well-being has been conducted using
cross-sectional designs and correlational analyses.
However, a few recent studies have used prospective
and experimental designs. In a one-year longitudinal
study, Niemiec, Ryan, and Deci (2009) found thatchange in the attainment of post-college students’
intrinsic values related to change in well-being.
Furthermore, the relationship was mediated by psychological need satisfaction, as predicted by selfdetermination theory. The most direct test of thecausal role of intrinsic pursuits in promoting well-being
came from a recent study by Sheldon, Gunz, Nichols,
and Ferguson (2010). Participants were randomly
assigned to pursue either three extrinsic goals (e.g.
enhance your name recognition or popularity, find away to earn some extra money) or three intrinsic goals(e.g. get to know someone beyond a superficial level,join a volunteer organization). The researchers asked
participants to rate their goal progress after two andfour weeks and found that intrinsic, but not extrinsic,
goal attainment was related to changes in well-being.
These results occurred regardless of participants’
original intrinsic versus extrinsic value orientations.
This recent work on the relationship between wellbeing and assigned intrinsic versus extrinsic goals leads
to the following question: Is it possible to encourage
shifts in personal intrinsic value priorities, thereby
improving individuals’ well-being? Values are enduring
beliefs that some goals are preferable to others(Allport, 1961; Rokeach, 1973) and they are thought
to guide peoples’ attitudes, emotions, and behavior(Kasser, 2002a), to transcend specific situations(Rokeach, 1973), and to persist over time, influencing
an individual’s life for years and decades (Roberts &Robins, 2000). Researchers have noted that values area poorly studied area in the field of psychology(P. Cohen & J. Cohen, 1996; Kasser, 2002a;
Rokeach, 1973) and that value change is a neglected
topic (Bardi, Lee, Hofmann-Towfigh, & Soutar, 2009;
Maio, Pakizeh, Cheung, & Rees, 2009). This is in part

because values are viewed as stable in nature, yet many
researchers have remarked on their malleability(Kasser, 2002b; Rokeach, 1973; Schwartz 1997).
Moreover, there is evidence that values changeover time and following certain life events. Peoples’
values have been shown to change following traumatic events (Verkasalo, Goodwin, & Bezmenova,
2006), changes in political system (Danis, Liu, &Vacek, 2011), and educational experiences (Sheldon &Krieger, 2004). There is also evidence to show that
overall peoples’ value priorities change over time, inthe direction of more intrinsically oriented pursuits.
In a sample of 17- to 82-year-olds, older individuals’
values tended to be more intrinsically oriented(Sheldon & Kasser, 2001) and over the course ofuniversity, young people prioritized intrinsic values toa greater extent (Sheldon, 2005). Sheldon and colleagues have further shown that individuals tend to
shift toward intrinsic values and away from extrinsic
values when asked to remember and revise previous
value ratings (Sheldon, Arndt, & Houser-Marko,
2003). The researchers suggested that their findings
provide evidence for an organismic valuing process(Rogers, 1964), in which individuals have an innate
awareness of the values and goals that are likely tobenefit their well-being. Thus, values change overtime, following life events and experiences, suggestingthat value priorities may be susceptible to direct
attempts at influencing them.
Researchers have tried various strategies to bringabout changes in values. In a recent series of studies,
researchers primed certain values and found thatparticipants increased behaviors congruent with theprimed values (Maio et al., 2009). Another method of
inducing value change is value self-confrontation,
developed by Rokeach (1973), in which individuals’
values are challenged by presenting them with information on the values, attitudes, and behaviors of apositive reference group. Rokeach explained that
individuals may become dissatisfied with themselves
when they realize that they would like to hold different
attitudes and values or behave differently, thereby
fostering change in values. Studies using the value selfconfrontation method have produced change in participants’ values, such as placing greater priority on
protecting the environment (Grube, Mayton, & BallRokeach, 1994) and on accruing wisdom (Schwartz &Inbar-Saban, 1988). In a recent study, value selfconfrontation led to change in targeted values, as well
as change in other values with similar and opposing
underlying motives, providing support for circumplex
models of values, in which values group together basedon their motivational aims (see Experiment 1, Maioet al., 2009). For example, the authors found thatparticipants in the condition that prioritized selftranscendence values increased their self-transcendent

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The Journal of Positive Psychology
values and decreased their self-enhancement values,
compared to participants in the control condition.
Rather than influence value priorities indirectly or
by making individuals feel unhappy with themselves, inthis study, we sought to create an opportunity for
individuals to learn about the research distinguishing
intrinsic from extrinsic values and to reflect on theirpersonal intrinsic values. Recently, Bardi andGoodwin (2011) proposed a model in which values
change by both automatic and effortful routes. We
developed our intervention based on the idea that
greater understanding and self-reflection, an effortfulroute, could influence value priorities. This is in linewith Kasser’s (2002b) suggestions for making personalchange in values. He explains that individuals mightchange by first contemplating the research findings
linking well-being and value priorities and that they
may then reflect on the reasons behind their value
priorities as well as how they developed. As mentioned
earlier, researchers have shown that over time, values
tend to naturally shift toward more intrinsic priorities,
providing some evidence for an organismic valuing
process (Sheldon et al., 2003). We hoped to facilitate
this shift by encouraging individuals to reflect on theirintrinsic values. As Rogers (1964) explained, adults
tend to lose touch with their organismic valuing
process and instead take in the value patterns ofothers and society. We chose to focus on intrinsic
values, given that these have been shown to becongruent with individuals’ psychological needs andrelated to their well-being (Kasser, 2002b; Niemiec
et al., 2009). We encouraged participants to identify
personally meaningful intrinsic values and reflect on
their importance, the role they play in their lives, andexperiences highlighting the values. It is this manner ofreflecting on experience that Rogers (1964) suggested
could bring individuals into contact with their true
values, the ones that make them feel more complete
and developed.
Given that individuals have both intrinsic andextrinsic values (Kasser, 2002a) and that it is thecentrality of individuals’ values that is important(Rokeach, 1973), we hoped to encourage individuals
to prioritize intrinsic over extrinsic values by reflecting
on and writing about personally meaningful intrinsic
values. Research suggests that moving toward intrinsic
values may be more important for well-being thanmoving away from extrinsic values (Sheldon, 2005).
Recent research further indicates that when values
change, compatible values change in the same direction
and conflicting values change in the opposite direction(Bardi et al., 2009; Maio et al., 2009). Thus, byencouraging a greater focus on intrinsic values, extrinsic values should also be affected. Indeed, basedon circumplex model of values, Kasser (2011) suggests focusing on alternate values as a strategy for251

reducing materialistic, extrinsic values, which are
related to ecologically destructive behavior.
In order to establish that reflecting on intrinsic
values can promote well-being, several experimental
factors must be considered. Most importantly, theimpact of experimental procedures aimed at intrinsic
values must be compared with a control condition thatencourages reflection on some distinct set of concernsthat would conceivably be seen as relating to wellbeing. We follow Sheldon and Lyubomirsky’s (2006)
use of a ‘life details’ reflection exercise as a control
condition. Participants in the control group completed
a set of exercises designed to parallel those in theexperimental condition; they were asked to read about,reflect on and write about the ‘ordinary details’ of theirlives, such as their daily routine and activities. They
also received the parallel information about how afocus on life details may be beneficial to well-being.
There is not a body of evidence to support this claim asexists with the experimental condition. To make itseem plausible, we suggested that people in modern
societies tend to lead fast-paced lives, not taking thetime to stop and think about their daily routine andthat stopping to think about their daily activities mayhelp individuals to better identify areas of concern intheir lives and to experience greater well-being andhappiness. This was important in controlling for
expectancy effects, i.e. whether individuals rate theirwell-being higher simply because they were told thatthe exercises would lead to greater well-being.
To further control for possible biases in responding, we included a measure of individual differences inthe tendency to respond in a socially desirable way.
There is a danger that participants in the experimental
condition may shift toward more intrinsic values not
because of any meaningful change resulting from aprocess of reflection, but rather because the intrinsic
values are viewed as more socially desirable. The social
desirability measure was used as a covariate when
considering the impact of the experimental condition
versus the control condition on change in value
priorities and well-being.
Given the findings that intrinsic values have beenshown to increase during university (Sheldon, 2005),
but that some educational experiences may lead to adecrease in intrinsic values (Sheldon & Krieger, 2004),
university students seemed to be an appropriate
population to explore the effects of a reflection exercise
on values. This period of life, labeled emerging
adulthood by Arnett (2000), has been highlighted as
an important time for interventions fostering positive
development (O’Connor et al., 2011). Beginning in lateadolescence, individuals are focused on discovering themeaning of their lives and their place in the world(Piaget, 1967), making young adulthood a natural time
to reflect on values.

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N. Lekes et al.

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Present study
A four-week experimental study was conducted to
examine the effect of a values reflection exercise on
well-being and changes in value priorities among
university students. We had four main hypotheses.
We expected participants who learned about intrinsic
and extrinsic values and spent 20 min writing about
their intrinsic values to experience greater well-being
immediately following the activity compared to participants in the control group, who learned and wrote
about life details (Hypothesis 1). We expected thewritten reflection to sufficiently engage participants,
whereas follow-up effects on well-being would dependon how engaged they felt while reflecting during the
weeks that followed the main exercise. We hypothesized that four weeks following the writing activity,
during which time they were encouraged to continue
reflecting on their values, participants in the intrinsic
values group would be more likely to prioritize
intrinsic over extrinsic values than participants in thecontrol group (Hypothesis 2). We expected that thisfinding would occur particularly for participants who
were fully engaged in the process of reflecting on theirvalues. Similarly, we expected that the more theparticipants felt engaged in the process of reflecting
on their intrinsic values, the more they would maintainbenefits to their well-being (Hypothesis 3). Level ofengagement in the reflection exercises about life details
was not expected to relate to changes in either values orwell-being. Finally, we expected that changes in the
degree to which participants prioritized intrinsic over
extrinsic values would mediate the relationshipbetween engagement in reflecting on intrinsic values
and well-being (Hypothesis 4).

MethodParticipants and procedure
University undergraduates were recruited through an
extra credit program, in which psychology students canearn two extra credits for participating in a researchstudy, and through classified ads, targeted at students
from all departments. Students were invited to participate in the ‘Looking in the mirror: Reflecting on life
study’, in which they would be asked to completequestionnaires on their feelings and values and reflect
on their lives through a writing exercise. The initialsample consisted of 113 participants (87 women and 26men) and 104 completed the follow-up questionnaires
after 4 weeks. Participants’ age ranged from 17 to 25
years with a mean of 19.79. Sixty-six percent ofparticipants were Caucasian, 27% were Asian, and
3% were Black/African Canadian.
Initially, participants attended small-group laboratory sessions in which they were randomly assigned to
one of two conditions: an intrinsic values group or alife details (control) group. During this session,
they responded to questionnaires on their values andwell being, completed an exercise which differed foreach group, and then completed the same well-being
questionnaires, as well as a social desirability scale.
Over the next four weeks, participants were e-mailed areflection question each week and asked to provide ashort response. Participants were assured of theconfidentiality of their responses. At the end of fourweeks, they were emailed a link to an online survey, inwhich they again completed the values and well-being
questionnaires, as well as a measure of the degree towhich they had felt engaged in the study activities.
They were then sent a debriefing form and compensated either with two course credits or a payment of 20
dollars.

Exercises
In both the intrinsic values and the control group,participants read about a topic (values or life details),
answered questions based on what they had learned
from the reading, and then did a written reflection
exercise for approximately 20 min. The weekly emails
were brief, containing two quotes, a reminder of what
they had written about, and a question to answer in a
reply email. The exercises for the two groups werematched in both length and format.
Intrinsic values
Participants first read a text that began with adefinition of values and a description of the distinction
between intrinsic and extrinsic values. To ensure thatthey actively read the text, participants were asked tocircle the intrinsic values from a list of both intrinsic
and extrinsic values. They were then asked to read aseries of quotes and circle the ones reflecting intrinsic
values. Participants were then informed that individuals who prioritize intrinsic over extrinsic values tend
to experience greater well-being and were provided
with a rationale for the connection between values andwell-being.
Next, participants were asked to read over a list of
13 different intrinsic values and select the two mostimportant to them. Examples included ‘having closeand supportive friends’, ‘devoting time for personal
growth and development’, and ‘helping your community through volunteer work’. Participants were
informed that they would be writing about thesevalues and were invited to adapt or rephrase them tosuit their personal values. Participants then reflectedon the importance of their two selected values in a
15–20 min writing exercise. Specifically, they wereasked to describe why these values were important tothem, personal experiences highlighting these values,
how these values were incorporated in their life, andThe Journal of Positive Psychology
why they were more important to them than othervalues.
Participants were encouraged to continue reflecting
on their intrinsic values. Over the next four weeks, theyreceived an e-mail each week, with two quotes reflecting intrinsic values, a reminder of their two values, anda reflective question. The study materials are available
upon request.

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Life details
Following Sheldon and Lyubormirsky’s (2006) use of a‘life details’ exercise, control group participants completed a parallel set of exercises, in which they wereasked to read about, reflect on, and write about the‘ordinary details’ of their lives, such as their daily
routine and activities. As in the intrinsic values
condition, the text stated that paying attention to life
details was beneficial to well-being. For the reflection
activity, participants chose two personal life details
from a list of 13 activities, including ‘going out to amovie’, ‘exercising’, ‘cleaning your living space’, and‘cooking dinner’. Participants were instructed to take
15–20 min to describe how each activity fit into theirlarger routine, how often they engaged in these
activities, where they did them, and with whom they
did them. The e-mails mirrored those sent to the values
participants, including two quotes about daily routine,a reminder of their two life details, and a question
about their daily routine.

Measures2531984). Good internal reliabilities of  > 0.85 wereobtained in our sample.
The positive and negative affect scales were highly
negatively correlated with each other (rs ranging from
0.38 to 0.47). We therefore computed an affectbalance score at each time point by subtracting
participants’ mean negative affect score from theirpositive affect score. This procedure has been used inprevious studies (Koestner, Lekes, Powers, &Chicoine, 2002).
Values
A shortened version of the Aspiration Index (Kasser &Ryan, 1996) was used to measure participants’ intrinsic
and extrinsic values. Participants were asked to rate theimportance of 18 long-term aspirations on a scale of 1
(not at all) to 7 (very much). Intrinsic values included:‘to have committed, intimate relationships’, ‘to work to
make the world a better place’, and ‘to grow and learn
new things’. Extrinsic values included: ‘to be famous’,‘to have enough money to buy everything you want’;and ‘to have an image that others find appealing’.
Acceptable internal reliabilities of  > 0.75 wereobtained for both the intrinsic and extrinsic aspiration
scales. Following the methodology of Sheldon andKasser (1995, 2001, 2008), we calculated an index of
intrinsic relative to extrinsic values by subtracting themean extrinsic rating from the mean intrinsic rating.
This values index is in line with previous findings inwhich extrinsic values have been found to be detrimental when they are strongly pursued, above more
intrinsic pursuits (Kasser, 2002a).

Well-being
To capture the two approaches in measuring wellbeing, hedonic, focusing on happiness, and eudaimonic, focusing on the degree to which a person is fully
functioning (Ryan & Deci, 2001), we measured participants’ affect and their vitality. On the affect scale(Emmons, 1992), respondents indicated the extent towhich they felt a series of four positive (joyful,enjoyment/fun, pleased, and happy) and five negative(unhappy, worried/anxious, depressed, angry/hostile,and frustrated) emotions. On the vitality scale (Ryan &Frederick, 1997), they responded to seven statements
reflecting the feeling of being alive and alert, such as‘I feel alive and vital’. Vitality has been proposed as animportant component of personal well-being (Bostic,
Rubio, & Hood, 2000; Peterson & Seligman, 2004).
Before and after the lab session exercise, participants
were asked about how they felt at that moment, inorder to assess their immediate feelings. On the online
survey, 4 weeks later, they were asked about how they
had felt over the past week, to get a more enduringassessment of well-being. The well-being scales havebeen validated (Bostic et al., 2000; Diener & Emmons,Social desirability
Participants responded to a 13-item version (Reynolds,
1982) of the Marlowe–Crowne Social Desirability
Scale (Crowne & Marlowe, 1960), in which theyanswered true or false to statements designed to tap
a social desirability bias. In a cross-validation of theshorter scale, Zook and Sipps (1985) found that it
could be administered instead of the original 33-item
scale without significant loss of reliability.
Exercise engagement
To assess the degree to which participants felt engaged
in the exercises (on values or life details), we followed
Heslin, Latham, and VandeWalle’s (2005) measurement of response to a workshop. At the end of theonline survey, we requested participants’ feedback on
their experience taking part in the study. On a scale 1(strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree), they wereasked to rate the degree to which they found reflecting
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N. Lekes et al.

‘thought-provoking’, ‘insightful’, ‘helpful’, and ‘worthwhile’.1 This scale had acceptable internal consistency,
 ¼ 0.80.
To examine the concurrent validity of the selfreported measure of engagement, we made use of thenarrative material that participants provided in the
fourth on-line exercise. Specifically, the second author
coded each participant’s response for number of words
and depth of engagement (1–4 scale). The responses
included a mean of 182 words and an average depth
rating of 3.24. Depth and number of words were highly
correlated, r ¼ 0.75; therefore, we combined them into
one variable. Self-reported engagement in the exercise
was significantly related to our coded measure ofengagement, r ¼ 0.20, p < 0.05.

Results
Preliminary analyses
The measures of affect balance and vitality were highly
related to each other, with the correlations ranging
from 0.69 to 0.76, and a mean correlation of r ¼ 0.73.
Because of these high correlations, we created a wellbeing index by computing the mean of participants’affect balance and vitality scores at each time point.
We tested for effects of sex of participants for all
outcome variables and found no mean differences orinteraction effects for condition approaching significance (ps > 0.10); therefore, sex is not included in themain analyses.
Table 1 presents the means, standard deviations,and correlations for all of the variables in the study.
The mean for the values index (intrinsic relative to
extrinsic values) indicates that, on average, participants
rated intrinsic values more than two points higher (ona 1–7 scale) than extrinsic values. The relative emphasis
on intrinsic values is consistent with previous research(Kasser, 2002a). Well-being was significantly lower atbaseline than at the four-week follow-up, t (101) ¼
2.16, p < 0.05. The correlations revealed high levels of
stability over time for both the values index and thewell-being measure. Social desirability was significantly
positively related to both the values index andwell-being, highlighting the importance of controlling
for this individual difference variable.
There were no differences between the conditions in
the degree to which they felt engaged in the exercises,t (102) ¼ 0.56, n.s. There were also no differences
between conditions on the coded depth of engagement
or in the number of words that they used, ps > 0.25.
These findings suggest that engagement was a relevant
variable in both conditions. Correlational analyses
revealed that engagement was unrelated to baseline
levels of well-being and values, rs ¼ 0.08 and 0.01,
respectively. Together, these results suggest thatengagement represents an emergent process that was
unrelated to condition and to baseline functioning.
The nine participants who dropped out of theexperiment were compared with the 104 who completed it. No between-group differences approachingsignificance were obtained for any of the baseline
measures (ps > 0.10).

Central analyses
To test our first hypothesis, that participants in the
intrinsic values condition would experience greater
well-being immediately following the reflection exercise
than participants in the control condition, a hierarchical multiple regression analysis was performed withparticipants’ well-being at the end of the lab session as
the dependent variable. The first set of predictors wastheir baseline values index, social desirability, and wellbeing. Condition was entered next followed by theinteraction of baseline values and condition. All
predictors were standardized before entry in the
regression equation. The interaction term was createdby calculating the product. The predictors accounted
for a multiple R of 0.83, R2 ¼ 0.70, F (5, 105) ¼ 51.39,
p < 0.0001. Baseline well-being was highly related towell-being at the end of the session,  ¼ 0.78,
p < 0.0001. Baseline values were unrelated to wellbeing at the end of the session,  ¼ 0.04, n.s., whereassocial desirability was marginally related to reporting
enhanced well-being,  ¼ 0.11, p ¼ 0.06. Condition was
significantly positively related to well-being at the end

Table 1. Means, standard deviations, and correlations for all variables.

1. Values index baseline
2. Social desirability
3. Well-being baseline
4. Well-being post lab Session
5. Well-being at 4 weeks
6. Values index at 4 weeks
7. Engagement in exercises
Note: *p < 0.05 and **p < 0.01.

M

SD

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

2.27
5.83
3.01
3.43
3.39
2.39
5.24

1.11
2.54
1.56
1.47
1.50
1.30
1.03

–
0.27**
0.09
0.14
0.25*
0.79**
0.01–
0.36**
0.40**
0.32**
0.19
0.02

–
0.82**
0.43**
0.14
0.08

–
0.49**
0.20*
0.11

–
0.34**
0.17

–
0.18

–

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The Journal of Positive Psychologyof the first session,  ¼ 0.12, t ¼ 2.27, p < 0.05.
As hypothesized, participants in the experimental
condition reported greater well-being than participantsin the control condition, after controlling for baseline
levels of well-being, values, and social desirability.
Specifically, the mean rating of well-being for experimental participants was 3.59 compared to a mean of
3.23 for control participants. The two-way interactionof baseline values and condition did not approachsignificance,  ¼ 0.06, n.s.
Our second hypothesis was that at the four-weekassessment, participants in the intrinsic values groupwould be more likely to prioritize intrinsic over
extrinsic values than participants in the control
group. However, we expected that these findings
would occur only for participants who felt engaged in
the process of reflecting on their values over the fourweeks of the study. A hierarchical multiple regression
analysis was performed with participants’ values index
at the four-week assessment as the dependent variable.
The first set of predictors was their baseline values
index and social desirability. Condition and exercise
engagement were entered next, followed by the interactions of condition by initial values, initial values by
exercise engagement, and condition by exercise engagement. Finally, the three-way interaction of initialvalues, condition, and engagement was entered. All
predictors were standardized before entry in the
regression equation. The interaction terms were created by calculating products. The predictors accounted
for a multiple R of 0.80, R2 ¼ 0.64, F (8,93) ¼ 20.45,
p < 0.0001. Table 2 shows the standardized regression
effects for each of the predictor variables at the point
they were entered in the regression equation. It can beseen that the baseline values index was highly related to
the later values index. Condition was unrelated tovalues but level of engagement was significantly
positively related. There was no interaction between
initial values and condition or between initial values
and engagement, but, as expected, the interaction of

condition and level of exercise engagement significantly predicted the later values index. The three-way
interaction was non significant. To understand thecondition  engagement interaction, we repeatedthe regression analyses separately for participants in
the intrinsic values and control conditions. These
analyses revealed that in the intrinsic values condition,
there was a significant positive relation between
engagement in the intervention and high prioritizationof intrinsic over extrinsic values at four weeks, ¼ 0.39, p < 0.001. There was no relation between
exercise engagement and week 4 values index in thecontrol condition,  ¼ 0.01, n.s.
Our third hypothesis was that the more experimental participants felt engaged in the process of writing
about and reflecting on their intrinsic values, the morethey would maintain benefits to their well-being. No
such benefits were expected for control participants
who wrote about life details. A hierarchical multiple
regression analysis was performed with well-being atfour weeks as the dependent variable. The first set ofpredictors included baseline well-being, baseline values
index, and social desirability. Condition was enterednext followed by exercise engagement. The interactionsof condition by initial values, initial values by exercise
engagement, and condition by exercise engagement
were entered next. The three-way interaction of condition, initial values, and engagement was entered last.
The predictors accounted for a multiple R of 0.59,
R2 ¼ 0.28, F (8,93) ¼ 6.16, p < 0.001. Table 2 shows thestandardized regression effects for each of the predictor
variables at the point they were entered in the
regression equation. It can be seen that baseline wellbeing was significantly positively related to four-week
well-being. The baseline values index was marginallyrelated to later well-being. Condition was unrelated towell-being but level of exercise engagement was significantly positively related. The interaction of condition
with baseline values was nonsignificant. The interaction of baseline values with engagement was

Table 2. Standardized regression coefficients and t-tests for values index and well-being at
4 weeks.
Values index at 4 weeks

Well-being baseline
Values index baseline
Social desirability
Condition (1 ¼ experimental/0 ¼ control)
Engagement
Condition  values index baseline
Engagement  values index baseline
Condition  engagement
Condition  values  engagement
Note: **p < 0.01; *p < 0.05; and #p < 0.10.

Well-being at 4 weeks

t-test

t-test0.04
0.74**
0.00
0.10
0.19**
0.04
0.04
0.20**
0.08

0.50
10.57
0.19
1.43
2.92
0.58
0.39
3.13
1.29

0.35**
0.17#
0.13
0.00
0.20*
0.07
0.19*
0.18*
0.03

3.67
1.82
1.34
0.03
2.26
0.91
2.15
2.01
0.33

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N. Lekes et al.

significant. This finding indicates that participants who
were relatively more extrinsic in their values at baseline
and who engaged more in an exercise, regardless ofwhat type (experimental or control), experienced
greater well-being at four weeks. The interaction that
we were interested in was condition by level ofengagement. As expected, it was significantly positively
related to well-being at four weeks. The three-way
interaction was nonsignificant. To understand thecondition x engagement interaction, we repeated theregression analyses separately for participants inthe control and experimental conditions. These analyses revealed that in the intrinsic values condition there
was a significant positive relation between exercise
engagement and improvement in well-being,  ¼ 0.39,
p < 0.001. There was no relation between engagement
and improved well-being in the control condition,
 ¼ 0.02, n.s.2
Our final hypothesis was that there would be a
mediational link for participants in the intrinsic values
condition such that the degree to which participantsprioritized intrinsic over extrinsic values would mediate
the relationship between engagement in the exercises
and well-being. To test this mediation hypothesis, amultiple-group path analysis was conducted in Lisrel
8.8. The mediation engagement ! increases in intrinsic
value priorities ! increases in well-being was tested foreach experimental condition and compared with one
another (controlling for all baseline measures and social
desirability). The path coefficients of the control condition were first constrained to be equal to those of the
intrinsic values condition (baseline 2 and RMSEA are
equal to zero since the model is just identified). Results
revealed poor fit indices for this constrained model,
2(9) ¼ 18.46, p < 0.05, RMSEA ¼ 0.15, indicating thatthe model was not equal across the two conditions.
Further analyses of the differences between the two
conditions revealed that the path engagement ! intrinsic value priorities at four weeks, D2(1) ¼ 9.16,
RMSEA ¼ 0.41, and the path intrinsic value priorities
at 4-weeks ! well-being at four weeks, D2(1) ¼ 3.86,
RMSEA ¼ 0.16, were significantly different across thetwo conditions. Indeed, in the experimental condition,
engagement was significantly associated with increases
in intrinsic value priorities over time ( ¼ 0.40,
p < 0.001), which was, in turn, associated with increases
in well-being over time ( ¼ 0.44, p < 0.01). These
relationships were not significant in the control group( ¼ 0.01 and  ¼ 0.02, respectively). All other paths
were not significantly different between the two conditions, D2(7) ¼ 6.02, n.s, RMSEA ¼ 0.00. In addition, in
the intrinsic values group, the relationship between
engagement and well-being ( ¼ 0.44, p < 0.01) was
substantially reduced ( ¼ 0.20, n.s) with the inclusionof the mediator. Figure 1 shows this mediation for eachgroup separately.

A Sobel test was used to calculate the significanceof mediation for the path leading from engagement tothe values index to the level of well-being. A Sobel
test indicates whether a mediator variable (values at
the four-week assessment) significantly carries theinfluence of an independent variable (exercise engagement) to a dependent variable (well-being at fourweeks); that is, whether the indirect effect of the
independent variable on the dependent variablethrough the mediator variable is significant. The
Sobel test was significant, z ¼ 2.35, p < 0.05.

Discussion
This study expanded on previous work examining
values and well-being in several ways. Rather thanconfronting participants about their values (Grubeet al., 1994; see Experiment 1, Maio et al., 2009) orassigning intrinsic and extrinsic goals (Sheldon, Gunz,
et al., 2010), we invited participants to think about thedistinction between intrinsic and extrinsic pursuits andto reflect deeply on their personal intrinsic values. We
followed previous researchers who had participants
write about their values (King, 2001; Sheldon &Lyubomirsky, 2006), but we provided a direction for
their written reflections, drawing on a substantial bodyof research indicating that prioritizing intrinsic over
extrinsic values is associated with greater well-being.
We found that it is possible to direct individuals
towards intrinsic rather than extrinsic values whileallowing them to reflect on values that are personally
meaningful. We looked specifically at change in values,a neglected topic in psychology research (Bardi et al.,2009), and linked it to well-being, providing experimental evidence for the relationship between prioritizing intrinsic over extrinsic values and well-being.
To summarize the results, participants in the
intrinsic values group experienced greater well-being
immediately following the written reflection thanparticipants in the control group, controlling forsocial desirability and participants’ baseline values
and well-being. Over the next four weeks, participantsin the experimental group were encouraged to continue
reflecting on their intrinsic values while participants inthe control group were encouraged to continue thinking about their daily activities. At the end of the fourweeks, the more deeply participants had reflected on
their intrinsic values, the more they prioritized intrinsic
over extrinsic values and the greater their well-being,
controlling for social desirability as well as baseline
values and well-being. There were no such effects forparticipants in the control group, that is, whether or
not they engaged in thinking about the daily details of
their lives, they did not experience a shift in their value
priorities or benefits to their well-being. Finally, we
found evidence for a mediational link indicating that inDownloaded by [Université du Québec à Montréal] at 11:50 19 November 2012

The Journal of Positive Psychology

257

Figure 1. Multiple-group path analysis examining the mediation engagement ! increases in intrinsic value priorities ! increases
in well-being across experimental conditions.
Notes: *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01. Paths without an asterisk are not significant.

the intrinsic values group, the association between
engagement and increased well-being was mediated bychanges in the degree to which participants prioritized
intrinsic over extrinsic values.
Our findings are congruent with previous work inwhich reflecting on life goals led to greater well-being.
Compared to control and gratitude exercises,
researchers found that imagining success at one’s life
goals was the most beneficial for increasing andmaintaining positive mood (Sheldon & Lyubomirsky,2006). Writing about life goals was associated withfeeling less upset, more happy, and getting sick lessoften compared to writing about trauma or a control
topic (King, 2001). Researchers have also shown thatclarifying values is important in clinical settings, suchas helping individuals cope with pain (BranstetterRost, Cushing, & Douleh, 2009). We found that
immediately after doing a 20-min reflection on theirintrinsic values, participants experienced greater wellbeing, compared to participants who wrote about
their life details. This supports the findings in which
writing about life goals led to an immediate increasein positive mood, while writing about trauma led to aslight decrease (King, 2001) and visualizing success at
one’s life goals produced an increase in positive affectwhile paying attention to life details and counting
one’s blessings did not (Sheldon & Lyubomirsky,2006).

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N. Lekes et al.

During the written exercise, participants were given
the space and time to reflect on their values, whereas
the follow-up reflections required more initiative.
Consistent with the sustainable happiness model(Lyubomirsky, Sheldon, & Schkade, 2005), in which
long-term emotional benefits demand persistent effort,
we found that the more that participants felt engaged
in reflecting on their intrinsic values through thefour weeks of the study, the greater their well-beingat the four-week follow-up. Similarly, Sheldon andLyubomirsky (2006) found that having self-concordant
motivation and continuing to practice a life goals
visualization exercise led to greater well-being at thefollow-up assessments. Notably, we found benefits toindividuals’ well-being while controlling for social
desirability, a variable that may bias value ratings(Schwartz, Verkasalo, Antonovsky, & Sagiv, 1997).
Moreover, we included an active control condition thatmatched the values condition in length and depth andprovided similar information that doing the exercises islinked to increased well-being. The experimental andcontrol groups were similar in their level of engagement, that is they found the study exercises equally
helpful, worthwhile, thought-provoking, and insightful, yet only engagement in the intrinsic values condition impacted participants’ well-being.
Researchers have found that priming certain values
leads to changes in value ratings (Gardner, Gabriel, &Lee, 1999) as well as changes in behaviors congruent
with the primed values (Maio et al., 2009). Peoples’
values have also been shown to change following
traumatic events (Verkasalo et al., 2006) and changes
in political system (Danis et al., 2011). We took an
approach in which individuals can play a more activerole in changing their values. Given the findings that
intrinsic and extrinsic values tend to group in acircumplex model (Grouzet et al., 2005) and thatvalues tend to change in this manner (Maio et al.,2009), we looked at changes in the degree to which
participants prioritized intrinsic values for close relationships, self-growth, and community contribution
over extrinsic values for wealth, an attractive image,and popularity. We found that our intervention, a lab
session reflection and writing exercise, followed by four
weekly exercises in which participants again reflectedon their intrinsic values, led to a change in theirprioritization of intrinsic values, the more that participants felt engaged in the reflection exercises. Thus, arelatively brief intervention led young people to orient
more towards intrinsic values. This suggests thatreflecting on intrinsic values is an effective way of
increasing their centrality. Although the change invalues that we observed was relatively small, the factthat it was statistically significant despite the brevity of
our intervention is noteworthy. Furthermore, researchers argue that small changes in values may be systematic and meaningful (Bardi et al., 2009).

While previous studies suggest that value priorities
become more intrinsically oriented over time (Sheldon,
2005; Sheldon et al., 2003; Sheldon & Kasser, 2001),
our findings indicate that values can also change as aresult of reflecting on them in an engaged manner.
Kasser (2011) describes social modeling as one of twopaths in which individuals come to prioritize extrinsic,
materialistic values. Presenting young people with theresearch on the benefits of prioritizing intrinsic values
and giving them the opportunity to reflect on theirintrinsic values may help to counter extrinsic values
espoused by others and society. In this way they may
get in touch with their true values, the ones that help
them feel fulfilled, described as an organismic valuing
process by Rogers (1964).
We used written exercises as a natural means ofreflecting on intrinsic values. As an example, thefollowing is an excerpt from a participant’s firstemailed follow-up reflection.
Focusing my time and energy on close, fulfilling
relationships and on my own personal growth insteadof worrying about what other people think has helpedme break out of the cycle of trying to please otherpeople and develop a stronger sense of self. I want tolive my life in my own way, guided by the things I careabout most, rather than blindly chasing after what
other people value. In order to do this, it is so
important to have friends and family who love andaccept you for who you are.

A large body of research has demonstrated thatwriting has salubrious effects (for a review, see
Frisina, Borod, & Lepore, 2004; Smyth, 1998). A
question that arises is whether the benefits that we
found for participants’ well-being are due to the actof writing rather than reflecting on intrinsic values.
Our finding that participants’ increase in well-being
was related to the changes in the degree to which theyprioritized intrinsic values at the four-week follow-up
supports the notion that reflecting on intrinsic values
led to greater well-being. This is congruent with thefinding that affirming values underlies the benefits ofexpressive writing (Creswell et al., 2007). These
researchers examined three potential mediators of
the effects of expressive writing on the physical healthof breast-cancer survivors: self-affirmation of values,
cognitive processing, and discovery of meaning.
Participants were asked to write about their experiences with breast cancer and their responses werecoded for the three potential mediators. Only affirmation of values, such as close relationships or
spirituality, mediated the effect of writing on participants’ health. Interestingly, our study and Creswell
et al.’s used different methodology – asking participants to specifically write about their values versus
asking participants to write freely about their experience and then coding their responses for values- andarrived at a similar finding.

The Journal of Positive Psychology

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Limitations and future directions
The present study was limited in several ways. We did
not include a group in which participants reflected on
their extrinsic values. Inclusion of such a group would
provide stronger evidence that it is reflecting on
intrinsic values in particular that is beneficial. Given
the research on extrinsic values and well-being (seeKasser, 2002b for a review) and the finding that
individuals with an extrinsic value orientation do notexperience well-being benefits from attaining extrinsic
goals (Sheldon, Gunz, et al., 2010), we would expect
reflecting on extrinsic values to either lower well-being
or produce no effect.
The inclusion of an extrinsic values group would
also help us understand the mechanism that leads fromreflecting on intrinsic values to well-being. Selfdetermination theory suggests that an intrinsic value
orientation is related to well-being because it satisfies
the psychological needs for autonomy, competence,and relatedness (Deci & Ryan, 2000; Kasser, 2002b).
Future research could assess how reflecting on values
impacts the satisfaction of the three needs, a limitationof the present study, and examine whether the satisfaction of needs differs in intrinsic and extrinsic
reflection groups, explaining the link to well-being.
Indeed, when participants were asked to set goals thatsatisfy psychological needs versus goals to improve life
circumstances, only the former influenced happiness(Sheldon, Abad, et al., 2010). Studies are further
necessary to examine the mechanism that led participants to experience an increase in well-being immediately after reflecting on and writing about their values.
Cognitive processes, such as priming need-satisfying
experiences could be explored.
The present study is further limited in length. We
examined value change over the course of four weeks.
Given that values are enduring beliefs (Rokeach,1973), it would be interesting to examine ongoingreflections over a longer period. Longitudinal studies
are needed to observe whether changes in value
priorities and well-being are maintained. In light of
Lyubomirsky et al.’s (2005) sustainable happinessmodel, we might expect more effort and commitment
over longer periods to lead to greater changes. Bardi
and Goodwin (2011) similarly suggest that while
priming effects on values are likely to be temporary,
if a new life situation primes a concept repeatedly, amore permanent change in values may occur.
Further research is also needed to understandwhy some participants felt more engaged in reflecting
on their values than others. Researchers havesuggested that whether an individual’s mood isimproved by an exercise depends on the fit withthe person’s personality, motives, strengths, or needs(Fordyce, 1983; Sheldon & Lyubomirsky, 2006).
Notably, participants who engaged more deeply in259

our study tasks did not differ from less-engaged
participants on any of our pre-measures assessing
their values and well-being. It may be that participants who engage more deeply have greater selfconcordant motivation, leading to greater well-being
benefits, as found by Sheldon and Lyubomirsky(2006). Future research is needed to discover whatleads to a good fit with a values reflection exercise,as well as which mechanisms are involved in engaged
reflection.
Finally, future studies could also examine whether
individuals who reflect on their intrinsic values alsochange their behavior congruently. This would help
identify whether longer-term increases in well-being are
related to individuals engaging in more need-satisfying
experiences, congruent with their intrinsic values.
Researchers disagree about whether values guidebehavior and values have been shown to relatedifferently to value-congruent behavior, with stronger
relationships for some values than others (Bardi &Schwartz, 2003). Placing importance on intrinsic life
goals has been found to relate positively to attainmentof these goals (Niemiec et al., 2009). Furthermore,
Brown and Kasser (2005) found that an intrinsic value
orientation was related to ecologically responsible
behavior among adolescents and adults. Thus, reflecting on intrinsic values may lead individuals to focus
more on these values and alter their behavior
accordingly.
Rogers (1980) described a process in which individuals ‘discover the source of values in themselves,
coming to an awareness that the good life is within, notdependent on outside sources’ (p. 203). In the present
study, we encouraged young people to reflect on theirintrinsic values, rather than extrinsic values dependent
on the reaction of others. Our findings provide
evidence for the effectiveness of reflection exercises
to influence value priorities and well-being. Since
individuals played an active role in the reflection
exercises, this work has implications for psychotherapy
and other self-development efforts. Given the brevityof the intervention, these exercises could easily beincorporated into different settings, for example,
high school and university counseling centers. Our
research also has implications for longer-term benefits
that may arise with a longer, more intensive reflection
process.

Acknowledgements
This study was supported by graduate fellowship grants
from the Social Science and Humanities Research Councilof Canada (SSHRC) to the first and fifth authors, as wellas grants from SSHRC and the Fonds Quebecois deRecherche sur la Societe et la Culture to the fourthauthor.

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Notes

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1. The term engagement was used to capture a subjective
assessment of how deeply participants in the experimental group reflected on their values and how involved
participants in the control group were in thinking about
their life details.
2. Hypotheses 2 and 3 were also tested using the measuresof engagement that we used to examine the concurrent
validity of self-reported engagement: number of words
and coded depth of engagement. These analyses were
not significant, indicating that it was a subjective senseof feeling engaged that was important in experiencing
greater well-being and influencing value priorities
among the experimental participants.

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