ABSTRACT
The idea of cultural values goes beyond endorsement of specific value items in each culture. Different value systems may differ from one another in at least three separate aspects: levels of prevalence of the values that are meaningful to all cultures, different configurations of these commonly meaningful values, and values that are unique to each system. Different value configurations involving one value item imply different meanings of the item in different cultures. Overall, the correlations among the value items are very low, suggesting that there is not a single dimension of cultural values in either China or the United States. In China, on the other hand, the divorce index is significantly correlated with almost every value in the survey, while the sexual rigidity scale is much less sensitive to the broader set of traditional value measures.
