Frequently Asked Questions

Personal Values Assessment is a free online tool designed to help you identify and prioritize your personal values. Instead of rating values individually, the assessment uses direct comparisons to create a personalized ranking that reflects what matters most to you. It is designed for self-reflection, personal development, coaching, and career planning.

Personal Values Assessment is designed for anyone who wants to better understand what truly matters in their life. It is used by individuals seeking greater self-awareness, as well as by coaches, therapists, educators, and HR professionals who support personal and professional development.

Personal Values was launched on June 3, 2018. Since then, the platform has continuously evolved based on user feedback, ongoing improvements, and a commitment to making personal values more accessible and easier to understand.

Personal Values was created by Arkadiusz Zalewski, a software engineer with a strong interest in psychology, decision-making, and personal development. The project combines analytical thinking with practical tools that help people better understand themselves.

Personal Values Assessment is used by individuals, coaches, therapists, HR professionals, and educators around the world. The assessment has also been referenced as a recommended resource by career centers and educational materials at universities including the University of Arizona, Rutgers University, the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Colorado Boulder, the University of Washington, Tulane University, the University of Massachusetts Boston, the Rochester Institute of Technology, Northern Arizona University, and many others.

Transparency has been a core principle of Personal Values since its launch. We openly explain how the assessment works, how results are calculated, what data is collected, and what the assessment can and cannot tell you. We also publish monthly transparency reports and maintain clear privacy and refund policies, allowing you to understand exactly how the platform operates before deciding to use it.

No. You can complete Personal Values Assessment without creating an account. Whenever possible, we avoid requiring registration or personal information. An account is only needed for features such as saving your results and tracking how your values change over time.

When Personal Values was launched in 2018, the goal was to rethink how online values assessments should work. Instead of long questionnaires and subjective rating scales, the assessment was designed to be as intuitive and natural as possible. This led to the development of a carefully curated list of 62 personal values and a comparison-based methodology. The aim is to make the abstract concept of personal values feel more concrete, engaging, and easier to understand.

The assessment consists of three stages. First, you select only the values that genuinely resonate with you. We recommend choosing around 10 values to keep the process focused on what matters most. Next, you compare pairs of selected values, gradually building your personal hierarchy through a series of simple decisions. Finally, you explore your results. Rather than providing predefined interpretations, Personal Values presents your ranking together with anonymous statistical insights gathered over many years, encouraging personal reflection instead of telling you what your values mean.

We recommend selecting around 10 values during the first stage of the assessment. You are free to choose more, but doing so will increase the number of comparisons and the overall completion time. Since the goal is to identify your few most important values, starting with a carefully selected group usually produces the best results.

When Personal Values was created, there was no existing list that was comprehensive, well-balanced, and free from unnecessary duplicates or synonyms. The 62-value framework was developed to provide broad coverage of personal values while remaining practical and manageable for comparison. Keeping the list fixed also allows meaningful comparisons between users and over time.

If you select the recommended 10 values and take enough time to thoughtfully compare them, the assessment typically takes about 10 minutes to complete.

We recommend retaking the assessment at least once a year. It is also worth repeating whenever you experience a significant life change or face an important personal or professional decision, as your priorities may evolve over time.

Yes. If you save your results to your Personal Values account, you can view a timeline showing how your most important values have changed over time. This makes it easier to recognize long-term trends and reflect on how your priorities evolve.

Yes. Sharing your results is simple. This feature was designed with coaches, therapists, psychologists, and other professionals in mind. Simply send someone the unique link to your results page, and they will be able to view your assessment.

Rating values on a numerical scale introduces an additional layer of interpretation, as people naturally understand rating scales differently. Directly comparing two values is much simpler: you only decide which one matters more to you. This binary decision-making process feels more natural and helps produce a clearer and more consistent ranking of your personal values.

Yes. Personal values are generally stable, but they can gradually change as your life circumstances, experiences, and priorities evolve. For this reason, we recommend repeating the assessment periodically to see how your values develop over time.

The similarity score is calculated using Rank-Biased Overlap (RBO), a ranking comparison algorithm that considers both which values appear in two rankings and how highly they are ranked. This provides a more meaningful measure of similarity than simply counting shared values.

The theory of personal values is based on decades of psychological research. Its foundations were established by Milton Rokeach in the 1970s and later expanded by Shalom H. Schwartz, whose cross-cultural studies identified a universal structure of human values. Since then, the theory has been validated across more than 70 cultures, making it one of the most widely supported models in the psychology of human motivation and behavior.

Yes. Since 2020, Personal Values has published monthly reports analyzing trends in users' value hierarchies. By analyzing more than 2 million anonymous assessment results, we are able to observe long-term patterns and seasonal changes in the importance of different values. These insights help us continuously improve our methodology and better understand how personal values evolve over time.

The accuracy of the assessment depends primarily on the user's engagement. Most people complete it in about 10 minutes, which is usually enough to build a reliable values profile. The methodology is designed to minimize subjective interpretation and random responses. The descriptions of each value are intended to help users recognize who they are today, rather than who they aspire to become.

The Personal Values Assessment is built upon decades of research in the field of personal values, particularly the work of Milton Rokeach and Shalom H. Schwartz, whose theories form the foundation of modern values psychology. In addition, our methodology is continuously refined through the analysis of more than 2 million anonymous assessment results from users around the world, creating what is likely one of the largest datasets on personal values ever collected. This allows us to improve consistency and identify long-term trends.

Your result is calculated solely from the order in which you rank your values during the assessment. Personal Values does not use hidden weighting systems, complex statistical models, or artificial intelligence to determine your ranking. Your final values hierarchy is a direct reflection of the choices you make throughout the assessment.

Yes. Coaches, therapists, psychologists, and HR professionals can send individual assessment links to clients or participants, track their progress, and review their results. Group invitations are also available, making it easy to manage and analyze results for multiple participants in one place. These tools are free to use. Fees apply only when extending assessment results.

Yes. The Personal Values Assessment helps coaches better understand what matters most to their clients, making coaching conversations more focused and meaningful. The results often provide valuable discussion topics across multiple sessions and can be revisited as the client's priorities evolve.

Yes. Personal Values provides group invitations that collect all participants' results in one place. Facilitators can easily see who has completed the assessment and review group results during both in-person and online workshops.

Yes. This feature is widely used by coaches, therapists, and consultants. It allows you to invite clients to complete the assessment and conveniently revisit their results during future sessions.

Yes, but it should be used as a complement to the hiring process rather than as the sole basis for employment decisions. The assessment can help facilitate conversations about cultural fit, provide insight into a candidate's personal values, and support the development of teams with shared values.

Yes. The Personal Values Assessment is free to use and provides meaningful results without requiring any payment. Optional paid features are available for users who want more detailed insights or additional functionality.

All purchases are one-time payments. There are no subscriptions or recurring charges, so you'll never be billed unexpectedly.

The extended result includes detailed insights for all 10 of your highest-ranked values, providing a deeper understanding of your values profile along with additional statistics and visualizations.

Yes. If you're not satisfied with your purchase, simply contact us at contact@personalvalu.es and we'll be happy to help. Refund requests are typically processed within 24 hours.

Absolutely. You don't have to purchase the extended result immediately. You can upgrade your account or any assessment result whenever you choose.

Yes. You can complete the Personal Values Assessment without creating an account or providing personal information. Your assessment result is not linked to your identity unless you choose to create an account and save it.

Creating an account is optional. If you choose to register, we store the information required to provide your account, such as your email address. No demographic information is required to complete the assessment or receive meaningful results.

Your data is securely stored in the SFO3 data center located in California, United States.

Yes. You can delete your account and all associated data at any time from your account settings.