Personal Values and Dress: The Spranger, Hartmann, AVL Paradigm in Research and Pedagogy

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Abstract
The study of personal values is a discrete research field, historically characterized by controversy over the nature of the subject matter and the design of instruments to measure values. Between 1933 and 1980, scholars concerned with relationships between personal values and dress reported outcomes of research based on a common model of personal values. The model, which includes a theoretical framework suggested by Eduard Spranger, a series of research hypotheses contributed by George W. Hartmann, and a related instrument designed to measure personal values, the A VL Study of Values, has become paradigmatic in clothing and textiles pedagogy. It suggests that direct, common-sense relationships occur between personal values and their expression in interests, attitudes, and behaviors in dress. A review of issues in the field of values study provides the context for an examination of components of the model. A review of research outcomes antithetical to the logic of the model is used to support the argument that the value of the model lies in its illustration of the difficulties that characterize values research, rather than in its ability to describe or predict relationships between personal values and dress. Scholars are asked to reassess the usefulness of the Spranger, Hartmann, A VL model for research and pedagogy.

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