A transnational model of individual and societal-level psychological response patterns to chronically oppressive hierarchies: Socioecological psychology and political values

The socio-political values predominant in a particular society will reflect the correspondent needs of that society, and these needs can include factors other than the material or agent-focused. This paper discusses the role of three inter-related drives in shaping responses to societal-level forces such as oppression in hierarchical sociopolitical systems: self-definition/agency, physical survival/protection, and relational harmony. In comparison to post-materialist theory (Inglehart, 1971), we argue that a) personal and national economic affluence or security may not be sufficient to describe social ecology nor account for the self-amplifying nature of the interchangeable forms of power that can influence values, b) individual and collective social-relational needs are utilitarian and essential, c) fulfillment of material and social needs can be directed by ‘non-material’ as well as material political values, d) ‘non-material’ values can be just as common in impoverished or subordinated nations as they are in affluent or empowered nations, and e) ‘non-material’ values directing the need for relational harmony, such as equality or affinity for resistance against oppression, may be more commonly held, and more strongly so, among people living under worse power ecologies. A conceptual analysis, a new measure of cross-level relational power, and a survey study of adult convenience samples in 7 nations (N=685) provide evidence supporting these hypotheses. Implications for theories of socio-political values and hierarchy are discussed.