Meaningful, reminiscent, and evocative: An initial examination of four methods of selecting idiographic values-relevant stimuli

• Picture selection, word generation, word selection, and values writing were tested.
• Ratings of meaning, reminiscence, and evocation were used to compare methods.
• All methods produced high ratings of meaning, reminiscence, and evocation.
• Values writing produces the most meaningful, reminiscent, and evocative stimuli.

Emerging research supports the psychological benefits of articulating one’s values. Basic behavioral research on values, however, has been limited. To support continued progress in the basic research on values, it might be necessary to adapt values interventions for efficiently and effectively selecting values-relevant stimuli. This study aimed to evaluate four methods for selecting values-relevant stimuli by comparing within-subject ratings of the extent to which stimuli were meaningful, strongly evocative, and reminiscent of something important to them. Thirty-six college student participants performed four tasks for selecting values-relevant stimuli: (1) selection of words from a values lexicon, (2) exposure to a list of valued domains followed by word generation, (3) selection of pictures representing commonly valued domains, and (4) values writing followed by word selection from the writing sample. The values writing and selection task produced stimuli that were rated the most meaningful, most evocative and most reminiscent of something important.