Based on six years of research, this book is an interdisciplinary investigation of human values and value systems. The author believes that the concept of values enables the social scientist to bridge the gap between the analysis of the individual and the analysis of the society in which that individual lives. Chapter 1 discusses value systems and their cognitive structures. Chapter 2 describes the Rokeach Value Survey Instrument and reports studies that are concerned with it. The role of values in educational choice is dealt with in Chapter 3. Chapters 4 and 5 examine the impact of educational institutions on the values of students. Chapter 6 reports studies in which value systems and social attitudes in the society at large are compared in relation to intergenerational and age differences, sex differences, and income differences. The value systems of student activists and male delinquents are examined in Chapter 7. Chapter 8 presents cross-cultural comparisons in value systems between Australia and the United States and Australia and Papua New Guinea. The degree to which Ukranians and Latvians have become assimilated to Australian society is examined in Chapter 9. The book concludes with an examination of major theoretical issues about values and value systems in Chapter 10. (Author/RM)