Basic Human Values, Right-Wing Authoritarianism and Psychological Well-Being Among University Students

The present study aimed to measure the relationship between basic human values, right-wing authoritarianism and psychological well-being among university students. The Portrait Values Questionnaire (Schwartz, 2003), Right-Wing Authoritarianism Scale (Altemeyer, 2006) and Ryff’s Psychological Well-Being Scale (Ryff & Keyes, 1995) were used to collect data. Sample comprised of 250 students including (men = 55, women = 195) from different universities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. The findings indicated that positive relationship existed between two orthogonal (openness to change vs. conservation & self-transcendence vs. self-enhancement) of basic values and psychological well-being and negative relationship was found between right-wing authoritarianism and two orthogonal dimensions (openness to change vs conservation & self-transcendence vs self-enhancement) of values. It was also observed that positive relationship exists between right-wing authoritarianism and psychological well-being. Nonsignificant gender differences were found on given study variables. The results of the given study can provide help in the educational sector for devising programs that can help inculcating certain values in the students in result enhancing their psychological well-being and general view of life.