Every value appears six times
The fixed 2-(10,4,2) balanced incomplete block design gives all ten priorities the same number of opportunities.
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This personal values test compares ten broad life priorities in 15 carefully balanced four-card trade-offs. Choose one most-important and one least-important priority in each block, then inspect counts, exact ties, tensions, and practical prompts—without moral grades.
What your result preserves
Ten separate balances
Every value receives a most count, least count and visible net balance.
Exact ties and tiers
Equal balances stay equal; a list position never invents a winner.
Tensions, not labels
Explore where a priority helps and where it may pull against another good aim.
Small experiments
Turn an abstract priority into one bounded choice you can observe.
The response design
Imagine that circumstances make a real trade-off necessary. From these four guiding priorities, choose the one you would protect most and the one you would let guide you least in that situation. There are no good or bad values; answer for your life now, not for the person you think you should be.
The fixed 2-(10,4,2) balanced incomplete block design gives all ten priorities the same number of opportunities.
Repeated trade-offs reduce the chance that one surrounding set of cards decides the entire pattern and let us flag strong reversals for review.
Most adds one, least subtracts one. The result range is −6 to +6; the display never calls it a percentage of importance or a percentile.
The ten guiding priorities
The cards ask about broad principles across life, not desired job conditions, personality traits, skills, goals or how good a person you are.
Theory label: Self-Direction
Freedom to form my own views, choose my path, and create in my own way.
Giving weight to independent thought, personal choice, curiosity, and the freedom to shape action rather than simply inherit a direction.
Theory label: Stimulation
Novelty, challenge, and experiences that keep life vivid rather than predictable.
Giving weight to variety, challenge, discovery, and the energizing edge of experiences that are not fully known in advance.
Theory label: Hedonism
Pleasure, comfort, and making room to enjoy life in the present.
Giving weight to enjoyment, physical or emotional pleasure, comfort, and the direct experience that life can feel good now.
Theory label: Achievement
Doing difficult things well and showing competence through meaningful results.
Giving weight to mastering demanding tasks, meeting standards, producing visible results, and experiencing yourself as capable.
Theory label: Power
Influence, authority, and enough standing or resources to shape what happens.
Giving weight to having influence, recognized standing, decision authority, or control of resources that can change outcomes.
Theory label: Security
Safety, dependable relationships, and a stable foundation I can count on.
Giving weight to personal and collective safety, continuity, reliable relationships, and conditions that reduce avoidable threat or chaos.
Theory label: Conformity
Acting responsibly, respecting shared rules, and avoiding needless harm or disruption.
Giving weight to restraint, dependable conduct, shared expectations, and not imposing preventable harm or disorder on other people.
Theory label: Tradition
Honoring inherited practices, beliefs, and communities that connect me to something enduring.
Giving weight to customs, beliefs, rituals, or communities received across time and to the continuity and belonging they can carry.
Theory label: Benevolence
Being dependable and caring toward the people whose lives are closely connected to mine.
Giving weight to the welfare, trust, and everyday needs of people with whom you share real relationships and mutual dependence.
Theory label: Universalism
Protecting fairness, human dignity, and the natural world beyond my immediate circle.
Giving weight to justice, tolerance, human dignity, and ecological concern beyond the people and interests closest to you.
Important boundary
Relative priorities among broad guiding principles across life. This is distinct from desired job conditions, specific goals, personality traits, skills, and a complete account of purpose.
This original English form has not been tested for reliability, test–retest stability, construct validity, cross-cultural equivalence or outcome prediction. Do not use it for hiring, admission, diagnosis, eligibility or another high-stakes decision.
Theory and rights boundary
The broad ten-domain vocabulary and circular tension idea are informed by Schwartz's theory of basic personal values. The original Ikigain cards were not tested to reproduce that theory's measurement structure. The card wording, interpretations, BIBD arrangement, scoring implementation, and quality guardrails in this file are original product content. Standard theory names and scholarly ideas are attributed through the sources below.
ten-value theory overview
Schwartz, S. H. (2012). An Overview of the Schwartz Theory of Basic Values.
Open scholarly sourcerefined circular theory
Schwartz, S. H., et al. (2012). Refining the Theory of Basic Individual Values.
Open scholarly sourceinstrument and license repository; no items reused
Schwartz, S. H. (2021). A Repository of Schwartz Value Scales with Instructions and an Introduction.
Open scholarly sourceThe official Schwartz scale repository is published under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. That is not a safe basis for modifying instrument content inside a commercial or ad-supported product, so it is used only as a bibliographic and licensing reference. No published scale item, coding key, norm, or translation is used in this assessment.
Questions before you begin
A goal is an outcome you may complete; a personal value is a broad priority that can shape many choices over time. Work values focus more narrowly on desired workplace conditions. This test compares life-wide priorities and does not turn them into a purpose, goal plan, or job recommendation.
The flagship Ikigai experience integrates what a person loves, can contribute, can be paid for, and the world may need. This reflection supplies one lens on guiding priorities only; it neither calculates purpose nor replaces the Ikigai result.
No. The ten broad value names and circular-tension idea are informed by Schwartz's theory of basic personal values, but every card and interpretation here is original Ikigain wording. This is not the SVS, PVQ, PVQ-RR, BWVr, or a validated replacement for one of those instruments.
Most desirable values sound important when rated alone. Requiring two different extremes reveals a relative trade-off. Every value appears six times and every pair appears together twice, so one attractive or awkward comparison cannot determine the whole result.
No. A balance is simply most choices minus least choices within these 15 blocks, from −6 to +6. A lower balance says that this priority was protected less often than the alternatives shown now; it is not an amount of the value, a moral judgment, or a comparison with other people.
Yes. Exact ties stay visible, and a one-count gap is not presented as a precise permanent hierarchy. Life stage, current pressure, language, context, and the difference between ideals and behavior can all change how a trade-off feels.
No. Your complete free result appears immediately. Progress uses the secure assessment service, with only a bounded short-lived retry copy if a save is interrupted; every server result keeps its exact instrument and scoring versions.
Do not auto-translate and duplicate the English form. Every locale needs a new language-specific instrument and interpretation version, a native-language assessment writer and cultural reviewer, bilingual construct adjudication, local cognitive interviews, position/design verification, and a fresh rights and claims review. Back-translation may be used only as an error check. Preserve the balanced block membership unless a new design is formally reviewed, and prohibit cross-language score comparisons until measurement-equivalence evidence exists.
Ready for a real trade-off?
The complete result is free, no email is required, and an incomplete most/least pair is never saved as if it were a valid answer.