The Hartman Value Profile

One application of axiology is the Hartman Value Profile, an axiological questionnaire which measures a person’s capacity to value. Strictly speaking, the Hartman Value Profile is not an intelligence test, a psychological test or an aptitude test. On the other hand, the degree that one has developed his value capacities does demonstrate how effectively he can utilize his native intelligence, how much access he has to his natural and learned skills and how well he can control his emotions.

A key advantage of the Hartman Profile lies in the fact that a value analysis depicts those unique value patterns which identify an individual’s own norm. The profile is a slice out of time, a cross section of a person’s life history; showing where he is at a particular time, indicating how much of his potential he can access and measuring the degree and kind of stress he is currently experiencing.

The profile pictures an individual in motion, an individual changing as situations change around him; an individual whose personality can express sometimes contradictory qualities. For example, a person may be relationally pliable, open to others when approached on a personal basis; practically rigid, closed to new options and interpretations when he is carrying out decisions; and conceptually open, available to new ideas, when he does not feel the pressure to perform.