# Values card sort: what matters most to you?

Source page: https://underthebehavior.com/tools/values-card-sort

Free values card sort online: sort the 83 cards of the public domain Personal Values Card Sort into three piles, then pick your top 5. Nothing is sent.

Sort value cards one at a time into three piles. Then cut the top pile down to five. No score, no type, nothing sent.

Values card sort

One card at a time. Put each value in a pile: very important, important or not important to you. Then pick your top five.

The sort needs JavaScript. Without it, every card is in the list below.

Not a test. There are no right answers, and nothing you tap leaves your browser.

## Personal values list: all 83 cards

The Personal Values Card Sort (Miller, C'de Baca, Matthews and Wilbourne, 2001).
1. **Acceptance** to be accepted as I am
2. **Accuracy** to be accurate in my opinions and beliefs
3. **Achievement** to have important accomplishments
4. **Adventure** to have new and exciting experiences
5. **Attractiveness** to be physically attractive
6. **Authority** to be in charge of and responsible for others
7. **Autonomy** to be self-determined and independent
8. **Beauty** to appreciate beauty around me
9. **Caring** to take care of others
10. **Challenge** to take on difficult tasks and problems
11. **Change** to have a life full of change and variety
12. **Comfort** to have a pleasant and comfortable life
13. **Commitment** to make enduring, meaningful commitments
14. **Compassion** to feel and act on concern for others
15. **Contribution** to make a lasting contribution in the world
16. **Cooperation** to work collaboratively with others
17. **Courtesy** to be considerate and polite toward others
18. **Creativity** to have new and original ideas
19. **Dependability** to be reliable and trustworthy
20. **Duty** to carry out my duties and obligations
21. **Ecology** to live in harmony with the environment
22. **Excitement** to have a life full of thrills and stimulation
23. **Faithfulness** to be loyal and true in relationships
24. **Fame** to be known and recognized
25. **Family** to have a happy, loving family
26. **Fitness** to be physically fit and strong
27. **Flexibility** to adjust to new circumstances easily
28. **Forgiveness** to be forgiving of others
29. **Friendship** to have close, supportive friends
30. **Fun** to play and have fun
31. **Generosity** to give what I have to others
32. **Genuineness** to act in a manner that is true to who I am
33. **God's will** to seek and obey the will of God
34. **Growth** to keep changing and growing
35. **Health** to be physically well and healthy
36. **Helpfulness** to be helpful to others
37. **Honesty** to be honest and truthful
38. **Hope** to maintain a positive and optimistic outlook
39. **Humility** to be modest and unassuming
40. **Humor** to see the humorous side of myself and the world
41. **Independence** to be free from dependence on others
42. **Industry** to work hard and well at my life tasks
43. **Inner peace** to experience personal peace
44. **Intimacy** to share my innermost experiences with others
45. **Justice** to promote fair and equal treatment for all
46. **Knowledge** to learn and contribute valuable knowledge
47. **Leisure** to take time to relax and enjoy
48. **Loved** to be loved by those close to me
49. **Loving** to give love to others
50. **Mastery** to be competent in my everyday activities
51. **Mindfulness** to live conscious and mindful of the present moment
52. **Moderation** to avoid excesses and find a middle ground
53. **Monogamy** to have one close, loving relationship
54. **Non-conformity** to question and challenge authority and norms
55. **Nurturance** to take care of and nurture others
56. **Openness** to be open to new experiences, ideas, and options
57. **Order** to have a life that is well-ordered and organized
58. **Passion** to have deep feelings about ideas, activities, or people
59. **Pleasure** to feel good
60. **Popularity** to be well-liked by many people
61. **Power** to have control over others
62. **Purpose** to have meaning and direction in my life
63. **Rationality** to be guided by reason and logic
64. **Realism** to see and act realistically and practically
65. **Responsibility** to make and carry out responsible decisions
66. **Risk** to take risks and chances
67. **Romance** to have intense, exciting love in my life
68. **Self-acceptance** to accept myself as I am
69. **Safety** to be safe and secure
70. **Self-control** to be disciplined in my own actions
71. **Self-esteem** to feel good about myself
72. **Self-knowledge** to have a deep and honest understanding of myself
73. **Service** to be of service to others
74. **Sexuality** to have an active and satisfying sex life
75. **Simplicity** to live life simply, with minimal needs
76. **Solitude** to have time and space where I can be apart from others
77. **Spirituality** to grow and mature spiritually
78. **Stability** to have a life that stays fairly consistent
79. **Tolerance** to accept and respect those who differ from me
80. **Tradition** to keep to respected patterns of the past
81. **Virtue** to live a morally pure and excellent life
82. **Wealth** to have plenty of money
83. **World peace** to work to promote peace in the world

## What values work is used for

The cards are the Personal Values Card Sort, made in 2001 at the University of New Mexico by William Miller and three colleagues. Miller first described motivational interviewing in 1983. The card set says it is in the public domain and may be copied, adapted and used without permission.

Values work is also central to acceptance and commitment therapy. In the model Steven Hayes and colleagues reviewed in 2006, values are one of six core processes. Later researchers built questionnaires that measure how closely people act on their values.

In a 2005 lab study, 85 people did either a short values task or a control task before a stressful lab challenge. The values group had lower cortisol responses to the stress.

This is called self-affirmation research, and its results do not always repeat. A large school replication in 2017 found no effect of a brief values writing task. A 2014 review by Geoffrey Cohen and David Sherman covers when it has and has not helped.

**Not a test.** The sort has no score, no type and no right answer. It does not measure anything about you, and it is not therapy. Your top five is simply the cards you chose, in your own order.

## Questions

### What is a values card sort?

A deck of cards, each naming a value such as honesty or adventure. You sort them into piles by how much each matters to you, then pick a few from the top pile. This page uses the 83 cards of the Personal Values Card Sort.

### Is the Personal Values Card Sort free to use?

Yes. The card set from the University of New Mexico says it is in the public domain and may be copied, adapted and used without permission.

### Can therapists use this values card sort online with clients?

Yes. No account, and nothing goes to a server. A client can sort on a phone, then send the top five as a link or print the whole sort. It is a talking aid, not a treatment.

### Does my top five say what kind of person I am?

No. There is no score, no type and no right answer. The result is your own list of the cards you chose, in your own order, and it can change next month.

### Is this the values card sort used in ACT?

ACT treats values as one of its six core processes. This deck comes from William Miller's team and is not tied to one therapy.
1. [Tools](https://underthebehavior.com/tools/)
2. Values card sort

## Sources (7)
1. Miller, W. R., C'de Baca, J., Matthews, D. B., and Wilbourne, P. L. (2001). Personal values card sort. University of New Mexico. Public domain. [casaa.unm.edu](https://casaa.unm.edu/assets/inst/personal-values-card-sort.pdf)
2. Miller, W. R. (1983). Motivational interviewing with problem drinkers. Behavioural Psychotherapy, 11(2), 147 to 172. [doi.org/10.1017/S0141347300006583](https://doi.org/10.1017/S0141347300006583)
3. Hayes, S. C., Luoma, J. B., Bond, F. W., Masuda, A., and Lillis, J. (2006). Acceptance and commitment therapy: Model, processes and outcomes. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 44(1), 1 to 25. [doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2005.06.006](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2005.06.006)
4. Wilson, K. G., Sandoz, E. K., Kitchens, J., and Roberts, M. (2010). The Valued Living Questionnaire: Defining and measuring valued action within a behavioral framework. The Psychological Record, 60(2), 249 to 272. [doi.org/10.1007/BF03395706](https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03395706)
5. Creswell, J. D., Welch, W. T., Taylor, S. E., Sherman, D. K., Gruenewald, T. L., and Mann, T. (2005). Affirmation of personal values buffers neuroendocrine and psychological stress responses. Psychological Science, 16(11), 846 to 851. [doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2005.01624.x](https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2005.01624.x)
6. Hanselman, P., Rozek, C. S., Grigg, J., and Borman, G. D. (2017). New evidence on self-affirmation effects and theorized sources of heterogeneity from large-scale replications. Journal of Educational Psychology, 109(3), 405 to 424. [doi.org/10.1037/edu0000141](https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000141)
7. Cohen, G. L., and Sherman, D. K. (2014). The psychology of change: Self-affirmation and social psychological intervention. Annual Review of Psychology, 65, 333 to 371. [doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-010213-115137](https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-010213-115137)

The 83 cards are the public domain Personal Values Card Sort as printed, except sentence case names and one word on card 80. The rest is our own wording.

Updated November 2, 2026