Arnold Mitchell: Difference between revisions

Mitchell created the [[VALS|Values, Attitudes and Lifestyles]] (VALS) [[psychographic]] methodology at [[SRI International]] in the late 1970s. VALS helps companies tailor their products and services to appeal to the people most likely to purchase them, and explains changing U.S. values and lifestyles. It was formally inaugurated as an SRI product in 1978.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.strategicbusinessinsights.com/vals/about.shtml |title=About VALS: The VALS Story |publisher=Strategic Business Insights |accessdate=2012-04-15 |deadurlurl-status=yesdead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120419082713/http://www.strategicbusinessinsights.com/vals/about.shtml |archivedate=2012-04-19 |df= }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.context.org/iclib/ic03/srivals/|title=SRI's Values and Lifestyle Program|date=Summer 1983|work=Rediscovering The North American Vision|page=12|publisher=Context Institute}}</ref> VALS was subsequently called "one of the ten top market research breakthroughs of the 1980s" by ''[[Advertising Age]]'' magazine.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.strategicbusinessinsights.com/vals/presurvey.shtml |title=Vals |publisher=Sric-Bi |accessdate=2011-11-12 |deadurlurl-status=yesdead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20111110145245/http://www.strategicbusinessinsights.com/vals/presurvey.shtml |archivedate=2011-11-10 }}</ref>

In the VALS study, Mitchell identified three major values groups in society: the Traditionalists, the Modernists and the Cultural Creatives. The Traditionalists, as he saw them, were those who wanted to return to the 1950s, with mom in the kitchen and the white picket fence around the house. The Modernists were those who thought technology would solve all our problems. And the Cultural Creatives, consisting of two subgroups of "Greens" and "Spiritual Seekers," were people who were self-directed and interested both in developing themselves in fulfilling ways and in being of service to the larger community.{{Cn|date=December 2023}}

According to Mitchell, this group comprised 24 percent of the American population by late 1980, and was the fastest growing values group in America. To the best of our knowledge, Mitchell was the first to coincoined the term "Cultural Creatives", awhich term subsequentlywas popularized by Paul Ray and Sherrie Anderson in their 2000 book, ''Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People Are Changing The World (published in 2000)''. Mitchell's earlier work identifying Cultural Creatives is not referencedacknowledged in this work.{{Cn|date=December by Ray and Anderson.2023}}

* {{cite book|title=Voluntary Simplicity|authorsurl=https://archive.org/details/voluntarysimplic00elgi|url-access=registration|author=Mitchell, Arnold; [[Duane Elgin|author2=Elgin, Duane]]|author2-link=Duane Elgin|year=1981}}

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