The objective of this research was to know whether the consequences of practicing professions such as lawyer and musician are relevant to obtain motivational aims inherent to the individual’s axiological priorities. Schwartz’s theory of values which emphasizes the motivational bases of values has been used. A sample of 122 subjects, 71 lawyers and 51 professional musicians, was given Schwartz’s Inventory of Values. The average service time in a professional area was 9.3 years (SD = 9.42). A 2x2 Anova (sex and profession) was calculated according to each of the ten motivational types of values and to each of the four second order factors. The musicians, when compared to the lawyers, gave more importance to hedonism and stimulation. The lawyers emphasized more than the musicians three motivational types of values: conformity, security, and power. The musicians’ profile was marked by the search for changes, new sensations and pleasures, which constitute the pole for individualism, for intellectual and emotional autonomy, and for the propensity for change. In the opposite pole of this dimension is the tendency to conservatism, to collectivism, to preserve the status quo, which characterizes the lawyers’ profile. So, these two professions are based on opposite motivations: on one hand, the tendency to create, to innovate, and to seek for new ways of thinking and feeling, even risking mistakes and, on the other hand, the motivation to conserve and to respect society’s rules, traditions, and uses.
values; musicians; lawyers
