Arnold Mitchell

Arnold Mitchell (February 18, 1918 – July 17, 1985) was a social scientist and consumer futurist who worked for SRI International and created a noted psychographic methodology, Values, Attitudes and Lifestyles (VALS).

Career

Mitchell coauthored a report on Voluntary Simplicity with Duane Elgin that was published by SRI in June 1976. The report was expanded and republished with a survey in CoEvolution Quarterly in 1977, which was used as the basis the 1981 book Voluntary Simplicity.^[3]

VALS

Michell created the 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.^[4][5] VALS was subsequently called "one of the ten top market research breakthroughs of the 1980s" by Advertising Age magazine.^[6]

Selected publications

• Mitchell, Arnold; Logothetti, Thomas J.; Kantor, Robert E. (1971). An approach to measuring quality of life. SRI International. 

• Mitchell, Arnold; Elgin, Duane (1981). Voluntary Simplicity. 

• Mitchell, Arnold (May 1984). Nine American Lifestyles: Who We Are and Where We're Going. Warner Book. ISBN 0446389803. 

References