Topological and algebraic scales were compared in the representation of the concept of human worth in behavioral-semantic terms. In a first experiment, seven doctoral students of Business Administration in Sweden explored the notion of worth using definitions from at least 10 dictionaries as the intentional-semantic content. Each subject served as experiencer, observer, and recorder in grouping entries by content. On the basis of the differentiations presented and names proposed for each of the groupings, the prototypical character of the groupings were summarized using the following descriptive names: (1) eigenvalue; (2) reputation; (3) reliability; (4) impartiality; (5) rank; (6) significance; and (7) status. The structural connections were represented topographically. In a second experiment, 180 Swedish high school students, college students, and adult professionals were asked to make preferential judgments about the intentional-semantic content of 50 statements about worth prepared by the subjects in the first experiment. A statistical analysis of choice alternatives then established an algebraic scale. Factor analysis led to the conclusion that the structure of the investigated concept was qualitatively invariant. The topological scale was preferred because it gave a synthetic representation of the underlying structure, while the algebraic scale only gave an analytic representation of details. (SLD)