Psychology of the Scientist: XXXV. Terminal and Instrumental Values of American Graduate Students in Psychology

Abstract

The terminal and instrumental values of 954 graduate students from 98 psychology departments across the United States were compared with the values of a national subsample of Americans matched on age, race and educational background. Comparisons were also made between graduate students specializing in nine different fields of psychology. The results showed little agreement between the graduate students and the national comparison group on the importance of various values. Among those majoring in the different specialties, disparities were less marked, but clinical majors tended to emphasize interpersonal affective values such as true friendship, loving and helpful, while experimental majors placed relatively greater emphasis on cognitive competency values such as logical and intellectual.