Adolescent values as predictors of self-reported achievement in young men.

Abstract

Abstract Self-reported accomplishments, competencies, and aspirations of 400 male, high-school-senior applicants for a college fellowship competition in the United States, were drawn randomly from a large pool of applications collected over an 8-year period. The results of a principal components analysis of their responses on a 10-item values rating scale revealed two primary factors, one descriptive of a social orientation and the other of instrumentality. Applications were sorted into four groups on the basis of median splits on these factors, and the resulting groups were compared on a large number of self-reports of accomplishments and competencies. Analysis of variance revealed that, although social orientation predicted levels of self-reported leadership behavior, instrumentality predicted not only leadership behaviors but also self-reported scientific and artistic behaviors. A content analysis of a subsample of 200 essays, in which applicants described their most significant accomplishments, reveal...