Reasons for entering medical school in relation to value priorities and sex of student

A sample of 139 medical students (87 male, 52 female) at an Australian university took part in a questionnaire study in which they completed the Rokeach Value Survey and rated the importance of various reasons for their decision to take up medicine as a career. It was found that the students tended to endorse social/altruistic reasons (working with people, helping others) and the opportunity to become involved in a challenging occupation as the most important reasons for their occupational choice. Other reasons, such as satisfying one's parents or having the opportunity to achieve high social status and to benefit financially, were rated much lower in importance. In comparison with females, male students tended to rate personal, agentic reasons as more important, and interpersonal, expressive reasons as less important. The students' value priorities were related in predictable ways to the importance ratings they assigned to particular reasons, especially to status/materialistic reasons. Results were assumed to provide evidence about the self‐concepts of medical students. It was suggested that future research might investigate how these self‐concepts might change during training and in medical practice, and the extent to which actual behaviour in the work situation would be consistent with these self‐concepts. 1982 The British Psychological Society