Values and attitudes of medical students at an Australian university

This paper reports the results of an Australian study in which successive cohorts of medical students at Flinders University were tested and retested in 1975, 1977, and 1979 to trace changes in their attitudes and values since their freshman year. All respondents completed the Rokeach Value Survey and specific attitude items concerned with federal government intervention in health insurance. Those respondents tested in 1977 and 1979 also completed a measure of general conservatism and rated the importance of a set of reasons for studying medicine as a career. The results showed considerable stability in both attitudes and value priorities, irrespective of cohort and time of testing. The students tended to favor government intervention in health insurance and to rate as most important those reasons concerned with helping others, working with people, and meeting challenges. Male and female students differed in the degree of importance they attached to some of the reasons, and these differences reflected commonly noted sex role differences.