Values, Expectancy, and Action

This article describes two models that the author has used to investigate the relationship between values and action. The first model relates degree of social interaction between people to the extent to which they perceive their value systems to be similar (a “fit” model). The second model conceives of personal values as a particular class of motives and relates overt action both to the valences induced by these values and to the expectancies about the consequences of actions that a situation elicits for each individual (an “expectancy‐valence” model). Each model is illustrated and discussed in terms of a research study that relates to it. In the case of the “fit” model, the investigation concerned social interaction and perceived value similarity within the newly independent nation of Papua New Guinea. In the case of the “expectancy‐valence” model, the investigation tested hypotheses about a person's willingness to join social movements, using the model to generate predictions. The two models are seen as different ways of dealing with a fundamental question in the psychology of motivation, namely how does behaviour relate to cognitive variables. 1979 Australian Psychological Society