Values, Valences, and Course Enrollment: Testing the Role of Personal Values Within an Expectancy-Valence Framework

This study was a test of hypotheses that concerned the enrollment decisions of 444 university students who enrolled in humanities, social science, or science courses at Flinders University in South Australia. The following predictions were developed within the framework of expectancy-value (valence) theory: (a) Enrollment decisions would be related to the subjective value (valence) that students assign to mathematics and English and to their self-concepts of ability in mathematics and English (assumed to reflect expectations of success); (b) valence measures would be related to underlying value dimensions (restrictive control, intellectual orientation, and prosocial concern) derived from subjects' ratings of the 18 instrumental values from the Rokeach Value Survey; and (c) gender differences would occur in the responses of male and female students to the measures of values and valences. In general, the results supported these predictions. The findings are discussed in relation to previous research on gender differences in achievement patterns in mathematics and English and in relation to assumptions about relations between expectations and valences.