MEDICAL-STUDENTS PERSONAL VALUES AND THEIR CAREER CHOICES A QUARTER-CENTURY LATER

A longitudinal study of 391 physicians tested two hypotheses regarding personal values and career choices: that higher preference for social values would be associated with physicians' being more interested in ''people-oriented'' rather than ''technology-oriented'' specialties an d that higher preference for economic values would be associated with expectations of high income. The physicians (344 men, 47 women) were g raduates of Jefferson Medical College in 1974 and 1975 who completed t he Allport-Vernon-Lindzey Study of Values during medical school. Analy sis showed that physicians currently in the ''people-oriented'' specia lties scored significantly higher on the Social Value scale than their peers in ''technology-oriented'' specialties. A moderate but statisti cally significant correlation was found between scores on the Economic Value scale and expectations of higher income. The findings suggest t hat physicians' personal values are relevant to their career decisions such as specialty choice and expectations of income. The findings hav e implications with regard to two major issues in the evolving health care system, namely, the distribution of physicians by specialty and c ost containment.