
Discussion and Conclusion
Education aims to change the behavioural patterns of an individual. Researches on the
concept of values carried out in the disciplines/scientific fields related to psychology,
sociology and anthropology have revealed that values guide the behaviours of an indi-
vidual (Kusdil and Kagitc¸ibasi 2000; Ulusoy and Dilmac¸ 2014) and that the value is a
variable with an effect on learning and motivation (Tanrıseven and Dilmac¸ 2013). One of
the objectives of the research on values among the university students is to determine the
current values of the students and to reveal the relation between the values and the pro-
fessional roles of the students (Mehmedog
˘
lu 2006).
As a result of this study carried out to determine the personal values of the university
students who began to study in different departments, a positive (p \ 0.001) and significant
relation was determined between the ‘‘achievement’’ sub-dimension of the values inven-
tory and all the other sub-dimensions (power, hedonism, stimulation, self-direction, uni-
versalism, benevolence, tradition, conformity and security). At the individual level,
achievement point covers values related to being successful, competent and influential
(Kusdil and Kagitc¸ibasi 2000). It was found out that there is a significant difference by
gender between the achievement point averages. Achievement point averages of male
students are higher than those of female students and the difference in between is statis-
tically significant (p \ 0.01). Similar to the findings of this study, study of Ersoy (2009)
also revealed that the men attach more importance to achievement and intellectual work,
more than women. In the study of Kubat and Kuruu
¨
zu
¨
m(2010), it was stated that men
attach more importance to wage and promotion opportunities. It is noted that with regard to
gender, skills and values, men attach importance to theoretical, economic and political
values while women to aesthetic, religious and social values (Wehr-Flowers 2006).
Accordingly, based on these findings, it is thought that male students have more profes-
sional interests than female students.
Among the values, power covers the values related to being socially powerful and rich,
having authority and maintaining the social image (Kus¸dil and Kag
˘
ıtc¸ıbas¸ı 2000). It is
stated that individuals who attach importance to ‘‘self-improvement’’ value as a part of
their personality are motivated with their social statuses. Moreover, it is also pointed that
comparison process is an internal objective of the self-improvement value and that as a
result of making comparisons, individuals attaching importance to this value desire to be
more successful and superior than the other individuals (Altıntas¸ 2006). In the research, a
significant relation was determined between the ‘‘power’’ sub-dimension of the values
inventory and the sub-dimensions of achievement, hedonism, self-direction, stimulation,
conformity and security. In a study carried out by Yıldız et al. (2012) to determine the
values of the prospective teachers, a significant relation was noted between the sub-
dimensions of power, achievement, hedonism, self-direction, conformity and security. This
finding supports the results of this study.
When the power and hedonism point averages by the students’ departments are
examined, it is observed that students studying in the field of health sciences had higher
points than students studying physical sciences and educational sciences, and the differ-
ence in between was found statistically significant. Today, the young consider money as a
source of power. In a research carried out in Spain, nursing students ranked religious
values as the last, while the old generation nurses ranked value of hedonism as the last
(Jime
´
nez-Lo
´
pez et al. 2016). Moreover, in a research carried out in Germany on the values
among the overall population, it was stated that values related to social life are similar to
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Journal of Religion and Health