Attitudes toward High Achievers, Self-Esteem, and Value Priorities for Australian, American, and Canadian Students

Abstract

Results from this comparative study showed that (a) American students gave more emphasis to achievement, competence, and conformity values and were more in favor of rewarding high achievers; (b) Australian students gave less emphasis to conformity values, rated prosocial values as higher in importance, and reported higher equalitarianism; (c) Canadian students gave less emphasis to affiliative contentment values. Gender differences were also obtained on the value, attitude, and self-esteem measures.