The Professional Engineer and His Values

A comparison was made of the interests and values of three groups of employed professional engineers; a group employed by a consulting firm, a group employed by a Federal government agency, and a group employed by a private industry. A widely used psychological test, the Allport-Vernon-Lindsey Study of Values was used to measure the relative prominence of six basic values: theoretical, economic, aesthetic, social, political, and religious. There are no significant differences in the value scores of the three employment groups nor are there differences between groups of civil, mechanical, and electrical engineers. The most prominent values for the total sample of practicing engineers (N=138) are theoretical and economic, whereas the least prominent are aesthetic and social. Practicing professional engineers differ little in their values from engineering students.