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European Journal of Education Studies ISSN: 2501 - 1111 ISSN-L: 2501 - 1111 Available on-line at: www.oapub.org/edu Volume 3 │ Issue 8 │ 2017 doi: 10.5281/zenodo.834369 VALUES AND EXPECTATIONS FOR ACHIEVING PROFESSIONAL GOALS AMONG HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES Milanko Čabarkapa1i, Zorica Marković2, Nebojša Petrović1 Faculty of Philosophy, Department of Psychology, 1 University of Belgrade Čika Ljubina 8-20, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia Faculty of Philosophy, Department of Psychology, 2 University of Nis; Cirila i Metodija , 8 Ni:, Serbia Abstract: Plenty of space in psychological literature was dedicated to professional orientation of students, where the role of school, peers, parents, material and social factors was more studied while the role of personality traits, goals, expectations, personal and social values was studied less. This paper is focused on preference of personal and social values that we have defined as certain goals which are important within the context of choice of faculty, and thus, the future profession. We used two lists of goals - 18 personal and 18 social, which were applied to the sample of 497 high school graduates, where the sample consisted of 37,4% boys and 62,6% girls. The study was conducted in the field, at the end of 2014/2015 school year, within standard school conditions. Preference and level of goal importance the respondents expressed by giving only one answer for each personal and social value at the 5-point Likert- type scale, which enabled application of descriptive statistics methods, correlation and discriminant analysis in statistical data processing. The study results show that there are significant differences in preference of certain goals, as well as relation between importance of goals with expectations for achieving them through choice of faculty and future profession. Also, there is relation between the level of desire for doing the preferred profession and level of expectations that one may achieve his/her goals through the profession. In addition, it is shown that there are significant differences in the level of Corresponding author Milanko Čabarkapa, PhD Address Department of Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade Čika Ljubina 8-20, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia. E mail: milanko.cabarkapa@gmail.com i Copyright © The Author(s). All Rights Reserved. © 2015 – 2017 Open Access Publishing Group 399 Milanko Čabarkapa, Zorica Marković, Neboj:a Petrović VALUES AND EXPECTATIONS FOR ACHIEVING PROFESSIONAL GOALS AMONG HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES accepting certain goals as values, where more importance is given to personal than to social values, which is verified by validity of the author’s initial attitude that personal and social values should be separately studied, as they have different importance for professional orientation of young people. Keywords: values, personal and social goals, high school graduates, professional choice 1. Introduction Professional orientation of young people is mostly associated with the end of high school period. High school students – graduates mainly choose to study at one of the existing faculties or colleges. In series of previous studies on professional orientation, the attention was focused on examining the role of school, peers, parents, material and social factors, while the role of personality traits, goals, expectations, attitudes and values was less studied. Therefore, in this study we focus our attention on, to certain extent, neglected aspect of professional orientation of young people, where the main objective relates to research of role and importance which certain value-based goals have with regard to choice of studies and future profession. More precisely, the focus is on value-based expectations that the high school graduates in Serbia have from their future profession which is acquired by completing the planned faculty or college. Actually, the question is whether one of the factors of choice of the faculty constitutes expectation that in that way there will be provided occupation that allows realization of some important personal and social goals, which can be also viewed as personal and social values. For downloading the full article, please access the following link: http://oapub.org/edu/index.php/ejes/article/view/913 European Journal of Education Studies - Volume 3 │ Issue 8 │ 2017 400