The population of this study is 1972 freshmen of the National TaiwanNormal University, A systematic sample was selected for the study of their value systems and short term changes of the systems. Rokeach's 36 value concepts have been adopted as study focus. In addition, small group activities were conducted to elicit value changes.
It was found that the principal factors of the student's orientational value systems were: (1) Society vs individual orientation, (2) material vs spiritual life, (3) individual vs society orientation, and (4) Spiritual vs material life. Their prin-cipal factors for instrumental value system were: (1) moral vs competence, (2) self expansion vs self constriction, (3) competence vs moral, and (4) moral vs competence. The characteristics of the two value systems were simple and contradictory.
The effect of small group activities turns the participants into individual orientation. Generally speaking, orientation value systems remained unchanged at 3-month intervals. However, instrumental value system was changed from emphasi-zing moral to emphasizing competence. The changes were serious and deserved further study.