A value-expectancy approach to cultural reform movements

Traditional theories, like those of Marx and Parsons, do not explain why the youth from affluent families’ arc in the forefront of the American reform and revolutionary movements. At the psychological level, a value-expectancy theory seems to be compatible with the emergence of affluent revolutionaries and the sociological-level theories of Marx and Parsons. In the present study, negative correlations were found between reward-expectations and counter-cultural identity, and positive correlations were found between reward-expectations and dominant cultural identity. Results also indicated that college courses dealing with American social problems lowered expectations of success in achieving traditional middle class (dominant culture) goals.