How to get Javascript Select box's selected text
this.options[this.selectedIndex].innerHTML
should provide you with the "displayed" text of the selected item. this.value, like you said, merely provides the value of the value attribute.
In order to get the value of the selected item you can do the following:
this.options[this.selectedIndex].text
Here the different options of the select are accessed, and the SelectedIndex is used to choose the selected one, then its text is being accessed.
Read more about the select DOM here.