getting current <select> value from drop-down menu with Python Selenium

user_defined_type_dropdown_element is the <select> tag, that is why you are getting all the options when printing it. If you want the selected option use Select class and first_selected_option

# initialize Select object
select = Select(user_defined_type_dropdown_element)

# to print the text
print select.first_selected_option.text

# to print the value
print select.first_selected_option.get_attribute("value")