The purpose of this article is to examine the contribution made by the self-efficacy component of Bandura’s (1986) social cognitive theory to the study of self-regulation and motivation in academic settings. The difference between self-efficacy beliefs and other expectancy constructs is first explained, followed by a brief overview of problems in self-efficacy research. Findings on the relationship between self-efficacy, motivation constructs, and academic performances are then summarized. These findings demonstrate that particularized measures of self-efficacy that correspond to the criterial tasks with which they are compared surpass global measures in the explanation and prediction of related outcomes. The conceptual difference between the definition and use of expectancy beliefs in social cognitive theory and in expectancy value and self-concept theory is then clarified. Last, strategies to guide future research are offered.

Self-Efficacy Beliefs in Academic Settings

This meta-analysis (114 studies, k = 157, N = 21,616) examined the relationship between self-efficacy and work-related performance. Results of the primary meta-analysis indicated a significant weighted average correlation between self-efficacy and work-related performance, G (r+) = .38, and a signif

Self-efficacy and work-related performance: A meta-analysis.

CROMBACH, Lee J., GLESER, Goldine C., NANDA, Harinder & RAJARATNAM, Nageswar. The dependability of behavioral measurements: theory of generalizability for scores and profiles. New York, John Wiley and Sons, 1972.

The dependability of behavioral measurements: theory of generalizability for scores and profiles

The present study estimated the unique contribution of self-efficacy to work-related performance controlling for personality (the Big 5 traits), intelligence or general mental ability, and job or task experience. Results, based on a meta-analysis of the relevant literatures, revealed that overall, across all studies and moderator conditions, the contribution of self-efficacy relative to purportedly more distal variables is relatively small. Within moderator categories, there were several cases in which self-efficacy made unique contributions to work-related performance. For example, self-efficacy predicted performance in jobs or tasks of low complexity but not those of medium or high complexity, and self-efficacy predicted performance for task but not job performance. Overall, results suggest that the predictive validity of self-efficacy is attenuated in the presence of individual differences, though this attenuation does depend on the context.

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Self-efficacy and work-related performance: the integral role of individual differences.

Study habit, skill, and attitude inventories and constructs were found to rival standardized tests and previous grades as predictors of academic performance, yielding substantial incremental validity in predicting academic performance. This meta-analysis (N = 72,431, k = 344) examines the construct validity and predictive validity of 10 study skill constructs for college students. We found that study skill inventories and constructs are largely independent of both high school grades and scores on standardized admissions tests but moderately related to various personality constructs; these results are inconsistent with previous theories. Study motivation and study skills exhibit the strongest relationships with both grade point average and grades in individual classes. Academic specific anxiety was found to be an important negative predictor of performance. In addition, significant variation in the validity of specific inventories is shown. Scores on traditional study habit and attitude inventories are the most predictive of performance, whereas scores on inventories based on the popular depth-of-processing perspective are shown to be least predictive of the examined criteria. Overall, study habit and skill measures improve prediction of academic performance more than any other noncognitive individual difference variable examined to date and should be regarded as the third pillar of academic success.

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Study Habits, Skills, and Attitudes: The Third Pillar Supporting Collegiate Academic Performance

Comparaison de l'aptitude de trois modeles theoriques (le modele cognitif-attentionnel, la theorie de l'apprentissage social, le modele des habiletes cognitives) a rendre compte des performances academiques et de l'anxiete liee aux examens

Test anxiety and academic competence: A comparison of alternative models.

Two methods of assessing cognitive processes in test anxiety were investigated in an actual classroom test. Subjects (N =96) listed their thoughts and filled out a checklist of positive and negative thoughts either after one-third of the test, after two-thirds of the test, or immediately after completing the test. The checklist negative thoughts score was related to test anxiety, whereas none of the thought-listing categories differentiated among levels of test anxiety. This finding, together with the results of previous studies, suggests greater construct validity for the checklist than for the thought listing. Among the checklist and thought-listing scores, checklist negative thoughts were also the mostly strongly related to performance. The combined assessment was found to be reactive, in that high test-anxious subjects who completed the measures two-thirds of the way through the test obtained lower test scores than some other subjects. This finding implies that caution may be needed in using multiple cognitive measures that require students to interrupt their work during a real exam.

Randy J. Smith

Papers

Test anxiety and academic competence: A comparison of alternative models.

Cognitive processes in test anxiety: An analysis of two assessment procedures in an actual test