Overconfidence in Initial Self-Efficacy Judgments: Effects on Decision Processes and Performance

Judgments of task-specific, expected performance (i.e., self-efficacy) can affect the activities one chooses to pursue and the extent of effort devoted to these activities. However, relatively little is known about the accuracy of self-efficacy judgments or their effects on behavior, performance, and perceptions of performance in complex cognitive tasks. The results of a pilot study and experiment indicate that initial, "first-impression" self-efficacy judgments made in cognitively complex tasks are biased toward overestimates of personal ability (i.e., "overconfidence"). The experiment manipulated performance expectations to illuminate how overestimates of initial self-efficacy affect decision making. Inducing positive expectations produced overconfidence in choice accuracy, but did not increase effort, attention to strategy, or performance relative to mildly negative and strongly negative expectations. In contrast, inducing mildly negative expectations increased effort, attention to strategy, and performance relative to strongly negative expectations. The results suggest that the demotivational effects of initial negative expectations are more robust than the motivational effects of initial positive expectations. ln addition, inducing mildly negative expectations may improve performance more than positive expectations in at least some tasks and settings.     

Self-Efficacy and the Prediction of Domain-Specific Cognitive Abilities

ABSTRACT We evaluated predictors of performance in 4 specific cognitive ability domains: verbal, numerical, spatial, and mechanical. The predictors were individual differences in self-efficacy beliefs, self-enhancement tendencies, and cross-domain abilities. Our university students' beliefs about their verbal, numerical, and spatial capabilities correlated well with their actual performance on standardized tests (verbal r =.33, numerical r =.27, spatial r =.36). In contrast, the students' self-efficacy for mechanical tasks did relatively poorly in predicting mechanical test performance ( r =.10). Most interesting were two other findings: (a) The best predictor of domain performance was level of cross-domain performance by far, even for mechanical tasks, and (b) self-enhancement tendencies added to cross-domain abilities and self-efficacy beliefs in the prediction of performance. The results are discussed in terms of possible mechanisms explaining how one's score on a maximal performance task can be affected by self-efficacy beliefs and self-enhancement tendencies.     

Rater Personality and Performance Dimension Weighting in Making Overall Performance Judgments

Purpose  

The present study examined the effects of rater personality on the performance appraisal process. Specifically, we determined the relative weights that raters place on different performance dimensions when making overall performance evaluations, and examined whether rater personality influenced this weighting process. The literatures on social/political values and mate/friend selection were used as guiding frameworks in developing specific hypotheses.     

Self-Efficacy in Romantic Relationships: Prediction of Relationship Attitudes and Outcomes

ABSTRACT

Three studies examine discriminant and predictive validity of a self-report measure of self -efficacy in romantic relationships (Self-Efficacy in Romantic Relationships; SERR). Study 1 indicates SERR scores predict relationship anxiety and expectations of relationship success when general self-efficacy, self-esteem, social desirability, and efficacy beliefs about relating to specific relationship partners are considered. Study 2 indicates SERR scores predict later relationship satisfaction and commitment when relationship type and length are considered. Study 3 indicates that SERR scores predict later relationship outcomes when other self-efficacy indicators are considered. The SERR assesses broad feelings of relationship self-efficacy, independent of specific relationships or partners.     

Prior Performance and Goal Progress as Moderators of the Relationship Between Self-Efficacy and Performance

Over the last several years, the conventional view of self-efficacy as a positive influence on performance has been called into question. Researchers have identified a negative relationship between self-efficacy and performance when examined via within-person analyses, even in the presence of large positive between-person relationships. The current study proposes that the within-person relationship between self-efficacy and subsequent performance is moderated by one's degree of prior success or failure. Using a multitrial task, support was found for the proposed model. Following poor or substandard performances, self-efficacy was positively related to subsequent performance. However, following more successful prior performances, self-efficacy was negatively related to subsequent performance. Implications of these findings for theory and research on work motivation are discussed.     

合作学习中一般自我效能感与自我监控的表现

该研究运用情境实验和问卷测量的方法,初探了一般自我效能感与自我监控不同的学生在合作学习的小组活动自评中的差异。结果表明,一般自我效能感高的被试对小组话动的价值评价比一般自我效能感低的被试更积极;但在对组织者的评价和对合作学习的喜爱程度上不如一般自我效能感低的学生。自我监控高的学生比自我监控低的学生对组织者有更积极的评价,但在对合作学习的喜爱程度上却比不上自我监控低的同学。     

The Role of Self-Efficacy and Fear-Avoidance Beliefs in the Prediction of Disability

Both self-efficacy and fear-avoidance beliefs have been shown to be predictors of the level of disability in low back pain suffers. What is not clear from the literature, however, is whether the two constructs are differentially predictive of disability. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between pain self-efficacy and fear-avoidance beliefs and to determine whether they can explain unique variance in disability scores. One hundred and twenty-one people over the age of 18, suffering from chronic low back pain and receiving workers' compensation, completed the Pain Self-Efficacy Scale (PSEQ), the Fear Avoidance Beliefs questionnaire (FABQ), the Quebec Back Pain Disability Scale and a visual analogue scale for pain. The results show that, after controlling for pain, self-efficacy explained 24% of the variance in disability scores, and fear avoidance only a further 3.1%.     

The Impact of Biased Inquiry Strategies on Performance Judgments

This experiment explores the attributional consequences of asking constraining performance-relevant questions-biased to elicit favorable or unfavorable remarks from the person being evaluated. After hearing the performer deliver a speech, all subjects played the role of questioner in a feedback interview purportedly designed to help the speechmaker improve future performance. Subjects asked biased questions that focused on either the positive or negative aspects of the speech and heard answers that were either congruent or incongruent with the biasing implications of their questions. Results showed that speech performance ratings were influenced by the direction of the performer′s self-evaluative comments, even when these comments were in line with, and thus potentially constrained by, the evaluator′s own behavior. Implications of biased inquiry strategies in organizational contexts where the evaluator is the source of constraint are discussed.     

Self-Efficacy,Competitiveness, and Effort as Antecedents of Salesperson Performance

This paper posits and tests a model of the individual characteristics of self-efficacy, competitiveness, and effort as potential antecedents of salesperson performance. Based on two studies in different selling contexts, it is observed that whereas effort mediates the relationship between competitiveness and sales performance, self-efficacy has both direct and indirect effects on sales performance. Structural equation modeling results support the proposed model. Implications and conclusions of the studies are presented.     

Differential Prediction of Immigrant Versus Majority Group Training Performance Using Cognitive Ability and Personality Measures

There are very few studies of the differential prediction of work and training performance for immigrant groups in the Netherlands. Scores on the General Aptitude Test Battery, an intelligence test, and the Amsterdamse Biografische Vragenlijst (ABV), a frequently used Dutch personality test, and training data for 78 immigrant and 78 Dutch trainee truck drivers were collected. Lautenschlager and Mendoza’s (1986) method of step-down hierarchical regression analysis was used to check for bias in the prediction of training results. Some predictor-criterion combinations showed differential prediction, especially with less cognitive and less objective criteria. The results with respect to the intelligence test appear to be in line with the findings of the US literature.     

Using Past Performance, Proxy Efficacy, and Academic Self-Efficacy to Predict College Performance

This study examined the ability of prior academic performance, proxy efficacy, and academic self-efficacy to predict college academic performance. Participants ( N  = 202) completed a modified version of the Teacher Collective Efficacy scale ( Goddard, 2001 ), the Academic Self-Efficacy scale ( Elias & Loomis, 2000 ), and a demographic questionnaire. Prior performance was predictive of both academic self-efficacy beliefs and college performance. Hierarchical regression analysis indicates that academic self-efficacy beliefs explain a significant amount of unique variance beyond past performance in predicting college performance. Proxy efficacy did serve as a predictor of student academic self-efficacy, but did not serve as a predictor of college performance. Implications for instructors, as well as for future research, are discussed.     

The Interaction of Neuroticism and Gender and Its Impact on Self-Efficacy and Performance

Self-efficacy has been linked to performance in many areas of human endeavor. Examinations of personality correlates of self-efficacy suggest that emotional stability or neuroticism is consistently related to self-efficacy. Other findings suggest a gender difference in emotional stability. In this article, it is proposed that emotional stability and gender interact to affect self-efficacy and that efficacy, in turn, affects performance. The hypothesized interaction and mediation are confirmed using longitudinal data collected from college students. The model and results also provide evidence of one mechanism whereby personality affects performance even in the absence of direct personality–performance relationships.     

A Longitudinal Investigation of Task and Contextual Performance Influences on Promotability Judgments

Promotions in organizations traditionally have represented the principal measure of career success, and they tend to be based on evaluations or judgments of employees' promotability made by supervisors. Yet theory and research on the antecedents of promotability judgments have presented an inconsistent and ambiguous picture of just what factors are best predictive of such evaluations. In the present investigation, longitudinal data obtained from supervisors of professional employees were used to rigorously test the relative influence of task and contextual performance on judgments of promotability. Results indicate that task and contextual performance not only explain unique variance in judgments of promotability but also interact, such that subordinates who excel in task performance and in the job dedication aspect of contextual performance are judged more suitable for promotion than subordinates who excel in one but not in the other. Implications of results are discussed and future research directions are offered.     

The Effect of Information Format and Performance Pattern on Performance Appraisal Judgments in a Computerized Performance Monitoring Context1

This paper examines how the presentation of computer-monitored performance information affects performance judgments. Two factors were examined: the performance pattern and the information format. In a computer simulation, subjects were responsible for evaluating the performance of a computer-monitored typist. They were assigned to one of three format conditions: a periodic, delayed, or summarized format. The pattern of the typist's performance was also varied: It either improved, worsened, or remained about the same during the simulation. Results indicate that performance pattern affected subjects' ratings of overall performance, performance quality, and performance consistency. Both factors influenced ratings of future performance and recall of specific performance information. Implications of these results for performance appraisals and computerized performance monitoring systems are discussed.     

The Influence of Self-Ratings versus Peer Ratings on Supervisors'' Performance Judgments

This study investigated the extent to which supervisors use feedback from outside sources in making performance judgments. A simulation was conducted in which participants with organizational supervisory experience made an initial performance judgment about a profiled employee. Participants then received additional information that was discrepant from their initial judgment (positive or negative) from one of two sources (the profiled employee himself or one of his peers). The direction of the discrepant information and its source interacted in determining final ratings, such that, participants were more likely to use discrepant information to alter their performance judgments in a consistent direction when the source was a peer than when the source was the employee himself. Furthermore, participants' opinions about the usefulness of peer information for performance judgments moderated this interaction. Specifically, participants who believed that information from an employee's peers was useful, were more likely to use discrepant information provided by a peer when making final performance judgments than were participants who did not believe that information from an employee's peers was useful.     

考试自我效能感是考试焦虑影响考试成绩的中介变量

本文采用结构方程的统计分析技术．依据Baron(1986)提出的确定中介变量的规则和标准．对265名中学生的特质考试焦虑、考试自我效能感、数学期末考试成绩的关系进行了探讨。考试焦虑,考试自我效能感和数学考试成绩是三个潜变量。结果表明,考试焦虑通过考试自我效能感这一中介变量对考试成绩产生影响,考试自我效能感对考试成绩有直接的影响作用,是考试焦虑影响考试成绩的中介变量。     

Responses to Successful and Unsuccessful Performance: The Moderating Effect of Self-Efficacy on the Relationship between Performance and Attributions

This paper reports on two experiments which explore how individuals with high and low self-efficacy differ in the way they interpret performance feedback and make causal attributions to sustain their self-efficacy perceptions for subsequent performance attempts. The results from Study 1 show that high self-efficacy people make self-serving attributions for unsuccessful performance, while low self-efficacy individuals make self-effacing attributions for unsuccessful performance. In Study 2, these attribution patterns were replicated and shown to combine with past performance, to account for 53% of the variance in subsequent self-efficacy. The implications for improving training interventions, and for understanding the causes of poor performance, are discussed.