Self-efficacy beliefs: Comparison of five measures.

Abstract

In 2 studies, the researchers compared 5 ways of operationalizing self-efficacy that are commonly found in the literature and assessed the antecedents and consequences of self-efficacy on the basis of A. Bandura's (1986) conceptualization. Results indicated that measuring self-efficacy by using a task-specific, 1-item confidence rating showed the lowest convergent validity with the other self-efficacy operationalizations and showed the least consistency in its correlation with the hypothesized self-efficacy antecedents and outcomes. Furthermore, self-efficacy magnitude and self-efficacy strength (combining all the certainty answers) appeared to be inferior to self-efficacy composites based on combining only the strength items where the magnitude response was «yes, I can perform at that level»