Self-Efficacy and Interest as Synergistic Mechanisms of Personal Agency: A Social Cognitive View

• In Event: AERA Poster Session 14
  In Poster Session: Division E Counseling Poster Session

Abstract

Although social cognitive theories (e.g., SCCT) posits that person factors, such as self-efficacy and interest, should interact in predicting salient outcome, the empirical status of such multiplicative effects remains unresolved largely due to a scholarly preoccupation with additive-effects models. We proposed and tested an interaction effects model in which science self-efficacy and interest were specified to interact in their effect on science achievement. Drawing on data from almost 6000 secondary school students, support was found for a synergistic interaction effects model. Above and beyond first-order effects, self-efficacy and interest showed a synergistic interaction, such that the positive self-efficacy-achievement association was enhanced under conditions of high interest. Notably, the model was found to generalize across females and males.

Authors

• Harsha Perera, University of Nevada - Las Vegas

• Peter McIlveen, University of Southern Queenlsand

• Chyna J Miller, University of Nevada - Las Vegas

• Rachel Part, University of Nevada - Las Vegas

• Ana Paula Santos Loures-Elias, University of Nevada - Las Vegas