ABSTRACT
Self-efficacy beliefs are people's beliefs about their ability to produce desired outcomes through their own actions. Thus, the measurement of self-efficacy should be designed to capture the multiple characteristics of the behavior of interest and the situations in which it occurs. People higher in conscientiousness are more likely to set more explicit and more challenging goals, and setting explicit and challenging goals is associated with goal attainment, which enhances self-efficacy beliefs. Research on self-efficacy theory has explored the contribution of students' ever-evolving perceptions of their academic abilities, confidence that they can complete specific academic tasks, predictions about academic outcomes, and interpretation of success and failure experiences. Students with higher levels of academic self-efficacy demonstrate higher academic goal-setting, value academic achievement more, spend twice as much time studying, earn higher grades, and report greater concentration and control while completing homework, when compared to students with lower academic self-efficacy.
