Resumen de The influence of general self-efficacy on the interpretation of vicarious experience information within online learning
An individual ’ s general self-efficacy affects thei r cognitive behaviours in a number of ways. Previous research has found general self -efficacy to influence how people interpret persuasive messages designed to encourage behavioural change. No previous work has looked into how general self-efficacy affects the interpretation of vicarious experience information and how this affects self-effic acy in being able to complete a set task within a career skills online learning environment . The study presented considers this gap in knowledge, analysing the effect of six different types of vicarious experience information on the self-efficacy of online workshop part icipants to complete a set task. In analysing the results, each participant ’ s general self-efficacy was considered.
Results showed individuals with low general self-efficacy to find vicarious experience information significantly less beneficial for their self-efficacy in completing a set task when compared to others with high general self-e fficacy. Those with low general self-efficacy were more likely to make negative self-c omparisons to the vicarious experience information, restricting its potential to increase their self-efficacy. In contrast, participants with high general self-efficacy found many of the vicarious experience information presented to be beneficial to their self-efficacy to complete the set task as they were more likely to dismiss any information they i nterpreted to be negative. Results from this study highlight the importance of more research into how vicarious experience information can be designed and presented in a way that ensures benefit to the task- specific self-efficacy of all individuals, regard less of their general self-efficacy beliefs at the time.
