Expectancy of Beliefs:

Do I have the ability to succeed at this task?

Do I have the skills or knowledge to do well?

If I attempt this task, what do I expect will happen?

Most individuals will not choose to do a task or continue to engage in a task when they expect to fail

Even if the task is interesting and valuable to the learner, trying and failing repeatedly will result in eventually not engaging in the task

Historical Perspectives on Expectancy Construct

Use of expectancy construct is from cognitive perspective of motivation

Reflects cognitive metaphor of individual as active and rational decision maker

Less need for instigator (like instinct, drive, need, habit)

Directionality: how learners make decisions about goals, direction of energies, curiosity, & activity

Level of Aspiration

Learners feel successful when meeting goals they set for themselves

Prior successes generally lead to increases in aspiration, whereas failure results in decreased aspiration levels

High ability learners set higher aspirations than low ability learners

Learners are influenced by group goals & performance and adjust aspirations to these

Atkinson Model

Behavior is a multiplicative function of motives, probability for success, and incentive value.

Motivation Matrix (Covington)

3 Current Perspectives on the Expectancy Construct

Recent Model of Expectancy for Success

Cognitive (student expectancies) & Organismic (personality/psychology)

Research on Self-Perception & Ability

Organismic (role of individual) & Cognitive (competence & motivation)

Model of Self-Efficacy Beliefs

More mechanistic perspective (from social learning theory)

Derived from Atkinson’s expectancy-value model:

Probability of success

Incentive value

Developed by Eccles and Wigfield:

Expectancy construct

Task value construct

Future Expectancy for Success

Expectancy-Value Model

Correlation Studies on Student Self-Perceptions of Ability & Expectancies for Success

Strongest predictors of subsequent grades in math & English (even better than previous grades)

Higher levels correlated with use of cognitive & metacognitive strategies

Self-perceptions of competence:

Students’ self-evaluative judgments about their ability to accomplish certain tasks

Is a more cognitive evaluation of ability in a domain, NOT just self-esteem about oneself

Self-Perceptions of Competence & Ability -- Some Issues

Related to self-concept & personal identity research

Early research very general & global

Actually very domain specific

Domains of Competence

Academic -- general competence for school work

Social -- competence in interactions with others

Physical -- competence in physical activities like sports and perceptions of physical attractiveness/appearance

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Perceptions of Competence

vs. Self-Esteem

Perceptions of confidence -- more cognitive judgments of personal skills & abilities

Self-esteem -- more global affective reaction or evaluation of yourself

Reciprocal Relationship

Self-Efficacy:

People’s judgments of their capabilities to organize & execute courses of action required to attain designated types of performances

(Example -- "I can high jump 6 feet.")

Different from Self-Concept & Self-Perception of Competence

More specific & situational view of perceived competence in terms of including behavioral actions or cognitive skills necessary for performance

Used in reference to some type of goal

Model of Self-Efficacy Beliefs

Outcome expectations:

Judgments or beliefs regarding the contingency between a person’s behavior and the anticipated outcome

(Example -- "If jump 6 feet, I’ll get applause, a trophy, and feel cool about myself.")

Developmental Differences

Young children have an overall optimistic perception of situations

Young children tend to choose the end-points of Likert scales (extremes)

Younger children do not have information-processing skills available to integrate information & make necessary social comparisons

Changes in environment for older children affects both structure of the classroom situation & nature of evaluation

Gender Differences

When a gender difference is found, it is that females have lower self-perceptions of ability than males

Males have higher self-perceptions of their ability in math and sports

Females have higher self-perceptions of their ability in English

Ethnic Differences

Research often confounds race & ethnicity with social class differences

Generally have found that African American students do not have lower self-concepts of ability and often have higher expectations for success than Caucasian children

Minority students may compare themselves with social groups similar to their own

Implications for Teachers

Help students maintain relatively accurate but high expectations & efficacy and help students avoid the illusion of incompetence

Students’ perceptions of competence develop not just from accurate feedback from the teacher, but through actual success on challenging academic tasks. Keep tasks & assignments at a relatively challenging but reasonable level of difficulty

Foster the belief that competence or ability is a changeable, controllable aspect of development

Decrease the amount of relative ability information that is publicly available to students

Students’ perceptions of competence are somewhat domain specific and are not equivalent to global self-esteem. It is more productive for academic learning to help students develop their self-perceptions of competence rather than their global self-esteem