When and Why Does Self-Efficacy Impair Performance?

自我效能感何时以及为何会损害绩效？

• 批准号: 0749031
• 负责人: Aaron Schmidt
• 金额: $ 3万
• 依托单位: University of Akron
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2008-05-01 至 2010-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0749031&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: When; Why; Does; Self; Efficacy

While considerable research indicates that self-efficacy (i.e. perceived competence) has beneficial effects on performance, recent work suggests that self-efficacy may actually be detrimental to performance. These findings present a challenge to the existing state of knowledge, and raise questions concerning the advisability of interventions designed to facilitate self-efficacy. The goal of this research project is to understand when and why self-efficacy impairs, rather than facilitates, task performance. Specifically, it is proposed that self-efficacy will have a detrimental effect on performance when (1) there is ambiguity regarding the true level of one's performance, and (2) competing demands on one's time motivate individuals to minimize the time spent on the task. It is posited that, when performance is ambiguous, individuals draw from their self-efficacy beliefs to estimate how well they are performing, with higher efficacy leading to overestimates of performance. These overestimates of performance may result in subsequent underinvestment of time and effort towards goal completion (thus leading to poorer performance) particularly when there are competing demands vying for one's time and attention. With salient competing demands, individuals are predicted to rely upon their estimates of performance to allocate only the minimum time and effort believed to be necessary to meet the primary goal, thus maximizing the time spent on remaining activities. It is under these conditions that self-efficacy is expected to impair performance. However, without competing demands, individuals are predicted to invest more resources than seen as minimally necessary. This, in turn, is predicted to negate the performance detriments of overestimated performance and thus reduce or eliminate the negative effects of self-efficacy on performance. The knowledge gained through this research may foster development of more effective practical applications, including identification of contexts in which inflated self-efficacy should be guarded against, and where efficacy-enhancing interventions should be approached with caution.

虽然相当多的研究表明，自我效能(即感知能力)对绩效有好处，但最近的研究表明，自我效能实际上可能对绩效不利。这些发现对现有的知识状态提出了挑战，并提出了关于旨在促进自我效能的干预措施是否可取的问题。这项研究的目标是了解自我效能感何时以及为什么会损害任务绩效，而不是促进任务绩效。具体地说，在以下情况下，自我效能感将对绩效产生不利影响：(1)对一个人的真实表现水平存在模棱两可的情况；(2)对个人时间的竞争要求促使个人将花在任务上的时间降至最低。研究假设，当绩效模棱两可时，个体会从他们的自我效能感信念中估计自己的表现如何，较高的效能感会导致对绩效的高估。这些对绩效的过高估计可能会导致随后在完成目标方面投入的时间和精力不足(从而导致更差的绩效)，特别是当有相互竞争的需求争夺一个人的时间和注意力的时候。由于存在明显的竞争需求，预计个人将依靠对业绩的估计，只分配实现主要目标所需的最低限度的时间和精力，从而最大限度地将时间花在剩余活动上。正是在这种情况下，自我效能感预计会损害表现。然而，在没有竞争性需求的情况下，预计个人会投入比最低限度必要的资源更多的资源。反过来，这又被预测为否定了高估绩效对绩效的不利影响，从而减少或消除了自我效能对绩效的负面影响。通过这项研究获得的知识可能会促进更有效的实际应用的发展，包括确定在哪些情况下应防止夸大的自我效能，在哪些情况下应谨慎地采取提高效能的干预措施。