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

Authors

Harsha Perera, University of Nevada, Las VegasFollow
Peter McIlveen, University of Southern Queenlsand
Chyna J. Miller, University of Nevada, Las VegasFollow
Rachel Part, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Ana P.S. Loures-Elias, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

4-21-2020

Publication Title

American Educational Research Association

First page number:

1

Last page number:

1

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.

Keywords

Social cognitive theories; Self-efficacy; Interaction effect model; Data collection; Synergistic interaction

Disciplines

Categorical Data Analysis | Physical Sciences and Mathematics | Statistics and Probability

Language

English

Repository Citation

Perera, H., McIlveen, P., Miller, C. J., Part, R., Loures-Elias, A. P. (2020). Self-Efficacy and Interest as Synergistic Mechanisms of Personal Agency: A Social Cognitive View. American Educational Research Association 1-1.