Is Perceived Self-Efficacy a Universal Construct? Psychometric Findings from 22 Cultures Ralf Schwarzer & Urte Scholz Freie Universität Berlin, Germany.

Is Perceived Self-Efficacy a Is Perceived Self-Efficacy a Universal Construct?Universal Construct?

Psychometric Findings from 22 Cultures

Ralf Schwarzer & Urte Scholz

Freie Universität Berlin, Germany

Perceived Self-Efficacy is the belief that one can perform a novel or difficult task, or cope with adversity -- in various domains of human functioning

Perceived Self-EfficacyFACILITATES:

GOAL SETTING

EFFORT INVESTMENT

PERSISTANCE IN FACE OF BARRIERS

RECOVERY FROM SETBACKS

General Perceived Self-Efficacy ScaleRalf Schwarzer & Matthias Jerusalem (1995)

Examples:

I can always manage to solve difficult problems if I try hard enough.

Thanks to my resourcefulness, I know how to handle unforeseen situations.

If I am in trouble, I can usually think of a solution.

I am confident that I could deal efficiently with unexpected events.

The General Perceived Self-Efficacy Scale

Source of the English Version:

Schwarzer, R. & Jerusalem, M. (1995). Generalized Self-Efficacy scale. In J. Weinman, S. Wright, & M. Johnston (Eds.), Measures in health psychology: A user’s portfolio. Causal and control beliefs (pp. 35-37). Windsor, UK: NFER-NELSON.

The full 10-item scale can be copied from the web

http://www.healthpsych.de

204

970

163 163 144

7423

461

100

1067

159

536

148

430

147

9481029

697568 495 429

264

1633

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

Frequency Distribution broken down by Nation

AGE

95 90 85 80 75 70 65 60 55 50 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10

Fre

quen

cy

5000

4000

3000

2000

1000

0

Std. Dev = 15.44

Mean = 26

N = 13,461

Age Distribution

NATION

Me

an

AG

E

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

2627

15

26

19

6163

1921

24

16

40

60

2421

Mean Age per Nation (N = 13,461)

Self-Efficacy

40,0

38,0

36,0

34,0

32,0

30,0

28,0

26,0

24,0

22,0

20,0

18,0

16,0

14,0

12,0

10,0

Fre

que

ncy

4000

3000

2000

1000

0

Distribution of Self-Efficacy Sum Scores for the Total Sample

(N= 17,553)

0,7

0,75

0,8

0,85

0,9

0,95

Belgiu

m

Costa

Rica

Denm

ark

Finla

nd

France

Germ

any

Great

Brit

ain

Greec

e

Hong Kong

Hungaria

Indones

iaIta

ly

Japan

Korea

Nether

lands

Peru

Poland

Portugal

Russia

SpainSyr

iaUSA

Scale Reliabilities (Cronbach’s ) for all Nations

 Unidimensionality of the

General Perceived Self-Efficacy Construct

GSE

SE5SE4 SE6 SE7SE2SE1 SE3 SE9SE8 SE10

.56 .47 .55.37 .40 .50 .56 .50 .48 .53

.43 .55 .50 .36 .30 .43 .36 .38 .31 .38

1.00

Mean Sum Scores Broken Down by Nation

18

20

22

24

26

28

30

32

34

36

NATION

Me

an

SU

MS

CO

RE

36

34

32

30

28

26

24

22

20

18

sex

male

female

Mean Sum Scores Broken Down by Nations and Gender

Correlations Between Self-Efficacy And Other Constructs

  Self-Efficacy Sum Score of German Teachers (N = 302)

Proactive Coping .55

Self-Regulation .58

Procrastination -.56

Emotional Exhaustion -.47

Depersonalisation -.44

Lack of Accomplishment -.75

Correlations Between Self-Efficacy And Other Constructs 

Expected Social Support

.43 .30

Self-Efficacy Sum Score of Costa Ricans

Women(N = 393)

Men (N = 258)

Anxiety -.43 -.42

Depression -.46 -.33

Optimism .60 .52

The Self-Efficacy Scale Is Reliable And Unidimensional Across Cultures.

www.healthpsych.de

References

Schwarzer, R. (Ed.) (1992). Self-efficacy: Thought control of action. Washington, DC: Hemisphere. Schwarzer, R. & Born, A. (1997). Optimistic self-beliefs: Assessment of general perceived self-efficacy in thirteen cultures. World Psychology, 3, 177-190.Schwarzer, R., Bäßler, J., Kwiatek, P., Schröder, K., & Zhang, J. X. (1997). The assessment of optimistic self-beliefs: Comparison of the German, Spanish, and Chinese versions of the General Self-Efficacy scale. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 46, 69-88.Schwarzer, R., Born, A., Iwawaki, S., Lee, Y.-M., Saito, E., & Yue, X. (1997). The assessment of optimistic self-beliefs: Comparison of the Chinese, Indonesian, Japanese and Korean versions of the General Self-Efficacy Scale. Psychologia: An International Journal of Psychology in the Orient, 40, 1-13.Schwarzer, R. & Jerusalem, M. (1995). Generalized Self-Efficacy scale. In J. Weinman, S. Wright, & M. Johnston (Eds.), Measures in health psychology: A user’s portfolio. Causal and control beliefs (pp. 35-37). Windsor, UK: NFER-NELSON.Schwarzer, R. & Jerusalem, M. (Eds.) (1999). Skalen zur Erfassung von Lehrer- und Schülermerkmalen. Dokumentation der psychometrischen Verfahren im Rahmen der Wissenschaftlichen Begleitung des Modellversuchs Selbstwirksame Schulen [Scales for the assessment of teacher and student characteristics.] Berlin, Germany: Freie Universität Berlin. Schwarzer, R., Mueller, J., & Greenglass, E. (1999). Assessment of perceived general self-efficacy on the Internet: Data collection in cyberspace. Anxiety, Stress, and Coping, 12, 145-161. Schwarzer, R., Schmitz, G. S. & Tang, C. (2000). Teacher burnout in Hong Kong and Germany: A cross-cultural validation of the Maslach Burnout Inventory. Anxiety, Stress, and Coping, 13, 309-326.Zhang, J. X. & Schwarzer, R. (1995). Measuring optimistic self-beliefs: A Chinese adaptation of the General Self-Efficacy Scale. Psychologia, 38, 174-181.

Source of this Presentation:

Scholz, U., Gutiérrez-Doña, B., Sud, S., & Schwarzer, R. (2002). Is general self-efficacy a universal construct? Psychometric findings from 25 countries. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 18, No. 3, 242-251.