OUTCOME EXPECTANCY, SELF-PERCEIVED EFFICACY AND BEHAVIOR PERFORMANCE.

Abstract

A systematic investigation of the human mind's ability to self-reflect and create private interpretations of sensory data has been handicapped for years by conceptual prejudice and methodological bias. Until the arrival of the cognitive behavior therapists, little empirical attention was directed to the development of a methodology adequate enough to investigate the influence that distorted cognitive interpretations have on emotional arousal and inhibited behavioral performance. This study investigated these self-reflective mental capabilities in terms of outcome expectancies which were conceptualized in terms of guilt, and self-perceptions of performance ability which were conceptualized in terms of successfully refusing unreasonable requests. It was hypothesized that guilt entails both emotional arousal as well as the distorted and fabricated cognitive perceptions of tragic expectation, causal attribution and self-perceived helplessness and that these perceptions influence behavioral performance and self-perceptions of performance ability. It was also hypothesized that guilt relates significantly to resentment and depression. Seventy-three subjects volunteered to participate: fifty-eight women and fifteen men with a mean age of thirty-three. Subjects responded to both self-report questionnaires and open-ended self-report interviews. Seven independent raters judged the participant's responses to eight tape recorded stimulus situations to determine to what extent the responses fit the hypothesized categories. A stepwise multiple regression was used to analyze the data. The results were summarized and placed in tables. The results of the study supported the five hypotheses developed to test the general question.