Developing Children's Self-Efficacy and Skills: The Roles of Social Comparative Information and Goal Setting

How social comparative information and specific, proximal goals influence children's skillful performance and percepts of self-efficacy in the context of arithmetic competency development was explored. Low-achieving children in arithmetic received instruction in division and practice opportunities. One group was provided with social comparative information indicating the average number of problems solved by other children. A second group worked under conditions involving a goal of completing a given number of problems. A third group received both treatments, and a fourth group received neither treatment. Results yielded a significant main effect on perceived efficacy due to proximal goals. Children who received both goals and comparative information demonstrated the highest level of division skill. Results suggest exploring in greater detail how children weight and combine multiple sources of efficacy information. Article: According to Bandura's theory of self-efficacy (Bandura, 1977a, 1981), different treatments change behavior in part by strengthening perceived self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is concerned with judgments about how well one can organize and execute courses of action required in situations that may contain novel, unpredictable, and possibly stressful elements. Percepts of efficacy can affect choice of activities, effort expended, and perseverance in the face of difficulties. Efficacy information can be conveyed through enactive attainments, socially comparative vicarious measures, social persuasion, and inferences from physiological arousal. In this conception, one important source of efficacy information involves social comparison of one's performance with the performances of others (Bandura, 1981). Although the social comparison process is employed by adults in forming self-evaluations (Festinger, 1954; Suls & Miller, 1977), less is known about how children utilize social comparative information. Recent developmental evidence suggests that the ability to utilize social comparative information effectively depends upon higher levels of cognitive development and experience in making comparative evaluations (Veroff, 1969). It is not until ages 5 to 6 that children begin to seek comparative information. In the early elementary school years, children show an increasing interest in comparative information (Ruble, Feldman, & Boggiano, 1976), and by the fourth grade children utilize such information to help form self-evaluations of competence (Ruble, Boggiano, Feldman, & Loebl, 1980). There is also some evidence that comparative information influences behavioral and affective outcomes. Spear and Armstrong (1978) found that comparative information modified learning and motor performance among children in Grades 4 to 6 but was ineffective with kindergartners and first graders. Ruble, Parsons, and Ross (1976) demonstrated that comparative information influenced affective responses among 8-year-olds but not among 6-year-olds. One purpose of the present study was to determine the effects of social comparative information given in the context of arithmetic competency development on children's skillful performance and percepts of self-efficacy. Following a pretest measuring division skill and perceived efficacy, low-achieving children in Grades 4 and 5 received instruction in division and opportunities to solve problems over two training sessions. Half of the sample received social comparative information indicating the average number of problems that other similar children solved during each training session. The rest of the children received no comparative information. It was expected that social comparative information would enhance skillful performance and percepts of efficacy. Social comparative information constitutes a vicarious source of efficacy information (Bandura, 1981). Telling children how similar others perform at the task should promote a sense of efficaciousness for success. Children are likely to think that if other children could work a certain number of problems they can as well. Thus, the negative discrepancy between children's present performance level and the comparative level should motivate them and promote a sustained effort toward improvement (Masters, 1971). Children's initial sense of efficacy should be subsequently validated as they observe their actual progress in solving problems during training. In turn, heightened percepts of efficacy help sustain task involvement and lead to greater skill development. These considerations bear some similarity to the literature concerning the effects of goal-setting procedures on performance and perceived efficacy. Goal setting represents a form of self-motivation in which persons compare present performances with internal standards. The anticipated satisfaction of attaining a goal leads to sustained involvement until performances match or exceed standards (Bandura, 1977b). It is certain properties of goals, however, and not the goals themselves, that result in heightened motivation (Latham & Yukl, 1975; Locke, 1968). Important goal properties are specificity, difficulty level, and proximity. Goals that incorporate specific standards of performance are more likely to activate self-motivation and lead to higher performance than are vague goals ("Do your best") or no goals (Locke, 1968; Locke, Shaw, Saari, & Latham, 1981). Assuming that individuals have sufficient ability to accomplish the goal, there is much evidence demonstrating a positive and linear relationship between goal difficulty level and task performance (Locke et al., 1981). A third important goal property is proximity (Bandura, 1977b; Schunk & Gaa, 1981). Goals that are close at hand and that can be achieved rapidly result in greater motivation directed toward attainment and a higher level of performance than goals that project into the future (Bandura & Simon, 1977). Because distant goals are subject to many influences occurring more immediately, persons often forego or delay action on them (Bandura, 1977b). Proximal goals can also enhance percepts of efficacy (Bandura & Schunk, 1981). It is easy to gauge progress against an immediate goal, and knowledge that one is making progress facilitates development of perceived efficacy. This should be especially important for young children whose cognitive limitations may preclude meaningful representation of distant outcomes in thought. Bandura and Schunk (1981) found that children who pursued proximal goals during a subtraction competency development program demonstrated higher arithmetic skills and percepts of efficacy compared with children provided with distant goals or no explicit goals. A second purpose of the present study was to determine the effects of specific, proximal goals on children's division performance and percepts of efficacy. An adult proctor suggested to half of the children in each social comparison condition a goal of completing a certain number of problems during each training session. The number of problems suggested was identical to that indicated by the comparative information. Suggesting goals to children was also expected to enhance their task motivation and lead to higher levels of skillful performance and perceived efficacy. There was no clear theoretical rationale for postulating differential effectiveness of either comparative information or goals on children's level of division performance and perceived efficacy. Thus, it was hypothesized that children receiving only comparative information and those receiving only goals would not differ from one another in their achievement outcomes but that each group would outperform children receiving neither treatment. Children who received both comparative information and goals were also expected to outperform those receiving neither; however, no hypothesis was advanced to the effect that the combined treatment would be more effective than either treatment alone. According to Bandura (1981), little is known about how children weight and combine efficacy information from multiple sources.