Sheila.Fava@f3.n157.z1.fidonet.org (Sheila Fava) (08/10/90)
Index Number: 9682
April 30, 1990
To All of You Who Helped Me With My Study:
I was the lady who spoke to you (by computer or phone) about a
study I was doing for my Doctoral Degree in Psychology. I
contacted you last October and asked you about fifty questions.
I want to thank you for helping me with my study.
I told you, then, I would send you the results. I have included
the formal abstract of the findings below. To translate it into
English, my results statistically significant. Part of the
reason that the findings may not have been significant is
that the individuals I interviewed were a talented lot -- both
the computer users and the ones who were not computer users.
I completed the study by the end of 1989 and my research was
accepted this April. I shall graduate at the end of June.
Thankyou again for your help.
Yours truly,
(s) Maya Bat-Ami, Psy.D.
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A B S T R A C T
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The purpose of this study was to investigate the generality
aspect of Bandura's self-efficacy theory by assessing whether
physically disABLED individuals who had attained competence in
one area would demonstrate enhanced self-efficacy in more general
areas. Self-Efficacy is the perception that one is able to do a
given task. This research compared physically disABLED users of
computers combined with telecommunications (CUs) with their non-
computer using counterparts (NCUs) on measures of general and vo-
cational self-efficacy. The role of gender was also examined
because it had been shown to affect both computer usage and voca-
tional self-efficacy. Differences in the groups were measured
by the Self-Efficacy Scale (SES) designed by Sherer et al and a
Vocational Self-Efficacy Scale (VSES) devised by the author.
Results showed no significant differences between CUs and NCUs or
between males and females on measures of Self-Efficacy. There
were moderate positive correlations between (A) Length of time a
person had been telecomputing and that person's SES score and (B)
The length of time a person had been telecomputing and the amount
of time that person currently spends using telecommunications.
For CUs there was a moderate negative correlation between age and
VSES Score. Future investigations of vocational self-efficacy
should include a broad range of performance attainments so that
their collective contributions to self-efficacy can be assessed.
(Permission to upload this message was extended by: Maya Bat-Ami.)
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