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Psychology and Psychotechnics
Reference:

Shchebetenko S.A. Trait Efficacy: At the Crossroads of the Dispositional and Cognitive Approaches to Personality

Abstract: The article taps into an approach integrating the dispositional and social cognitive paradigms of personality under a unified umbrella. The key element of the dispositional approach to personality is the concept of traits, i.e. individual combinations of motives and patterns of behavior that describe and allow to predict one's actions. On the contrary, cognitive theories of personality emphasize the crucial role of situational and contextual factors. For this purpose, a construct of trait efficacy is introduced being referred to as an aspect of a trait which underscores that an individual may identify her or his skills and habits to respond adequately to situations which exert cues relevant to the given trait. It is assumed that in certain cases trait efficacy more adequately describes invidual's behavior including academic success and achievements. 1030 students from a Russian university filled in the Big Five Inventory that measures personality traits (the so called five-factor model) and the modified version of the Inventory designated to measure the dispositional efficacy. The researchers measured the two types of academic achievement, university success at the end of academic terms and Unified State Exam scores (Russian and math subtests). The traits were shown to correlate strongly with respective trait efficacy; meanwhile, in terms of mean differences, each trait was found to differ substantially from its trait efficacy counterpart. Academic achievement indicators correlated weakly with personality traits. Dispositional efficacy reproduced those correlations but obtained effects were higher except for the correlation between diligence and university success. In five cases out of seven personality traits related indirectly to academic achievement indicators. In other words, these links were mediated by respective trait efficacy. Theoretically, compared to personality traits dispositional efficacy is a more changeable construct that involves acquisition of personal behavioral schemes and identification therewith. Being a personality trait, dispositional efficacy is, psychometrically, a product of autobiographic memory. The findings obtained and corresponding theorisations promote a further opportunity to contemplate the construct of personality trait in a way of its inner structural differentiation.


Keywords:

self-efficacy, the Big Five, academic achievement, congitive theories of personality, integrative frameworks, five-factor model, personality traits, autobiographical memory, questionnaires, Big Five Inventory


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This article written in Russian. You can find original text of the article here .
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