Date of Award
8-1993
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
Psychology
Abstract
The major purposes of this study were 1) to examine the effects of self-efficacy on task choice, effort and performance on a memory task, and 2) to examine the effect of sequence anchoring on self-efficacy judgments. Forty-two older adults (25 women and 17 men) completed the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS), a memory complaints questionnaire (MCQ) , a self-efficacy questionnaire (SEQ), and two memory recall tasks. Subjects received an SEQ that had either a descending anchor (i.e., SEQ began with most difficult task) or an ascending anchor (i.e., SEQ began with easiest task). Also, subjects were either given a choice of word list to study or they were not given this choice. A multiple analysis of variance (MANOVA) showed that anchoring did not affect self-efficacy strength as predicted, but did affect self-efficacy level. A regression analysis supported self-efficacy theory (Bandura, 1977) for a subgroup of subjects with memory complaints, but not for the whole sample. Self-efficacy was not significantly correlated with task choice, although the relation was in the expected direction. Future research directions and theoretical implications are discussed.
Recommended Citation
Baldi, Renee Annette, "The relation of anchoring and choice to memory self-efficacy and performance in older adults" (1993). Master's Theses. 581.
https://scholarship.richmond.edu/masters-theses/581