Meeting People

Life is filled with opportunities and obstacles. What happens when you are faced with a difficult challenge? Do you rise to meet it, or do you back off? Social-cognitive theorists note that our self-efficacy expectancies influence our behavior. When we believe that we are capable of succeeding through our own efforts, we marshal our resources and apply ourselves. The following scale, created by Fibel and Hale (1978), can give you insight as to whether you believe that your own efforts are likely to meet with success. You can compare your own expectancies for success with those of other undergraduates taking psychology courses by turning to the scoring key at the end of the chapter.

Directions: Indicate the degree to which each item applies to you by circling the appropriate number, according to this key:

1 = highly improbable

2 = improbable

3 = equally improbable and probable, not sure

4 = probable

5 = highly probable

In the Future I Expect That I Will:

1. Find that people don’t seem to understand what I’m trying to say 1 2 3 4 5

2. Be discouraged about my ability to gain the respect of others 1 2 3 4 5

3. Be a good parent 1 2 3 4 5

4. Be unable to accomplish my goals 1 2 3 4 5

5. Have a stressful marital relationship 1 2 3 4 5

6. Deal poorly with emergency situations 1 2 3 4 5

7. Find my efforts to change situations I don’t like are ineffective 1 2 3 4 5

8. Not be very good at learning new skills 1 2 3 4 5

9. Carry through my responsibilities successfully 1 2 3 4 5

10. Discover that the good in life outweighs the bad 1 2 3 4 5

11. Handle unexpected problems successfully 1 2 3 4 5

12. Get the promotions I deserve 1 2 3 4 5

13. Succeed in the projects I undertake 1 2 3 4 5

14. Not make any significant contributions to society 1 2 3 4 5

15. Discover that my life is not getting much better 1 2 3 4 5

16. Be listened to when I speak 1 2 3 4 5

17. Discover that my plans don’t work out too well 1 2 3 4 5

18. Find that no matter...