Competency Expectations Research Articles

Effect of General Self-Efficacy Expectancies on Performance Attributions

Self-efficacy is usually conceived of as specific to a situation; however, it has been proposed that self-efficacy across the individual's entire history of achievement experiences contributes to a general set of expectations of competence—general self-efficacy expectancy. Shelton suggested in 1990 that high general self-efficacy expectancy is the product of a history of more self-attributed successes than failures. Because attributions made for causes of performance can be biased by expectations, it is suggested here that level of general self-efficacy, as an expectation of personal competence, may be conserved through the attributionsl process. In a 2 × 2 group experimental design, 60 subjects received nonveridical feedback of either success or failure for a computer-generated response-latency task and then rated attributions for the cause of their performance against the Causal Dimension Scale, providing data for attributions on three dimensions. Perceived performance influenced attributions for both forms of self-efficacy, indicating that a self-serving bias operated in the attributional process to maintain high self-efficacy. The results confirm the basic assumption that there is a substantial, positive relationship between general and specific self-efficacy and shed some light on the processes of forming such judgments.

Employers’ Expectations of Career-Entry Competencies: A National Survey

Employers’ Expectations of Career-Entry Competencies: A National Survey

Gender Stereotypes and the Perception of Male and Female Candidates

We investigate the origins of voters' expectations of greater female competency on issues, such as dealing with poverty or the aged, and greater male competency on military and defense issues. We contrast two alternative explanations: gender-trait stereotypes, emphasizing a candidate's gender-linked personality traits; and gender-belief stereotypes, placing greatest importance on the differing political outlooks of male and female candidates. We test contrasting predictions from these two approaches with data from an experiment in which 297 undergraduate participants were randomly assigned to hear about a male or a female candidate with typically masculine or feminine traits. Overall, there was stronger support for the trait approach. Warm and expressive candidates were seen as better at compassion issues; instrumental candidates were rated as more competent to handle the military and economic issues. Moreover, masculine instrumental traits increased the candidate's perceived competence on a broader range of issues than the feminine traits of warmth and expressiveness. Finally, there was some limited support for the belief approach with gender-based expectations about the candidates' political views affecting their rated competency on compassion but not other types of political issues.

Educating Professionals: Responding to New Expectations for Competence and Accountability. Curry L, Wergin JF, et al, San Francisco, CA, Jossey-Bass lnc, Publishers, 1993, hardback, 379 pp, $34.95.

Educating Professionals: Responding to New Expectations for Competence and Accountability. Curry L, Wergin JF, et al, San Francisco, CA, Jossey-Bass lnc, Publishers, 1993, hardback, 379 pp, $34.95.

Educating professionals: Responding to new expectations for competence and accountability. Lynn Curry, John F. Wergin, and Associates. 379 pp. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1993. $34.95 ISSN 1-55542-523-2

Educating professionals: Responding to new expectations for competence and accountability. Lynn Curry, John F. Wergin, and Associates. 379 pp. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1993. $34.95 ISSN 1-55542-523-2

Identification of Graduate Level Competencies in Hospitality Management

Hospitality managers and educators were surveyed to ascertain their expectations for competencies of graduates with advanced degrees in hospitality management. The study sample of 183 managers and 296 educators were asked to classify 46 competency statements according to educational level and experience required for competency development. Five competencies were classified as requiring a master's degree, four of which were considered to require more than three years of experience to develop competency. Twenty-seven competencies were identified at the bachelor's level, and seven were found not to be related to level of education. All competencies in both groups were considered to require up to three years of experience for competency development. Results will be useful in developing curricula for graduate programs in hospitality management.

GRADUATE EDUCATION IN HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT: IMPLICATIONS FOR CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT

The purpose of this research was to secure information from hospitality managers and educators concerning their expectations for competencies of graduates with advanced degrees in hospitality management. The study sample of 183 managers and 296 educators was asked to classify 46 competency statements according to educational level and experience required for competency development. Seven competencies were found not to be related to level of education and 27 were identified at the bachelor's level. All competencies in both groups were considered to require up to three years of experience for competence development. Five competencies were classified as requiring a master's degree, 4 of which were considered to require more than three years of experience to develop competency.The final analysis involved a comparison of educator and manager responses to determine the extent of agreement on level of education. The groups tended to agree on about three fourths of the competency statements.

Attributions for fair exchange outcomes: The effects of power and status

This study focuses on how two fundamental social factors, structural power position and social status, affect attributions for relatively common, non-problematic exchange outcomes. We argue that the relative power and statuses of dyad members activate expectations of competence which in turn shape attributions in the situation. Subjects assumed the role of a typist described in a vignette of a transaction between a typist and a student needing a paper typed. We manipulated power positions in the vignette by varying the value and availability of the resource each actor desired; subject's sex and that of the fictive student represented social statuses. Despite the typicality of the exchange situation, results indicated that status and, to some extent power, created variation in the strength of attributions for the exchange outcome. Females, presumably expected to be more competent typists, made stronger self-attributions for the typing payment than males. Similarly, those in high power positions tended to attribute the payment more to themselves than occupants of low power positions.

Trait anxiety and parental child-rearing behavior: Support as a moderator variable?

Abstract Based on central assumptions of the social support literature and on formulations concerning the construction of competence and consequence expectancies, a model for the interaction of maternal and paternal child-rearing behavior in the development of children's trait anxiety is presented. Hypotheses concerning this model are tested empirically; 160 boys and 169 girls (aged 12–14 years) responded to the “Erziehungsstil-Inventar” (“Child-Rearing Inventory”), which serves as a measure of child-rearing styles as perceived by the child, as well as to a German adaptation of the “State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children”. General relations between the variables were analyzed by means of product-moment correlations, whereas moderator effects, specifically, were subjected to analyses of variance. Trait anxiety was mainly associated with parental inconsistency. Predicted interactions of maternal and paternal child-rearing behavior could be partly confirmed.

Developing Prospective Managers

This article is the second in a series of three articles that describe a project set up to define, design, and try out tools for the selection and development of nurse managers. Through the Prospective Managers Pilot Project, Stanford University Hospital nurses have explored an alternative to the traditional approach of ‘working your way up the ladder’ to management competence. Selected candidates, with less than 1 year of clinical experience, strove to learn and demonstrate 25 defined skills of a head nurse. The first article in the series addressed the experiential interview approach to selection of candidates. This article defines the competency expectations of the head nurse, methodology to attain these skills by the prospective manager, and the tools that the project coordinator and mentors used to measure the development of the prospective manager.

A Multi-Ability Approach to the Integrated Classroom

A Multi-Ability classroom is a set of recommendatio ns for permanent changes in the task and evaluation structure of classroorils. These changes are calculated to increase active, engaged, learning behavior of low status students and to provide detailed enriched feedback to the student on how he or she is doing on many different specific tasks. These changes are designed to modify expectations of competence held by classmates for each other and by the student for him/herself. Instead of a set of consistent expectations for competence for a student based on how smart or dumb he or she is, we introduce multiple intellectual abilities on which each child develops mixed expectations. This classroom model requires the changing of the perception and conception of human ability from unidimensional to multi-dimensional. Active steps must be taken to prevent reading achievement from being used as the index of where each child stands on what is commonly thought to be a single dimension of human intelligence. Unless strong steps are taken, what happens in many classrooms is that a child's ability in reading is used as an index to organize expectations for how competent he or she will be at a wide range of classroom tasks. This is, of course, encouraged by making reading a prerequisite for success at almost every classroom task. However, even if we set a task, such as small group discussion or a game task not requiring reading, we have collected consistent evidence that those children who are perceived to be better readers will be more active and influential than those who are perceived to be weaker readers (Rosenholtz, 1980; Stulac, 1975). This is a kind of self-fulfilli ng prophecy whereby those who are better readers expect to be better at a wide range of intellectual tasks; and those who are weaker readers expect to do poorly at a wide range of tasks. These dif

Expectation States and Interracial Interaction in School Settings

Expectation States Theory has been in use since 1968 as the basis for applied research on race and its effect on interracial interaction (Berger et al 1980). The theory can be used to describe the process by which high-status members of interracial groups come to dominate group interaction. There are a number of interventions, using this theory, designed to modify status effects in settings where they are judged undesirable. In the classroom, expectation states affect several observable behaviors of practical importance. The first is a pattern of white dominance in interracial interaction on valued intellectual tasks. This pattern is undesirable because racist expectations for less competence from black and brown students are reinforced. These are not the equal status that designers of school integration have tried to produce to reduce prejudice. Under these conditions, white students fail to learn what minority students have to contribute to collective endeavor. If white dominance in the outer society is replicated within the desegregated school, the goal of social equality is not achieved. The second area affected by expectation states is the participation, task engagement, and effort of the minority student in school tasks. If a student has generally low expectations for academic competence s/he will be less likely to put out the requisite effort to become a more successful student. Increased initiation and participation represent necessary but not sufficient conditions for improvement in academic achievement.

The effects of expectation and feedback on speech to foreigners

The effects of speaker expectation of listener competence and the feedback indicative of the listener's comprehension were compared on their power to elicit simplifed speech. The experiment used 2×2 design and a “foreigner” accomplice as a listener in an interview situation. Expectation was varied by having the accomplice introduce herself using either highly accented, dysfluent English or slightly accented, fluent English. The verbal feedback was varied by having the accomplice signal comprehension success (yeah, Ok, or nods) or comprehension failure (what? huh? or frowns and quizzical looks). Forty adult subjects spoke to the accomplice in one of the four conditions. The interviews were taped, transcribed, and scored for measures of mean length of utterance (MLU), false starts/dysfluencies, repetitions/rephrasals, and questions. Analyses revealed that the subjects used shorter MLUs, more repetitions/rephrasals, and more questions when the accomplice signaled comprehension difficulty. When the subjects expected the listener to be linguistically incompetent, they tended to repeat and rephrase more often than when they expected listener competence. It was clear that regardless of the speaker's initial expectation of the listener's linguistic competence, verbal feedback during conversation will elicit simplified speech.

Visionaries and Virtuosi: Competence and Purpose in the Education of Sociologists

Recent discussion and policy have tended to separate the problem of procuring research competence from consideration of the nature and purposes of sociology and to pursue it with close reference to the presumed needs of various possible users of research. This paper argues that sociologists should set their own consideration of the issue firmly within the framework of a commitment to the intellectual problems and purposes of sociology as a discipline. And that if that is done suitable educational strategies for promoting competence can be revised; a possible strategy focussed on undergraduate work and the Ph.D. is outlined. It is suggested that the real problem is not that of competence but certain unrealistic expectations hidden in the demand for usefulness.

Competency-based advancement program for pharmacists

A competency-based advancement program for practicing pharmacists is presented. The criteria for selecting this method of providing incentives for pharmacists are outlined. Procedures for developing and implementing this competency-based program are described. Five competency levels for pharmacists were developed based on the pharmacist's educational background, training, and experience. Differentiated position titles and competency expectations for each level are summarized. Criteria for pharmacist placement and promotion from one completely level to another are outlined. The administration of the program is described, including budget considerations and methods for evaluating its effectiveness. This system recognizes and rewards accomplishments of staff pharmacists without removing them from patient care roles.

Beliefs about male and female competence held by kindergartners and second graders

The study investigated the beliefs of kindergarten and second-grade children of both sexes about the competence of boys versus girls. The children appeared to have clearly defined beliefs about who would use certain objects, and their beliefs coincide with stereotypic sex-role behaviors in society at large. There was no support for the development of a more generalized expectation of competence in males. There was no significant sex difference in response; there was, however, a grade difference. Second graders' views of competence were more closely aligned with sex-appropriateness ratings than were the kindergartners.

An Exploration of Students' Sense of Learning Competence

Summary There is a growing emphasis in psychology on cognitive variables that mediate feelings and action. White consistently has stressed the concept of sense of competence and, more recently, Bandura has posited the centrality of self‐efficacy in understanding human behaviour. The construction of a student sense of learning competence inventory (SLCI) is described and findings are reported on its administration to 721 first‐year university students. The majority of students felt limited sense of competence as learners. An analysis of sense of learning competence factors by faculty showed some significant differences between faculties. The validity of the SLCI is explored in relation to academic performance, achievement anxiety and study habits. Sense of competence has both evaluative and expectancy dimensions. Many students may have an inaccurate idea of their competence as learners and, hence, expectations of competence may inhibit as well as improve performance. The area of sense of learning competence is complex and suggestions are made for further research.

Competence and Incompetence: Assymetric Responses to Women and Men on a Sex-Linked Task

Recent research has demonstrated that successful performance on a masculine task will be judged more deservingly if the actor is a woman than a man. This contradicts other studies showing penalties for out-of-sex-role behavior by either sex. The present experiment examined these propositions using a task with obvious social desirability. Females and males presented themselves as either competent or incompetent about automobiles to a used-car dealer. Results indicated that whereas incompetent females were not penalized for incompetence, the incompetent males were. Sexstereotyped expectations of competence at sex-appropriate activities may therefore have negative ramifications, as expectations of incompetence do.

Competency Based Education: Organizational Issues and Implications

tangle, this diversity seems to embrace two major themes. One involves using competencies of various kinds as the new focus of schooling activities and graduation criteria. The other concerns the processes by which education is expected to become competency based. This paper represents a first step in clarifying some of the organizational issues related to these two themes. The range of competency (i.e. outcome) expectations reflected in current state policies brings to light two major notions discussed by Spady. One is the distinction between competencies and capacities, and the other is the concept of liferole. In the context of his analysis, the term competency refers exclusively to the ability to perform successfully in the patterned activities which constitute adult life-roles. The term capacity identifies the more discrete skills and capabilities that underlie a competency. When combined and utilized (often in complex ways in life-role contexts), these capacities serve as the enablers or building blocks on which competencies rest. Outcome expectations stated in capacity terms rest on the assumption that students will be able to manage successfully both the integration of individual capacities and the transfer of those ca-

SEX AS A STATUS CHARACTERISTIC: THE ROLE OF FORMAL THEORY IN DEVELOPING LEADERSHIP TRAINING STRATEGIES

ABSTRACTResearchers studying how males and females interact in small groups have typically noted that males tend to emerge as leaders, being more active, influential, and task‐oriented than females. This result has been explained by sex‐role formulations which stress the complementary roles of men and women in such groups, and which largely ignore the greater power and prestige of the males. The theory of diffuse status characteristics and expectation states, a formal theory developed by Berger, Cohen, Conner and Zelditch, is more appropriate for understanding this difference in power between males and females in task groups.The purpose of this paper is to compare the relative efficacy of sex‐role formulations with expectation states theory in explaining the observed differences in the behavior of males and females working together in task groups. Two studies are reported, one in which the subjects were adult teacher trainees and one in which the subjects were high school students. In both studies the subjects were composed into four‐person groups of strangers and were requested to work together on a cooperative task; the discussions related to the decisions demanded by the task were recorded on videotape and later coded by trained observers. In the first study, only mixed‐gender groups were observed; in the second study, both mixed‐gender and single‐gender groups were observed.Expectation states theory predicts that when people work together on a valued, collective task, and when they have no prior information about each other's competence at the task, and when they differ on some socially evaluated characteristic such as gender or race, they will assign expectations for competence at the task on the basis of the characteristic. Persons having the more highly evaluated state of the characteristic will be expected to be more competent both by themselves and others and will hence be more influential about the resolution of the task under certain specified conditions. We therefore predict that in mixed‐gender groups males will tend to emerge as leaders, being more active, influential and task‐oriented than females, but that differences in activity between all‐male and all‐female groups will not be evident. Furthermore, we predict that if females have the opportunity to develop task specific expectations for their own competence, they will be more active and influential in mixed‐gender groups than females who have not had such an opportunity. The latter two predictions are not compatible with sex‐role explanations for differences in male‐female behavior in work groups.The findings of the studies support the predictions. In mixed‐gender groups, males were more active and influential than females, but all‐male groups were not more active than all‐female groups. Furthermore, females who experienced the task in an all‐female group prior to experiencing it with males were more active than females who had not had such an experience.We conclude that the pattern of male leadership in mixed‐gender groups is not a function of deep‐seated socialized behaviors, but rather a function of socially determined and theoretically modifiable expectations about male competence.