Means-ends Beliefs Research Articles

Percepções sobre a qualidade da interação familiar e crenças autorreferenciadas em crianças

Este estudo explora as relações entre as crenças autorreferenciadas - autoconceito, autoestima e crenças de controle - e as percepções sobre a qualidade da interação familiar de 46 estudantes, na faixa etária de 9 a 12 anos, da quarta série do ensino fundamental de uma escola pública de Curitiba. Foram aplicados o Inventário de Crenças de Controle, Agência e Competência - domínio acadêmico, a Escala Pier-Harris de Autoconceito, a Escala Rosenberg de Autoestima e a Escala de Qualidade da Interação Familiar. As mães obtiveram melhores escores em relação aos pais. Relação conjugal negativa, punições inadequadas e comunicação negativa, principalmente por parte das mães, correlacionaram-se inversamente e significativamente ao autoconceito, à autoestima e a algumas dimensões das crenças de controle. Contrariamente, relacionamento conjugal harmonioso, comunicação e reforçamento positivos, demonstrações de afeto e regras/monitoria ligaram-se às dimensões do autoconceito e à autoestima. Os resultados sugerem que envolvimento e práticas parentais positivas podem ajudar a predizer sentimentos de competência, bom aproveitamento escolar e bem-estar geral.

Profiles of ability, effort, and difficulty: Relationships with worldviews, motivation and adjustment

Adopting a person-centered approach, we profiled 5th and 6th grade children's (152 boys and 161 girls) school-related beliefs about perceived task difficulty and agency beliefs in ability and effort. Five clusters were compared across key learning-related dimensions encompassing underlying worldviews (means–ends beliefs, normative difficulty, nature of ability), motivation (intrinsic, identified, introjected, and extrinsic), and adjustment (achievement and well-being): Agentic (high ability, high effort, low difficulty), Strivers (above average ability, high effort, high difficulty), Normative (average ability, effort and difficulty), Disengaged (low ability, low effort, average difficulty) and Challenged (low ability, low effort, high difficulty). The findings suggest that difficulty, perceived either as challenge or obstacle, plays an important role for the belief profiles, and that relationships with worldviews and motivation are indicative of adaptation and maladaptation.

Stressful events compromise control strivings during a major life transition

Prior research on stressful events has largely ignored their potential impact on motivational processes. This study prospectively examined the association of a stressful event with control strivings in the school-to-work transition. Five waves of data on stressful events, control strategies, and potential mediating variables were collected from an adolescent sample in Berlin (N = 420) during the year before high school graduation. The occurrence of a stressful event (death of family member, parent divorce) predicted a decline in general career-related and specific apprenticeship-related control strivings. This association was mediated by a decline in control-related means-ends beliefs. Proximity to the deadline of graduation exacerbated this association for apprenticeship-seeking control strivings, but this effect was buffered by usage of selective secondary control strategies (cognitive strategies to enhance commitment to a goal). Thus, stressful events can exacerbate challenges and require additional means of control striving.

Attribution of conditions for school performance

210 children (110 girls and 100 boys) were interviewed individually about causes that lead to success or to failure in school tests. They were presented fictitious scenarios about an unknown peer who had either success or failure in a dictation task and a sums task. The free answers were taken as mirroring means-ends beliefs of the interviewed persons. A content analysis of the answers led to the differentiation of 30 different categories. Practice, specific abilities, and concentration were mentioned most frequently both in success and in failure situations. The gender differences were more pronounced in failure than in success situations: For boys, it was rather the (lack of) instant effort that counted, whereas girls stressed more the (lack of) lasting effort, e.g., preceding practice. As compared to children, adolescents mentioned more often specific abilities, fast understanding, practice, and didactical presentation, and less often extrinsic motivation. A cluster analysis and a principal components analysis proved that the 30 basic categories overlap partially and can be combined into eight groups of categories.

The development of gender differences in affective expression and in the relationship between mood and achievement-related self-judgments

In this study, 434 children and adolescents completed the Control-,Agency-, and Means-ends beliefs Interview (CAMI). Moreover, we asked for current mood-state and achievement-related affect after success and failure at school. There was no gender difference in achievement-related affective expression in children (9 and 10 years old), but there was a substantial difference in adolescents (15 and 16 years old), boys reporting less affect than girls. A different pattern emerged for the impact of affect on achievement-related beliefs. Again, children did not show any gender difference. In adolescents, however, boys' current mood-state was related to agency beliefs to a higher extent than girls' current mood state. Thus, boys, in comparison to girls, may develop inhibition of affective expression, but over the same span, they continue to base agency beliefs on their current mood-state whereas girls do not.

Percepção de controle sobre o desempenho acadêmico de crianças em situação de pobreza

de crianças em situação de pobreza. Sessenta e um estudantes de primeira série do Ensino Fundamental, 30 meninos e 31 meninas, com sete a oito anos de idade responderam a uma escala de controle percebido (CAMI - Control, Agency, Means-Ends Interview) que avalia crenças de expectativas de controle, de capacidade e de estratégia com relação ao desempenho acadêmico. O desempenho acadêmico foi avaliado através do TOE (Teste de Desempenho Acadêmico) e dos resultados dos escores aprovado/reprovado no ano letivo. Análises correlacionais demonstraram relação entre controle percebido e desempenho acadêmico. Análises de variância revelaram diferenças na percepção de controle entre os grupos de idade e de gênero.

OLDER ADULTS' PERCEPTIONS OF CONTROL IN SOCIAL SITUATIONS

This study examined the utility of a new conceptualization for understanding older adults' perceptions of control in social situations. Fifty-four participants (Mage = 75.4 years) completed questionnaires and structured interviews assessing social beliefs. Agency beliefs (about possession of certain social resources) and means-ends beliefs (about the importance of certain social resources) were related to perceived control in social situations. Results indicated that perceived social control was predicted by agency beliefs for all four resources studied (social skills, effort, helpful/nice others, luck) and by the interaction of agency and means-ends beliefs for the social skills resource. Also, perceived social control was positively correlated with social satisfaction, which further supported the utility of this conceptualization.

Japanese Children’s Action-Control Beliefs about School Performance

Guided by research on German, Russian, and American children, we tested whether the tripartite action-theory model of children’s psychological control generalises to Japanese children (grades 2-6, N 817). Specifically, we used the Control, Agency, and Means-ends Interview (CAMI) to assess whether Japanese children’s self-related agency beliefs, general control expectancies, and causality-relate d means-ends beliefs about their school performance are similar to those of children from other sociocultural contexts. The CAMI has shown strong cross-cultural validity, but it has not been tested in Japanese children. Because the CAMI measurement structure generally validated in this sample and the resulting action-control constructs showed many inter-cultural similarities, we concluded that the action-control beliefs generalise to Japanese children. The similarities likely reflect inter-cultural commonalities in teaching formats and everyday conceptions of performance in formal schooling contexts. In addition to these important similarities, however, we found inter-cultural differences in the self-related agency beliefs (i.e. patterns that were specific to this Japanese sample). For example, the role of luck and the relations between effort and ability showed unique patterns in these children (e.g. lower correlations than in other sociocultural settings).

Agency, control, and means€nds beliefs about school performance in Moscow children: How similar are they to beliefs of Western children?

This study examined the development of school performance-related beliefs and their link with actual academic performance in Moscow children (Grades 2-6, N=55l) using the Control, Agency and Means-Ends Interview (CAMI). Results revealed much intercultural convergence with Western samples, coupled with context-specific variations. Similarities involved (a) the CAMI factor structure, (b) the correlational nexus between beliefs and performance, (c) the developmental trends, and (d) the configuration of means-ends beliefs. Differences involved beliefs about teachers and ability, and gender differences, favoring girls, in the agency and control beliefs. In general, Moscow children displayed a Westernlike view of the causes of school performance and of themselves as being agentic and capable of personal control over their performance outcomes. When considering the development of self-related cognition, such as self-ascribed potential for academic achievement (e.g., self-efficacy and control beliefs), one could easily suggest that major differences should exist between children schooled in Western versus non-Western societies. These societies are thought to be characterized by substantially different views of the self, associated, for instance, with predominantly individualistic versus predominantly collectivistic orientations, respectively (Berman, 1990; Hofstede, 1991; Meyer, 1988; Triandis, 1989). By assuming, however, profound differences between Western and non-Western views of the self (e.g., by ascribing the self-efficacious, internally controlled individual to the standards of Western societies only), we may be underestimati ng possible similarities in certain domains, such as schooling. The issue is far from being fully examined in empirical studies. We do not know, for example, how much children from different sociocultural contexts diverge, if at all, in their beliefs related to school performance.

Interpreting correlations between children's perceived control and cognitive performance: Control, agency, or means€nds beliefs?

The types of beliefs responsible for correlations between children's perceived control and cognitive performance were investigated in 180 2rid, 4th, and 6th graders. Children were interviewed for control beliefs regarding the attainment of desired goals, for agency beliefs regarding the accessibility of different types of means to the self, and for means-ends beliefs regarding the efficacy of different types of means. Cognitive performance variables included fluid and crystallized intelligence as well as short-term and recognition memory. Of the three types of beliefs, only agency beliefs were strongly and consistently related to cognitive performance. Correlations were greater than zero beginning in 4th grade, increased monotonically from 2rid to 6th grade, and occurred for all cognitive performance measures.

Children's Beliefs about Control, Means-ends, and Agency: Developmental Differences during Middle Childhood

A new action-theoretical conceptualisation was used to study developmental differences in children's generalised perceived control. According to this conceptualisation, controland action-related beliefs are multidimensional and may include not only (1) expectancies about the extent to which an agent (e.g. the self) can obtain desired outcomes (referred to as control beliefs), but also (2) expectancies about the extent to which certain causes or means produce outcomes (means-ends beliefs), as well as (3) expectancies about the extent to which the agent possesses the potential means (agency beliefs). Cross-sectional age differences in these three sets of beliefs were studied in 240 boys and girls from age 7 to 12. The results of age comparisons in mean level indicated that: (1) perceived control of positive events is greater than that of negative events at all ages; (2) the categories of means-ends beliefs (i.e. for the causes effort, attributes, powerful others, luck, unknown) are increasingly differentiated from each other as to their level of perceived effectiveness; (3) agency beliefs for effort, attributes, and powerful others are high across middle childhood. The increase in the perceived accessibility of powerful others is an especially noteworthy finding. Surprisingly few sex differences were found, with the exception that boys rates the cause "attributes" as more effective than girls. The pattern of age differences in control, means-ends, and agency beliefs not only adds to our understanding of the development of generalized expectancies involving control and action across middle childhood, but also holds promise for future research on the origins of these beliefs and on how they influence children's behaviour and action.

Control, means-ends, and agency beliefs: A new conceptualization and its measurement during childhood.

We presented a new conceptualization of perceived control in which three conceptually independent sets of beliefs are distinguished: control beliefs, expectations about the extent to which agents (e.g., the self) can obtain desired outcomes; means-ends beliefs, expectations about the extent to which certain potential causes produce outcomes; and agency beliefs, expectations about the extent to which agents possess potential means. In a study of 155 children from Grades 2, 4, and 6, we demonstrated that children's questionnaire responses reflected the distinction between these beliefs. Factor analyses of the items for each known cause separately revealed the predicted three factors, marked by control, means-ends, and agency items, respectively. Likewise, factor analysis of the scale scores resulted in control and agency beliefs factors as well as three factors for means-ends beliefs. Initial evidence on the usefulness of the new scheme indicates that control, means-ends, and agency beliefs show differential developmental trajectories as well as differential relations with cognitive performance.