Specific Self-confidence Research Articles

Consumer complaint intentions: the impact of general and specific self-confidence

Consumer complaint intentions: the impact of general and specific self-confidence

Effect on undergraduate student self-confidence in using 3D printed primary molars for root canal treatment simulation training.

The main purpose of this study was to assess the effect of a root canal treatment (RCT) practical simulation-based session using 3D printed primary molars on the self-confidence of fourth-year undergraduate dental students. Our study was also designed to explore student experiences with both manual and rotary RCT procedures and to investigate the association between the self-confidence in undertaking an RCT and the quality of the RCT. Student global self-confidence in undertaking an RCT on a healthy, cooperative child aged 4-5years was evaluated 2h before, 1month after, and 11months after the simulation training session. Once each instrumental procedure had been completed, the students were also asked to score the level of confidence (specific self-confidence) they felt regarding the use of RP and MP. After each training session, the quality of the RCT was radiographically evaluated by two trained, independent investigators. Overall, student global self-confidence in undertaking an RCT increased significantly immediately after the practical session and remained stable for the ensuing eleven months. The students declared a clear preference for RP and were more self-confident in undertaking an RCT after RP than after MP. The proportion of RCTs considered of good quality was the same for the manual (31.5%) and rotary (30.3%) procedures. Simulation training is a good way to train dental students who are confident in undertaking RCTs. However, confidence is not directly related to competence. Teachers should be encouraged to develop a comprehensive simulation training program, including feedback, debriefing, and repetitions.

Real time estimation of task specific self-confidence level based on brain signals

Self-confidence is one’s own belief of success with respect to a specific task. Cognitive tasks like decision making, problem solving etc. are influenced a lot by our self-confidence level. Recent studies show possibility of assessing self-confidence level from brain activation patterns. Here, we are proposing a novel metric based on brain signals acquired by Electroencephalogram (EEG) for quantification of self-confidence level of an individual. The EEG signal is recorded using a low cost, low resolution EEG device. Most significant EEG features (with p value <0.05) have been identified and used for formulating a metric for self-confidence level. Training data is refined using Random Sample Consensus (RANSAC) method to remove the outliers. With these stable training data, reference clusters for low and high confidence categories have been formed based on the most significant features. These reference clusters are used thereafter to compute the confidence level quantitatively for the test participants. Results show that the proposed metric can classify low and high self-confidence levels satisfactorily. Thus, the proposed metric provides a quantified measure of self-confidence level with which a task is performed. The metric can also be used in various applications like confidence measurement in academic settings, online tests, cognitive assessment, rehabilitation, therapy design.

How Specific and General Self-Confidence Affect Assortment Decisions

By investigating the influences of 2 types of self-confidence, we tested the assumption that people always prefer a large assortment over a small one when offered a choice of 2 sizes of assortment. Participants were 194 students who were randomly assigned to a high or low specific self-esteem condition, a high or low general self-esteem condition, and a public or private social influence condition group. The results of our experiment demonstrated that people with high specific self-confidence perceived options as distinctive, and preferred a large assortment. However, people with low general self-confidence felt high social anxiety, and preferred a large assortment only when social influence was salient. Under this condition, low general self-confidence also strengthened the effect of specific self-confidence on assortment preference. Implications of our findings are discussed.

Confidence: a critical review of the literature and an alternative perspective for general and specific self-confidence.

This article provides a critical review of the literature pertaining to self-confidence and advances the argument of the need to separate the construct into its general and specific domains. The rationale is that distinguishing self-confidence into general and specific will increase conceptual parsimony and predictive power of each construct.

The impact of self‐confidence on the compromise effect

This research reports an investigation into whether the personality aspect of self-confidence affects the compromise effect. We hypothesize that highly self-confident people have greater certainty in making decisions and are more attracted to risk-taking, which makes them less likely to choose the safe or middle option in a large choice set. The three studies involved are conducted using between- and within-subjects experimental designs. Various product categories are used to generalize the findings. Study 1 looks at purchasing decisions and utilizes three scales of self-confidence, risk preference, and uncertainty; it demonstrates that consumers with high self-confidence are less likely to choose a compromise option due to high certainty in their decision-making. Study 2 discovers that people with low self-confidence are more likely to choose the middle option in a risky condition than in a nonrisky condition. Study 3 decomposes self-confidence into general and specific self-confidence, and reveals that people with low general self-confidence and low specific self-confidence are more likely to choose the middle option.

Development and Validation of a Self-Confidence Scale

Even though self-confidence is a popular concept both in everyday life and in psychology, no individual difference measure is available. The purpose of this study was to construct and validate an 18-item self-confidence scale. A sample of 191 white undergraduate students from Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (44 men and 147 women) participated. An exploratory factor analysis indicated two distinct factors; one measured a general cognitive aspect of self-confidence and a second evaluated a more specific self-confidence in one's abilities and opinions. Internal consistency (Cronbach α) was .84. Intercorrelations with other related measures (.23 to .69) were significant and in the expected direction. The new scale could be useful when a specific measure of self-confidence is required as an individual difference measure.

The Effect of Self-Confidence and Anxiety on Information Seeking in Consumer Risk Reduction

The authors examine the effect of generalized self-confidence, anxiety, and specific self-confidence on consumers’ tendency to seek information sources as a means of reducing purchasing uncertainty. Consumers were asked to rate their tendency to seek six information sources for each of five products. The products differed in their degree of performance and social risk. The findings suggest that specific self-confidence about the product decision is significantly related to information seeking.

The Effect of Self-Confidence and Anxiety on Information Seeking in Consumer Risk Reduction

The authors examine the effect of generalized self-confidence, anxiety, and specific self-confidence on consumers’ tendency to seek information sources as a means of reducing purchasing uncertainty...

The effect of self-confidence and anxiety on risk reduction strategies for an innovative product

This research investigated consumer modes of information seeking as a means of reducing uncertainty for a high risk innovation. Measures of consumers' generalized and specific selfcondidence along with anxiety were taken to study their mediating effect on consumer's tendency to seek any of six information sources. Subjects completed a 20 item behavioral differential designed to measure the tendency to seek different sources. The design used was a 2×2×2 ANOVA. The sample was drawn from a middle, upper middle class, white suburban civic club. The results show that specific self-confidence was the most important variable in explaining the tendency to seek information about a microwave oven. The two most favored information sources were the impersonal independent (Consumer Reports type of magazine) and the subject's own observation and experiences. There was some tendency to use interpersonal sources, but the impersonal independent and observation/experience were favored.

Mail and telephone shopping as a function of consumer self-confidence

Since Raymond Bauer set forth the concept of perceived risk, a relatively small body of research has emerged examining the relationship between this type of perception and various forms of in-home shopping behavior. Cox and Rich (1964) noted the frequency with which various products were ordered by telephone and they examined this order frequency relative to the amount of risk perceived by all respondents, if they were t3 order these products by telephone. Spence et al (1970) tested three hypotheses in an attempt to determine whether m o r e risk is perceived by the consumer in buying by mail than in buying in a retail store or from a salesman. In a more recent study, Reynolds (1974) examined"degree of risk" as one of three factors affecting catalog buying behavior. The premise which can be gleaned from these findings is that consumers perceive both mail and telephone shopping as being more risky than the more conventional in-store type. As in Reynolds' research, this study examined in-home shopping behavior relative to consumer self-confidence, the reciprocal of perceived risk. Measurements of both general and specific self-confidence are included.

Evoked set size—Personality correlates and mediating variables

A study is reported which presents some positive results in investigating the usefulness of a cognitive variable— ‘need for cognitive clarity,’ in explaining variations in evoked set magnitude among consumers when the mediating effects of consumer perceptions of performance risk and specific self-confidence were taken into account.

Risk Indicators, Perceived Risk and Consumer's Choice of Information Sources

Summary Today consumer behavior is usually regarded as a problem-solving process. Consumers often make use of information in order to solve their buying problems. This paper reports a study where perceived risk is used both as an intervening variable and hypothetical construction between a range of indicator variables (experience, interest, general and specific self-confidence, income and education) and the dependant variables, sources of information. It was found-as expected-that buyers high in perceived risk were more inclined to use consumer dominated information sources, while those low in perceived risk made more use of marketer-dominated sources. Other results: Based on the two main dimensions in perceived risk, uncertainty and consequences, the predictive power of the indicator criteria examined could be described and explained.

Self-Confidence and Persuasibility: One More Time

probably appreciate a brief replay of what is at stake. Of the half-dozen propositions which Schuchman and Perry consider, I will concentrate on the one which concerns the most important and novel of the findings first presented in the article by Donald Cox and myself-the relationship of and self-confidence. Over a considerable period of time, a number of researchers have found that persuasibility (the disposition to shift one's attitude or judgment after being exposed to a persuasive communication) was related, in males only, to a psychological construct which has been variously labeled as or self-esteem. As used by Cox and myself, refers to a person's perception of his ability to perform the particular task of judgment with which he is confronted. More to the point is the concept of self-confidence, presumably an enduring trait of personality, which was the construct which had interested most of the earlier researchers and was found generally to be negatively related to persuasibility. Men who were lower in generalized self-confidence were generally more persuasible. Conversely, men who were high on generalized self-confidence were more difficult to persuade. The relationship was linear. It also made sense. In most psychological experiments, women were generally more persuasible than men. We found, in an experiment with judging nylon hosiery, that women low in specific self-confidence were more likely to shift their judgment of these stockings when confronted with a taped message from an alleged sales person. However, no one had previously found any relationship between generalized self-confidence and in women. Cox, in his Doctoral thesis (which was the basis for our article), was the first to find such a relationship. He discovered, in the hosiery experiment, that women of medium self-confidence shifted most in their judgments. Cox's findings suggested first that a relationship between generalized self-confidence and in women existed, and second that it was curvilinear. In our article, this hypothesis of a curvilinear relationship was particularly questioned by Schuchman and Perry. They appear to have had little difficulty with our data and our analyses,' but they conclude:

Self-Confidence and Persuasion in Car Buying

Intensive interviews with 234 new car buyers reveal that those with general self-confidence tend to have high specific self-confidence in their car buying ability. These two factors combine to influence consumer use of friends as purchase helpers. Consumers and their purchase helpers form a buying team whose specific self-confidence is curvilinearly related to persuasibility.

Self-Confidence and Persuasion in Car Buying

Intensive interviews with 234 new car buyers reveal that those with general self-confidence tend to have high specific self-confidence in their car buying ability. These two factors combine to infl...