Mood, self-efficacy, and performance standards: Lower moods induce higher standards for performance.

Abstract

This research examined the effects of induced mood on personal standards for performance and judgments of one's performance capabilities, or self-efficacy judgments. In Experiment 1, standards and self-efficacy judgments were assessed on common social and academic tasks. In Experiment 2, these variables were assessed on 2 novel tasks. In both experiments, negative mood induced higher standards for performance. Induced mood had no effect on perceived self-efficacy. Negative mood Ss thus held minimal standards for performance that significantly exceeded the levels of performance they judged they actually could attain. A 3rd experiment provided support for the hypothesis that negative mood raises standards by lowering evaluations of prospective outcomes. Processes underlying the results and their relation to research on naturally occurring depressed mood and stringent personal standards are discussed.

Adaptive and effortful control and academic self-efficacy beliefs on achievement: A longitudinal study of 1st through 3rd graders

“…In short, such research indicates that selfefficacy beliefs serve as one of the self-regulatory mechanisms that govern a person's motivation, action, and cognitive processing (Eccles & Wigfield, 2002;Pajares, 1996;Wigfield & Eccles, 2000) as well as affective processes, such as anxiety, that can hinder achievement (Bandura et al, 2003;Cervone, Kopp, Schaumann, & Scott, 1994). For example, a capable but not very confident reader might read a passage from a book aloud to her parents at home with ease and accuracy, but struggle doing so in front of the teacher and classmates.…”

Mind-sets matter: A meta-analytic review of implicit theories and self-regulation.

“…In the current analysis, we test whether helpless strategies are negatively linked ( Turning to goal monitoring, negative emotions, as a signal that one's goal-pursuit progress fails to meet one's expectations (Carver & Scheier, 1990), can reinforce self-defeating patterns, lower evaluations of prospective outcomes, and ultimately undermine goal achievement (e.g., Cervone, Kopp, Schaumann, & Scott, 1994;Pekrun, Goetz, Titz, & Perry, 2002). In contrast, limiting feelings of vulnerability and anxiety can facilitate achievement (Keith & Frese, 2005;Porath & Bateman, 2006).…”

Parenting perfectionism as a predictor of parental adjustment

“…It is possible that the relationship between affect, selfefficacy and the setting of standards may be cyclical. Negative mood may have an influence over an individual's self-efficacy and in turn have an impact on the degree to which goals for a particular task are set (Cervone, Kopp, Schaumann, & Scott, 1994), rather than standards affecting self-efficacy. The association or direction of effects between these constructs is not clear, therefore, a weakness of this study is that parenting perfectionism was only measured at one time point, making it difficult to examine another possible direction of effects.…”