Title

The Influence of Social Identity Salience on General Self-efficacy

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D)

Department

Educational Psychology

Date of Award

Summer 2018

Abstract

The overall goal of this research was to explore the effect of social identity salience on general self-efficacy. Self-efficacy and general self-efficacy have both been commonly understood as being individual difference measures. General self-efficacy has also traditionally been viewed as a stable personality trait. However, research has shown that measures assessing personality traits can change depending on social identity salience. In the first study, I explored whether salience of social identities (i.e., religious identity and university student identity) impacted ratings of general of self-efficacy, and it was predicted that participants in the religion and university student conditions would rate general self-efficacy higher than those who were not primed with an identity. The hypothesis was not supported; however, there was a significant correlation between ingroup identification and general self-efficacy, which indicates there is a relationship between the two factors. In Study 2, outgroup comparisons were manipulated to assess the degree of change in ratings of general self-efficacy when an ingroup identity was salient. From the results, I demonstrated that outgroup comparisons did significantly impact ratings of general self-efficacy. The findings indicate that ratings of general self-efficacy, and thus personality traits, may be tied to social identity processes. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Advisor

Stephen Reysen

Subject Categories

Education | Educational Psychology

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