A performance comparison of motivational self-believers and self-doubters in competitive and individualistic goal situations

This study compared the performance of students lacking belief in their self-regulatory capability to complete a course-related, item-writing, extra-credit task (self-doubters) to those possessing self-confidence (self-believers), or in-between (self-unsure), in competitive and individualistic goal situations. In the competitive situation, only a fixed percentage of students could receive grade bonuses, while any student who exceeded preset criteria could in the individualistic one. One hundred and twenty-six students were classified by tertiles as self-doubters, self-believers, and self-unsure based on self-confidence ratings for writing test questions on assigned chapters. Self-believers earned significantly more extra-credit points than self-doubters overall. A significant interaction reflected self-doubters doing considerably worse and the self-unsure doing better in the competitive situation than the individualistic one, while self-believers performed equally in either situation. Self-doubters appeared more productive in the situation where preset evaluation criteria assured a payoff for effort expended.