1999/10/01 by Philip L. Smith, Nadya A. Fouad · 146 citations
Psychology · Social Sciences · #Career Development and Diversity #Cognition #Cognitive psychology #Creativity in Education and Neuroscience #Developmental psychology #Education, Achievement, and Giftedness #Outcome (game theory) #Psychology #Self-efficacy #Social cognition #Social cognitive theory #Social psychology #Subject (documents) #Subject matter
paper · doi:10.1037/0022-0167.46.4.461
published in Journal of Counseling Psychology 46(4), 461-471 (American Psychological Association)
openalex publication_date 1999/10/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/11
This study was designed to investigate the academic-subject-matter domain specificity of self-efficacy, interests, outcome expectations, and goals. Four major subject-matter domains were selected to investigate this issue: math/science, art, social studies, and English. To examine this question, 16 instruments were constructed to measure the 4 concepts across the 4 subject domains. An analytical strategy similar to that used in multitrait multimethod studies was used. Using this strategy, a series of factor models was tested for fit to the data using confirmatory factor analytic procedures. Results indicated that a factor solution that accommodated both distinct subject matters and distinct constructs provided the best fit to the data, supporting the existence of the constructs of academic self-efficacy, interests, outcome expectancies, and goals that are specific to each subject-matter domain.