When self-efficacy negatively relates to motivation and performance in a learning context.

Recent reviews of the training literature have advocated directly manipulating self-efficacy in an attempt to improve the motivation of trainees. However, self-regulation theories conceive of motivation as a function of various goal processes, and assert that the effect of self-efficacy should depend on the process involved. Training contexts may evoke planning processes in which self-efficacy might negatively relate to motivation. Yet the typical between-persons studies in the current literature may obscure the effect. To examine this issue, 63 undergraduate students completed a series of questionnaires measuring self-efficacy and motivation before 5 class exams. Self-efficacy was negatively related to motivation and exam performance at the within-person level of analysis, despite a significant positive relation with performance at the between-persons level.