This study examined the relation between self-efficacy and outcome expectancy beliefs and achievement in reading and writing. Most of the 153 subjects were White, middle-class undergraduate students. Efficacy for reading and writing tasks and component skills and outcome expectancies that reading and writing are important for realizing life goals were assessed. Reading achievement was measured by the Degrees of Reading Power test and writing achievement was measured by a holistically scored writing sample. Results from regression analysis indicated that self-efficacy and outcome expectancy beliefs jointly account for significant variance in reading achievement with self-efficacy being the stronger predictor and that self-efficacy, but not outcome expectancy, accounts for significant variance in writing achievement. Canonical correlation analysis identified a single underlying dimension linking beliefs and achievement for reading and writing, with reading beliefs and achievement contributing most strongly to the relation. Results are discussed as they relate to previous research and needed areas of future study. Bandura (1982Bandura ( , 1986 has proposed self-efficacy and outcome expectancy as two mechanisms of cognitive self-evaluation that mediate skilled performance. Self-efficacy is seen as the generative mechanism through which persons integrate and apply their existing cognitive, behavioral, and social skills to the performance of a task. It is expressed as personal confidence in the ability to successfully perform tasks at a given level. Outcome expectancies are beliefs about contingent relations between successful task performance and received outcomes. They mediate task performance by providing a cognitive appraisal of the likely outcomes of successful task performance and the likelihood that successful performance will lead to the attainment of goals. Outcome expectancies are related to the construct of locus of control (Rotter, 1966) and to causal attribution patterns (Weiner, 1979).Reading and writing are skills requiring the integration and application of multiple subskills (Benton, Kraft, Glover, &
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