EFFECTS OF CONCEPTIONS OF ABILITY ON ANXIETY, SELF-EFFICACY, AND LEARNING IN-TRAINING

A field experiment of 76 employees studied the effects of induced conc eptions of ability as either an acquirable skill or fixed entity on co mputer anxiety, computer efficacy beliefs, and the acquisition of decl arative knowledge, drawing from social cognitive theory. The setting w as an introductory microcomputer training course. The findings indicat e that trainees in the acquirable skill condition experienced a signif icant decrease in computer anxiety between the pre- and posttraining a ssessments; however, trainees in the entity condition did not experien ce a significant change in computer anxiety. Also, trainees in the acq uirable skill condition experienced a significant increase in computer efficacy beliefs, and trainees in the entity condition experienced a significant decrease in computer efficacy between the pre- and posttra ining assessments. Contrary to expectations, the effects of the traini ng intervention on the acquisition of declarative knowledge were not m ediated by computer anxiety and computer efficacy beliefs. The signifi cant results are consistent with deductions made from social cognitive theory.