Can I do it? Will I try? Personal efficacy, assigned goals, and performance norms as motivators of individual performance

This study tested concurrent influences of personal efficacy, assigned goal s, and performance norms on individual performance, mediated by personal go als and task-specific self-efficacy. Seventy-seven undergraduate students p erformed a verbal task in this laboratory experiment that manipulated assig ned goal level (low, high) and information about the performance of others (]ow, high). Relations among variables, including general, domain, and task -specific self-efficacy, as well as performance were examined through struc tural equation modeling. Results demonstrated simultaneous effects of assig ned goals and normative information on self-efficacy, personal goals, and s ubsequent performance, as well as mediated effects of domain efficacy on pe rformance.