Personal correlates of self-efficacy in educational and professional activities of medical university students

Abstract

The relevance of the study is due to the following fact. The study of the personal determinants of self-efficacy of medical university students is a relevant research issue as it allows us to identify their contribution to the development of an adequate image of the “professional self” in the structure of the self-concept of future doctors. The purpose of the research is to study the correlation between personal characteristics of university students and different degrees of self-efficacy in educational and professional activities. Hypothesis. There are presumably particular differences in the actualization of connections between personal properties of students who show a high and low level of self-efficacy while studying at a medical university. The participants of the study are 3rd and 4th-year students of Stavropol State Medical University (Stavropol) (N = 187, 105 of them are females and 82 of them are males, the average age is 20 years old, SD = 0.78). The research methods (tools) include the Self-Efficacy Questionnaire in the form of a test (by J. Maddux, M. Scheer, adapted by A. V. Boyarintseva) that is aimed at studying the degree of subject-matter and communicative self-efficacy manifestation; the Schwarzer R. & Jerusalem M. Generalized Self-Efficacy Scale that diagnoses the degree of general self-efficacy manifestation; the questionnaire “The Style of Behavior Self-Regulation” (by V. I. Morosanova) that identifies self-regulation styles and manifestation degree of its general level; the Questionnaire on Tolerance-Intolerance to Uncertainty (by T.V. Kornilova) that diagnoses the manifestation degree of general and interpersonal tolerance or intolerance to uncertainty. The study also applies the procedure aimed at measuring the manifestation degree of a person’s self-efficacy in educational and professional activities (based on self-assessment). Results: the study has revealed both similarities and differences in the correlation between personal properties in students with different levels of self-efficacy in educational and professional activities. Main conclusions: the research has revealed the greatest differences in the correlation between the studied personal properties in the compared groups in the following options: between the expression of self-efficacy in educational and professional activities and tolerance/intolerance to uncertainty, and between intolerance to uncertainty and self-regulation styles. The similarities of personal correlates of students with high and low self-efficacy in educational and professional activities are manifested in significant links between the manifestation level of subject-matter self-efficacy and preferred self-regulation styles. The study has found that self-efficacy in educational and professional activities, regardless of its manifestation level, is directly correlated with all measurable types of self-efficacy. The obtained results can be useful in designing developmental psychological and pedagogical programs aimed at the formation and development of optimal self-regulation styles of medical university students through actualization of reflexive potential.