Self-Confidence and Performance | self-confidence theory
Page195fected.Environmentalmanipulationsmayinfluencesomeothervariable(e.g.,anxiety)thatinfluencesself-confidenceandperformancewithoutanycausalroleforself-confidence."Thirdvariable"causesmustbeconsidered,butthisisdifficulttodointraditionalexperimentalstudies,especiallywhenconsideringanetworkofcausalrelationships.Insuchsituations,pathanalysisorstructural-equationmodelingisanappropriatemethodtoinvestigateanetworkofcausalrelationships(AndersonandEvans,1974;CookandCampbell,1979;Duncan,1975).Patha...
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fected. Environmental manipulations may influence some other variable (e.g., anxiety) that influences self-confidence and performance without any causal role for self-confidence. "Third variable" causes must be considered, but this is difficult to do in traditional experimental studies, especially when considering a network of causal relationships. In such situations, path analysis or structural-equation modeling is an appropriate method to investigate a network of causal relationships (Anderson and Evans, 1974; Cook and Campbell, 1979; Duncan, 1975). Path analysis and structural-equation modeling allow one to test whether the model presented fits a set of data adequately by comparing the observed relationships among the variables with the predicted relationships. These methods also permit an estimation of the relative indirect and direct contributions of effects. Causal modeling methods are not techniques for discovering causal directions, but, r...