Rute F.

Meneses – All rights reserved

Meneses, R., Miyazaki, C., & Pais-Ribeiro, J.

(11–16/7/2010). Relationship between self-
efficacy and communication skills.
International Congress of Applied Psychology
2010 (ICAP 2010), Melbourne, Austrália.
(Electronic Poster)

Note: Images from google images rmeneses@ufp.edu.pt

Relationship between self-efficacy and
communication skills

Rute F. Meneses, Cristina Miyazaki,

& José Pais-Ribeiro

Grant FCT -
SFRH/BPD/39186/2007
 Background information I

Communication skills are essential to

personal and academic/professional success.

Nevertheless, many do not master these

skills, requiring specific training.

Since universal interventions tend to be less

stigmatizing, finding a correlate of
communication skills amenable to
intervention seems useful.
 Background information II
& Aim
“Efficacy expectations predict with
considerable accuracy the level of
performance” (Bandura & Adams, 1977, pp.
303-304). “

Self-efficacy… can affect coping

efforts…. The stronger the perceived
self-efficacy, the more active the efforts”
(Bandura, 1977, p. 194).

Aim: To explore the relationship between

self-efficacy and communication skills in
Portuguese university students.
 Method
N=177 Portuguese university students (≠ degrees, classes:
1st-4th yr); 18-47 yrs (M=22,18, SD=3,70); > women and single

a Socio-demographic Questionnaire, the Communication

Skills Questionnaire (CSQ; Meneses, Miyazaki, & Pais-Ribeiro, 2009)
& the General Self-efficacy Scale (GSS; Ribeiro, n.d.)

The 26 items of the CSQ require two answers (0-10): one concerning the
importance the respondent gives to the skill (IS; α=0,897) and the other
his/her satisfaction regarding the skill (SS; α=0,929)

The 15 items of the GSS are summed to give 4 scores: Initiation and
persistence, Efficacy in the face of adversity, Social efficacy & Global
 Results

The answers of the sample were very

heterogeneous.
Thirteen IS items were correlated (at least) with
the global score from GSS; 23 IS items were not
correlated with at least one GSS score.
Twenty-four SS items were correlated (at least)
with the global GSS score; 6 SS items were not
correlated with at least one GSS score.
 Conclusions

- An intervention able to foster general self-efficacy

could have a positive impact on the satisfaction
with performance of several communication skills.
- The results do not support the same strategy to
change communication skills importance
perception.
- The type of study, sample characteristics (e.g., size) &
“intensity” of results (correlations) suggest better ways
to promote communication skills need be explored.