Self-Confidence in College Students: Conceptualization, Measurement, and Behavioral Implications

Abstract

Self-confidence was conceptualized and a multidimensional measure, the Personal Evaluation Inventory, was developed which assesses college students' confidence in six areas most important to them. The measure's psychometric properties and relationships with other personality attributes were described. Three studies exploring behavioral correlates of confidence demonstrated the following: People's expressed self-confidence is consistent with others' appraisals of their confidence; when given a choice between two activities, people choose the one on which their confidence is higher; and less confident people perceive their futures, although not those of other people, less favorably than highly confident people. The importance of distinguishing and assessing both domain-specific and general confidence is discussed.