The validation of the Educational Outcome Expectancy Scale

This study presents convergent, discriminate, and predictive validity estimates for the Educational Outcome Expectancy Scale (EOE; Larson, Springer, Tilley, & Gasser, 2001). The EOE is a measure of educational outcome expectancies that is anchored in the social cognitive career theory (SCCT; Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994). SCCT proposes that the main three processing mechanisms that underlie social cognitive theory (SCT; Bandura, 1986) as it relates to career are self-efficacy (SE), outcome expectancies (OEs), and goal representations. The author examined the workings of SE and OEs within the framework of SCT and SCCT and how they measured within career and educational domains. A sample of 846 participants completed the EOE and two self-efficacy measures. A subset of 195 also reported GPAs and ACT scores. Hypotheses were that educational OE would correlate moderately positively with academic self-efficacy, persistence, aptitude, and achievement. The results provided some psychometric support for the EOE. Specifically, the EOE was shown to have convergent validity in that it moderately correlated with academic SE as expected. Some discriminate validity was also shown in that students currently enrolled had higher EOEs but not higher academic SE compared to those students that had dropped out. Conversely, academic SE moderately correlated with achievement and aptitude while EOE did not. Finally, some predictive validity was also established. The EOE seems to play a small role in academic persistence six months later