Journal of Vocational Behavior 28, 149-162 (1986) The Effects of Mathematics Task Performance on Math Self-Efficacy and Task Interest NANCY K. CAMPBELL Ohio State University AND GAIL HACKETT University of California, Santa Barbara This study explores the effects of task performance, i.e., success or failure, on level and strength of task self-efficacy, task interest, and self-evaluations of performance. One hundred twenty subjects were randomly assigned to a success or failure condition and attempted to solve a series of easy or difficult incomplete number series. Results indicated that changes in self-efficacy expectations as a result of task success or failure were in accordance with predictions from self- efficacy theory; subjects decreased their ratings of self-efficacy and interest as a result of the failure experience and the same ratings increased as a result of the success experience. A significant repeated measures x gender interaction was found for self-efficacy strength, with women rating themselves significantly lower than men on the first post-test. Finally, women in the success condition were significantly more likely than men to rate luck as the cause of their successful performance, while women in the failure condition were significantly more dis- satisfied than men with their performance. Implications of these results for coun- seling and future research are discussed. h) 1986 Academic FKSS. hc. Self-efficacy theory (Bandura, 1977) has proven to be a useful as well as a popular construct; Bandura (1982) documents research supporting the utility of self-efficacy expectations in the explanation of a wide variety of behavioral phenomenon, for example, phobias, coping behaviors, stress reactions, social skills, sports performance, and achievement strivings, This research was partially supported by a grant from the Academic Senate of the University of California, Santa Barbara. An earlier version of this paper was presented as part of a Division 17 Symposium entitled “Career Self-Efficacy: Conceptual, Meth- odological, and Empirical Perspectives,” at the 93rd Annual Meeting of the American Psychological Association, Los Angeles, August 1985. Requests for reprints should be sent to Gail Hackett, Counseling Psychology Program, Graduate School of Education, University of California. Santa Barbara, CA 93106. 149 OOOI-8791/86 $3.00 CopyrigJ~t 0 1986 by Academic Press. Inc. All rights of reprcduclion in any form reserved.