Perceived Self-Efficacy Measurement Scale [MPSE-60]

Aim

The Perceived Self-Efficacy Measurement Scale (MPSE-60) is designed to assess an individual’s beliefs about the value and effectiveness of their own abilities, particularly the degree of confidence they have in their capacity to organize and carry out the actions required to achieve specific goals.

The concept of perceived self-efficacy refers to the extent to which individuals believe they can successfully respond to challenges, overcome obstacles, and perform behaviors required in specific situations.

Brief Description

The MPSE-60 is a multidimensional self-report instrument composed of several subscales assessing perceived self-efficacy across different areas of everyday functioning and health-related behavior.

Generalized Self-Efficacy

The first subscale consists of 10 items and assesses generalized self-efficacy expectations. It examines the extent to which individuals believe they can successfully cope with unexpected situations, difficulties, and problems.

Responses are provided on a 4-point scale:

1 = Not true
2 = Hardly true
3 = Moderately true
4 = Exactly true

Higher scores indicate greater generalized self-efficacy.

Self-Efficacy for Healthy Eating

The second subscale consists of 10 items and assesses an individual’s perceived ability to follow healthy eating habits.

Responses are provided on a 7-point scale, ranging from:

1 = Not at all confident
to
7 = Completely confident

Higher scores reflect greater confidence in the ability to maintain healthy dietary behaviors.

Exercise Self-Efficacy

The third subscale includes 12 items assessing the individual’s perceived ability to engage in planned physical exercise when confronted with different situations that may act as barriers.

Responses are provided on a 7-point scale, ranging from 1 = “not at all confident” to 7 = “completely confident.”

Higher scores indicate greater confidence in the ability to maintain planned exercise despite potential obstacles.

Condom Use Self-Efficacy

The fourth subscale consists of 12 items and examines the perceived ability to use a condom when faced with pressure from a variety of factors.

Responses are provided on a 4-point scale, ranging from:

1 = Not true
to
4 = Exactly true

This subscale focuses on confidence in performing a specific health-protective behavior.

Cancer Screening Self-Efficacy

The fifth subscale consists of 10 items assessing the extent to which an individual believes they can overcome barriers that may make cancer screening difficult.

Responses are provided on a 7-point scale, ranging from 1 = “not at all confident” to 7 = “completely confident.”

Higher scores indicate greater confidence in overcoming barriers related to cancer screening.

Self-Efficacy for Providing Support

The sixth subscale consists of 10 items assessing the individual’s perceived ability to provide support to others when they are experiencing difficult situations.

Responses are provided on a 4-point scale, ranging from:

1 = Not true
to
4 = Exactly true

This dimension reflects confidence in the ability to respond supportively to other people’s needs.

Sample

The Greek translation of the questionnaire was administered to 205 university and technological educational institute students aged 18 to 22 years.

This information refers specifically to the sample used in the Greek version described in the source material and should therefore be taken into consideration when interpreting and generalizing the findings.

Scoring

Scoring is performed by summing the scores of the items included in each individual subscale. Higher total scores indicate higher levels of perceived self-efficacy in the corresponding domain.

Some items are reverse-scored and must be recoded before calculating the total subscale score.

For the Healthy Eating Self-Efficacy subscale, items 3, 4, 5, and 6 are reverse-scored. Since this subscale uses a 7-point scale, the scores are reversed as follows:

1 → 7
2 → 6
3 → 5
4 → 4
5 → 3
6 → 2
7 → 1

For the Condom Use Self-Efficacy subscale, items 1, 4, 6, and 10 are reverse-scored.

For the Self-Efficacy for Providing Support subscale, items 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 11 are reverse-scored.

Correct reverse-scoring is necessary before calculating the total score so that all items follow the same direction of interpretation.

Applications

The MPSE-60 can be used in research and applied settings to investigate the relationship between self-efficacy and different behaviors associated with health and everyday functioning.

Its multidimensional structure allows researchers to examine both generalized self-efficacy and domain-specific self-efficacy in areas such as healthy eating, physical exercise, condom use, cancer screening, and providing social support.

The instrument may also be used to investigate differences between population groups or to examine associations between perceived self-efficacy and other psychological, behavioral, or health-related variables.

Main References

Pavlatou, E. (1999). The degree of influence of self-efficacy expectancy on the level of general health. Undergraduate thesis, University of Athens.

Schwarzer, R. (1993). Measurement of perceived self-efficacy: Psychometric scales for cross-cultural research. Forschung an der Freien Universität Berlin.