SELF-EFFICACY IN THE PRESENCE OF “SMALL TALKS” IN COLLEGE: THE HARMS AND THE NEEDS OF THE TONGUE

The main goal of the present study was to examine the extent to which attitudes towards gossips by untenured faculty and college students in Saudi Arabia could be predicted by self-efficacy. For faculty, in addition to self-efficacy (either general or teaching-specific), teaching dimensions (i.e., instructor-, student-, and institution-related) served as predictors. The higher were faculty’s general and teaching-specific self-efficacy beliefs, the lower was the social value and the higher was the moral rejection of gossips, even after controlling for years of teaching. Faculty’s belief that their teaching influences student learning was negatively related to the social utility attributed to “idle talks” and positively related to their moral rejection as well as to other key teaching dimensions. The higher were students’ general self-efficacy beliefs, the lower was the social worth and the higher was the moral rejection of gossips, even after controlling for years in college. Thus, for both faculty and students, confidence in one’s abilities may signify a tendency to curtail the insidious influence of gossips by reducing/debunking the social usefulness attributed to “idle talks” and increasing their moral refutation.