Self Efficacy

I. INTRODUCTION

“People who regard themselves as highly efficacious act, think, and feel differently from those who perceive themselves as inefficacious.” –ALBERT BANDURA

Self- Efficacy Theory is an important component of Bandura’s social cognitive theory, which suggests high inter-relation between individual’s behaviour, environment, and cognitive factors.

For Bandura, the capability is the most “distinctly human” is that off self-reflection, hence it is a prominent feature of social cognitive theory. Through self-reflection, people make sense of their experiences explore their own cognition and self-beliefs, engage in self-evaluation, and alter their thinking and behaviour accordingly. Of all thoughts that affect human-functioning, and standing at the very core of social cognitive theory, as self-efficacy beliefs, “people’s judgements of their capabilities to organize and execute courses of action required to attain designated types of performances.” Self-efficacy beliefs provide the foundation for human motivation, well-being, and personal accomplishments. This is because unless people believe that their actions can provide the outcomes they desire, they have little incentive to act or to persevere in the face of difficulties.

An important assumption of social cognitive theory is that personal determinants, such as forethoughts and self-reflection, do not have to reside unconsciously within individuals. People can consciously change and develop their cognitive functioning. This is important to the position that self-efficacy too can be changed, or enhanced. From this perspective, people are capable of influencing their own motivation and performance according to a model in which a personal determinants 9such as self-efficacy), environmental conditions (such as treatment conditions), and action (such as practice) are mutually interactive influences. Improving performance, therefore, depends on changing some of these influences....