Understanding Self Efficacy

Self efficacy can be described in the words of Albert Bandura, "The belief in one’s capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required managing prospective situations." Basically, this means that self-efficacy is your belief in your ability to achieve success in a specific situation. These beliefs according to Bandura are determinants of how you think, feel, and behave. According to a research conducted by Bandura (1995, 1997), efficacy beliefs can influence people to think strategically or erratically, pessimistically or optimistically.

Every human being should possess a strong sense of self efficacy as it is conducive to attainment of personal goal and well being. It is also known to be a strong predictor of health and behavioral change. One of the important things to understand is that self efficacy is different from self esteem. Self esteem propagates the judgment of self worth like, "I am a good man or I am a terrible performer ". Self efficacy propagates the judgment of personal abilities or capabilities like "I can jump 2.8m or I can finish this project in 5 days". You can have a high self esteem and low self efficacy or vice-versa.

The need for self-efficacy was explored in the field of mainstream education as it is considered to be an intermediary in academic achievement (Rosenholtz & Rosenholtz, 1981).

The Role of Self-Efficacy

A study by Schwarzer & Reinhard (1995) has revealed that people who display a high sense of self-efficacy are normally more confident about taking on challenging tasks. Some of the basic things that you can relate to include the ability to identify goals, what you would want to accomplish, how you want to accomplish, things that you would want to achieve, and things that you would want to change. However, achieving goals or wanting a change is not as simple as it sounds. This is where self-efficacy plays an all important role in how you approach your goals, challenges, and tasks. Let’s look at both sides of the coin – people with strong and weak self efficacy based on their reactions.

A study conducted by Wehrwein and Eddy (1993) revealed that self-efficacy is an important predictor of health promoting behaviors. If you had a strong sense of self-efficacy then you would:

• Take challenging problems head on and look for the appropriate solution
• Slowly develop interest in various activities that you participate in
• Project and show a strong sense of commitment to your tasks, goals, activities, and interests
• Be able to recover quickly from disappointments and setbacks

If you had a weak sense of self-efficacy then you would:

• Avoid any conflict and shirk away any responsibilities built around challenging tasks
• Believe that you lack the capabilities to handle difficult tasks and challenging situations
• Spend more time focusing on failures and negative results
• Lose confidence in your abilities at the slightest hint of failure or challenge

Warm regards,

FreelanceCoach Team