Self-Efficacy Beliefs: Foundation Of Human Agency

Bandura has studied self-efficacy, which is the extent or strength of one’s belief in one’s own ability to complete tasks and reach goals. Self-efficacy can affect all types of behaviors like academics, social and recreational. A child might have the ability to accomplish a task, but if they do not feel like they are capable of doing so, then they may fail or may not attempt the task. For example, in a study difficult math problems were given to children with

Virtually all people can identify goals they want to accomplish, things they would like to change, and things they would like to achieve. However, most people also realize that putting these plans into action is not quite so simple. Bandura and others have found that an individual’s self-efficacy plays a major role in how goals, tasks, and challenges are approached.

The concept of interest is self-efficacy. This began in 1977 with Bandura’s social learning theory that was renamed social cognitive theory in 1986, of which self-efficacy was one of the major concepts of his theory. Self-efficacy makes a difference in how people will feel, think, behave, and motivate themselves. A low sense of self-efficacy can be associated with stress, anxiety, depression, and feelings of helplessness. Such individuals also have low self-esteem and become pessimistic about their accomplishments and personal development. In thinking terms, a strong sense of efficacy facilitates cognitive processes and performance in a variety of settings, including the quality of decision-making and academic achievement. When it comes to behavior, self-efficacy can be said to influence people’s choice of activities as self-efficacy levels can foster or decrease a person’s motivation. People with high self-efficacy approach difficult tasks as challenges and do not try to avoid them. People’s self-efficacy beliefs determine their level of motivation, as reflected in how much effort they will

Self-efficacy is the person’s desire to change and engage in the specific actions or behaviors. Pender et al. (2014) defines self-efficacy as, “the judgment of personal capability

Self-efficacy influences the goals we set. The higher an individual’s self-efficacy in a specific area, the greater the goals. Goals provide individuals with standards against which to monitor progress and abilities. Thus a number of a number of psychological problems may result from low self-efficacy. For example low self-efficacy expectancies is a feature of depression. Depressed individuals usually believe they are less capable than other people of behaving effectively in many important areas of life. People who have strong confidence in their abilities to perform and manage potentially difficult situations will approach those situations calmly and will not be disrupted by difficulties. On the other hand, people who lack confidence in

Personality is considered a fairly stable pattern of psychological behavior (thoughts, feelings, and actions) and influences how one will act in response to diverse circumstances (Quinn, Faerman, Thompson, & McGrath, 2003). Personality does not determine behavior; behavior arises in a context, such as work. According to (Berens et al., 2001), “personalities reflect the requirements of the contexts as well as our innate tendencies and how we have adapted to these contexts over time”. In other words, an individual’s behavior is determined by the requirements of the situation. "Efficacy beliefs do not share the major properties ascribed to personality traits" (Bandura, 1997). While self-efficacy is not

Self-efficacy is concerned with a person's estimate of their personal capabilities. Successful performance of a behavior leading to a positive experiences leads to a high level of self-efficacy, failures diminish the level of self-efficacy.

The Self-Efficacy theory was created in the 1970s by Albert Bandura. Behavior theories created earlier in time were based on psychological components and had 3 characteristics. The characteristics stated that behavior is psychically regulated by the sub-conscience, a behavior that is different from normal is a symptom of a disease or disorder, and a behavior is able to change with the help of a therapist. With more research, it was later decided that behavior results from a connection between personal, behavioral and environmental factors and that a behavior that is different than normal does not mean it is a symptom of a disease or disorder. Both the earlier and later theories worked, so Albert Bandura found the common thread between the two approaches and came up with the Self-Efficacy theory. This theory was created as a common ground between the early and later theories. It states that people will only do things that they believe they can achieve. If they do not think its achievable, they will not try it. This gives a reason as to why some people do not attempt certain tasks, while others do. Increasing one’s self-efficacy can help them be more productive and attempt more challenging things and when this is applied to health behavior, it can increase their health.

Three significant foundational themes of this theory are, self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and goals (Brown, 2016). Self-efficacy is an individual’s personal beliefs about their ability to perform specific behaviors or tasks. Outcome expectations refer to beliefs related to the valued outcomes or consequences produced from executing behaviors. Goals are defined as the decision-making process to engage in a task or activity. How these variables interact with other aspects of the persons environment, (gender, race, outcome hopes, personal goals, and genetically-determined characteristics), help in the career and academic decision-making process. It is also believed that individuals efficacy development is influenced and altered when interacting with theses environments (Brown, 2016). In short, individuals will mainly be interested in activities seen as possible and achievable, and where they will experience positive results.

Self-efficacy has been studied extensively since Albert Bandura first published his theory in 1977. In social situations, individuals have varying perceptions of their ability to successfully interact with others.(Bandura 1977) In other words, their self-efficacy beliefs reflect their level of social confidence (Bandura, 1977). The possession of strong self-efficacy beliefs has been related to positive outcomes in academic achievement, career choice and also to reduce levels of depression (Bandura, 1977). Self-efficacy is defined as a person’s internal ability to successfully meet the challenges that one faces (Bandura 1977). Bandura (1986) stated that self-efficacy is not the actual ability to complete tasks

The contemporary articles that will be presented within this review of the literature need to be interpreted in a similar manner in order to fully understand how they interconnect. As expressed previously by Wigfield and Guthrie (1997), it is common knowledge that reading motivation is multifaceted in nature. Students can be motivated by several influences such as social pressure, ability, self-efficacy, interest, purpose, challenge, ethnicity, and socio-economic status (Baker & Wigfield, 1999; McKenna et al., 1995; Wigfield & Guthrie, 1997). Due to the nature of the topic within this review of the literature, motivation will be considered to be affect by a collective self-efficacy theory. Historically a forerunner in the psychological field of self-efficacy is Albert Bandura. His work focused on self-efficacy affecting the amount of effort exerted on an activity for a duration of time (Bandura, 1977). Specifically, perceived self-efficacy is described as an individual’s on perceptions of their ability to be successful when completing a task (Bandura, 1977). This idea of self-efficacy has been reflected in all of the three exemplar articles as being lower in boy readers than girl readers (Baker & Wigfield, 1999; McKenna et al., 1995; Wigfield & Guthrie, 1997). Bandura (1977) extended his theory of self-efficacy to additionally be affected by social comparison experiences. In respect to social compliance, males have been studied to be influenced on

Self Efficacy refers to an individual belief in their personal capability to accomplish a particular group of job (Bandura 1997). This particular description is associated with self-efficacy which came from a crucial idea within Albert Bandura’s interpersonal cognitive concept, and has already been used in a variety of mental hypotheses. In neuro-scientific mindset, self-efficacy are likely involved in several hypotheses associated with inspiration, believed designs, cognitive procedures, choices, long term alignment as well as daily conduct.

Students’ performance in college can be significantly impacted by internalized beliefs and motivational drive. The impact of personal self-confidence and optimism have been identified as significant predictors of academic performance and adjustment (Chemers, Hu, & Garcia, 2001). Personal self-confidence, or self-efficacy, has been acknowledged as important for the development of academic goal commitment, because the student develops their own level of academic efficacy (Tinto, 1993; Bean, 1990; Chemers, Hu, & Garcia, 2001). Self-efficacy is explained by Bandura as the personal beliefs or views that an individual has regarding their ability to achieve specific tasks or responsibilities to accomplish and attain clear distinctive goals. Bandura initially termed the concept as self-beliefs (Bandura, 1977a); however, he later altered the term to self-efficacy. Personal self-efficacy views impact how an individual will be driven to attain individual achievement and personal satisfaction (Bandura, 1986).

Self-efficacy composes of three (3) dimensions and these are magnitude, strength and generality. A magnitude wherein it pertains to the level how peak or low the task is for the person that is to be taken; strength to know how strong and how that person deals with problems in a determined and effective way; and generality wherein the outcomes are generalized along the situation. There are ways for everything to be successful or ways to get what they really want to achieve. Also, there are ways on how you’ll improve your self-efficacy (from Margolis and Mc Cabe, 2006) 1.) Use moderately difficult tasks. If one activity is just a piece of cake, particularly in school, students will think that it is boring for they’re not challenge; they will think that they can do it anytime and anywhere. Also, the teacher cannot express the ability that they have because the activity is way too easy. But when the activity is difficult, it says that it will help strengthen our confidence, because we are exerting too much effort to finish the task, and because you’ll be determined and challenged. 2.) Use peer models. Join and be informed to the people you know that are successful, maybe they can be your friends, family, loved ones, people you see joining in contests, articles that you read through social media and etc. You’ll gain self-efficacy here, because you are imitating someone that you know to yourself that you can do also; that you can be successful. 3.) Teach specific learning

Students’ self-efficacy has been the researchers’ interest and been the focus of their studies for the last thirty years due in part to the motivational, affective and behavior outcomes of Bandura’s theory of learning. Meanwhile, the achievement gap that exists between African -American and Latino students and to their White counterpart (Stinson, 2006) is not going away. As Riconscente explains that crusade to bridge the “floundering” students to the “achievers” is “at the heart of countless investigation (Riconscente, 2014). Students who are touched by lower academic achievement, students who partake in the academics and those who strive, all coexist in the public system with a varying degree of self-efficacy yet the disparity is constant. For urban schools students’ achievement is seen through the lens of what Haberman describe as the pedagogy of poverty : “a routine teaching acts of giving information, asking questions, giving directions, making assignments, monitoring seatwork, reviewing assignments, giving tests, reviewing tests, assigning homework, reviewing homework, settling disputes, punishing noncompliance, marking papers, and giving grades (as cited in Stinson, 2006, p 486). In parallel, some studies show that students are perceived as either showing a diminishing sense of self-efficacy, particularly in junior year in high school (Usher, 2008), or that a higher sense of self-efficacy was more substantial for high school and college students than for elementary