Albert Bandura’s Self-Efficacy: Do You Believe In Yourself?
To understand what it means self-efficacy theory, I’m going to ask you a question. First think about a goal you would like to achieve.
When facing the challenge, do you feel that you are up to the task and can achieve the goal? If you are one of those people who represent the famous phrase that Barack Obama used for his political campaign that brought him to power in 2008: “Yes, we can!” (We can), you probably have high self-efficacy for that specific goal or task and you are confident in your abilities to achieve that goal.
If, on the other hand, you think that this challenge is too big for you or you do not trust your abilities to achieve it, you have a weak perception of self-efficacy.
Self-efficacy is a concept introduced by Albert Bandura, a Ukrainian-Canadian psychologist who was born in 1925. In 1986, he developed the Theory of Social Learning, referring to the regulation of motivation and human action, which involves three types of expectations: situation-result expectations, action-result and perceived self-efficacy. Today I will talk to you about self-efficacy.
Self-efficacy, or beliefs in your abilities to deal with the different situations that arise, plays an important role not only in the way you feel about a goal or task, but it will be decisive in whether or not you achieve the goals in your life. .
The concept of self-efficacy is a central aspect in Psychology, since it emphasizes the role of observational learning, social experience, and the impact on a person’s personal development. It can be defined as the set of beliefs that we associate with our abilities and aptitudes, and it is closely related to self-esteem, although it is not exactly the same. While self-esteem is fundamentally how we feel about who we believe we are, self-efficacy is what we think we know about what we can achieve if we set our minds to it ; That is to say, the latter has a more practical aspect and is applicable to specific everyday situations, although it is not completely devoid of a certain emotional charge (it is difficult to be satisfied with ourselves if we believe that we are incapable of doing anything remarkable).
Its relationship with motivation
In Albert Bandura’s theory, it is argued that self-efficacy is a main construct for carrying out a behavior, since the relationship between knowledge and action will be significantly mediated by the thought of self-efficacy. Self-efficacy beliefs, that is, the thoughts that a person has about their ability and self-regulation to implement said behavior, will be decisive.
This way, People will be more motivated if they perceive that their actions can be effective ; that is, if there is the conviction that they have personal abilities that allow them to regulate their actions. Bandura considers that it influences at a cognitive, affective and motivational level. Thus, high perceived self-efficacy is related to positive thoughts and aspirations about performing the behavior successfully, lower stress, anxiety, and threat perception, along with adequate planning of the course of action and anticipation of good results.
Everyone can identify the goals they want to achieve or the aspects of their life they would like to change. However, not everyone thinks that putting these plans into action is easy. Research has shown that each individual’s self-efficacy plays an important role in facing a goal, task, or challenge.
Individuals with high self-efficacy They are very interested in the tasks in which they participate, they see problems as stimulating challenges, experience high commitment to their interests and activities, and recover quickly from failures. In contrast, individuals with low or weak self-efficacy: avoid challenging tasks or goals, think that difficult goals are out of reach, and interpret failures as something personal.
Development of Self-Efficacy
Self-efficacy beliefs develop early in childhood while experiencing different experiences or situations. However, the development of self-efficacy does not end in childhood or adolescence, but continues its evolution throughout life as people acquire new skills, knowledge, or live new experiences.
Self-efficacy beliefs are formed from information provided by a total of four sources:
1. Execution achievements
Past experiences constitute the most important source of self-efficacy information, since they are based on the real domain check Repeated success at certain tasks increases positive evaluations of self-efficacy while repeated failures decrease them, especially when failures cannot be attributed to external circumstances.
2. Vicarious experience or observation
He modeling It is important since by seeing (or imagining) other people successfully carrying out certain activities, a person can come to believe that he or she has sufficient capabilities to perform with equal success. This source of self-efficacy becomes particularly relevant in cases in which individuals do not have great knowledge of their own capabilities or have little experience in the task to be performed.
Verbal persuasion is another important source of self-efficacy, especially for those people who already have a high level of self-efficacy and just need a little more confidence to put in the extra effort and achieve success.
4. Physiological state of the individual
The multiple indicators of autonomic activation, as well as pain and fatigue, can be interpreted by the individual as signs of their own ineptitude. In general, people tend to interpret high states of anxiety as signs of vulnerability and as indicators of poor performance. He humor or the emotional states They will also have an impact on how one will interpret the experiences.
Conclusion
In summary, self-efficacy is the appreciation of one’s abilities and focuses on the beliefs of having the necessary resources and the ability to succeed in a given context. It is an important concept for psychology and personal development as it reinforces the idea that human beings can select or eliminate future activities through their own cognitive mechanisms, and provides a non-reductionist view of the human being and the complexity of influences. that affect their behavior.
Individuals are seen as proactive and self-regulators of their behavior rather than as reactive and controlled by environmental or biological forces.
