What Is Self-efficacy?
Are you one of those who never gives up until you achieve your goals or give up with the first difficulty or defeat? Do you trust that you can achieve your goals, or do you doubt your own abilities to overcome difficulties? The difference between the first and the second part of these questions is self-efficacy.
T he self-efficacy is the belief in one’s abilities to cope with various situations. In this way, self-efficacy can play an important role not only in how you feel about yourself, but also in your attitude and possibilities to successfully achieve your goals and objectives in life.
Let’s dive into Self-Efficacy
For the famous psychologist Albert Bandura, creator of social cognitive theory, the concept of self-efficacy is fundamental. Bandura emphasizes the role of observational learning, social experience, and reciprocal determinism in personality development. According to Bandura, a person’s attitudes, abilities, and cognitive abilities help them understand what is known as the ego system.
This system plays an important role in the way we perceive situations and how we behave in response to different situations. Self-efficacy is an essential part of this self-system.
According to Bandura, self-efficacy is the belief in one’s own ability to organize and execute the necessary courses of action to manage possible situations. In other words, self-efficacy is a person’s belief in their ability to be successful in a particular situation. Bandura describes these beliefs as determinants of the way of thinking, behaving and feeling.
Since Bandura published in 1977, ” Self-Efficacy: how we face changes in today’s society “, the subject has become one of the most studied in psychology since, as the same author and other psychologists and researchers have shown, Self-efficacy can impact everything from psychological states to behavior to motivation.
The role of self-efficacy
A large majority of people can identify the goals they would like to achieve, as well as those areas to improve. The attitude of each one of us plays a fundamental role in the process of self-efficacy. Many of us do not display the necessary attitude to achieve a goal and therefore we are left halfway. Some directly do not even try anticipating failure.
Bandura and others have found that an individual’s self-efficacy plays an important role in how goals, tasks, and challenges are approached.
What are people like with a strong sense of self-efficacy?
People with a strong sense of self-efficacy view difficult problems as tasks to be overcome. They develop a deeper interest in the activities in which they participate, recover quickly from setbacks and disappointments, and have a greater sense of commitment to their interests and activities.
What are people with a weak sense of self-efficacy like?
In contrast, people with a weak sense of self-efficacy avoid challenging tasks whenever they can. They believe that difficult tasks and situations are beyond their capabilities. P quickly ierden confidence in their personal capacities and focus on personal failings and negative outcomes.
How do you develop self-efficacy?
Beliefs about self-efficacy begin to form in early childhood, when children begin to deal with a wide variety of experiences, tasks, and situations. However, growth in a sense of self-efficacy does not end in youth, but continues to evolve throughout life as people acquire new skills, experiences, and knowledge.
According to Bandura, there are four main sources of self-efficacy:
# 1 – Master’s experiences
“The most effective way to develop a strong sense of efficacy is through mastery experiences,” explained Bandura. Successful completion of a task strengthens our sense of self-efficacy. However, failing to adequately address a task or challenge can undermine and weaken self-efficacy.
For this, it is important to break down a goal into small subgoals. By doing so we will facilitate the achievement of the final goal. As we achieve the small objectives, we will reaffirm our self-efficacy. We cannot lose 20 kilos in two days. You have to set realistic goals. Dedicate the necessary time and develop the best action plan.
# 2 – Social modeling
Witnessing how other people successfully complete a task is another important source of self-efficacy. According to Bandura, seeing similar people succeed in the same endeavor helps to believe that oneself also possess the abilities to master comparable activities to be successful.
# 3 – Social persuasion
Bandura claimed that people can be persuaded to believe that they have the skills and abilities necessary to be successful. Getting verbal encouragement from others helps people overcome doubt. In this way, they focus on doing their best to accomplish the task at hand.
In the same way that others can encourage us at a given moment, they can also discourage us. On many occasions we do not start a challenge because of the discouragement of our environment. For this reason, it is essential to know how to give the exact importance to the words of others. Some people add, some are neutral, and some subtract. It is important to get together with people who add or, at least, are neutral; but do not subtract. And if they remain, the best attitude is to take strength and use it as a personal challenge.
# 4 – Psychological responses
Our own emotional responses and reactions to situations also play an important role in self-efficacy. Moods, emotional states, physical reactions, and high levels of stress can affect how a person feels about their personal abilities, in a particular situation.
Bandura pointed out that what is important is not the intensity of emotional and physical reactions, but rather how they are perceived and interpreted. In this way, learning how to minimize stress and how to lift your spirits when faced with difficult or challenging tasks will help improve your sense of self-efficacy.
