Self-efficacy: belief in the effectiveness of one's own actions

The concept of self-efficacy and who invented it

Self-efficacy is an individual’s assessment of his own abilities to cope with certain tasks in any situation, a judgment about the actions that he can take, which influences the choice of action strategy and the definition of goals.

The concept of self-efficacy was introduced into psychology by the American psychologist Bandura, who spent his entire life studying individual behavior and the reasons for certain human actions. Many scientists argue that human behavior depends mainly on internal processes (drives, drives, needs, etc.). Bandura's concept of self-efficacy does not reject these factors, but adds two more vectors that influence human behavior. It is the conditions of the external environment and human beliefs, expectations, goals and intentions that shape human behavior.

A person regulates his own behavior, and often consciously rewards or punishes himself with his actions. If a person behaves against his own moral principles, then he begins to worry and condemn himself. Therefore, the following behavioral chain is formed: misconduct – internal discomfort – punishment – relief.

Bandura also introduced the concept of self-regulation, which is based on a person’s self-esteem. Self-esteem increases or decreases depending on what activity a person is engaged in and whether he independently achieves success in this area. If the matter concerns him personally and he achieves success in this, of course, self-esteem grows and pride in oneself appears. The result is self-rewarding behavior. And vice versa, judging oneself, a negative reaction appears and the person punishes himself.

Behave well and it will help you in the future

A kind of standard is a person’s behavior in the past. In accordance with past behavior, one can assess how adequate a person’s behavior is today. Past behavior shapes self-esteem and influences what goals a person will set for himself in the future.

After this level of behavior has already been achieved, it is no longer required, the person begins to look for new self-satisfaction. People want to raise their standards of behavior after success and lower them to a more realistic level after repeated failures. © Bandura

Depending on how a person defines his effectiveness, he can either expand or limit the choices available to him. The choice of activities, the efforts that are necessary to overcome obstacles and the persistence with which he will solve certain problems. Therefore, self-assessment of effectiveness also influences a person’s behavior, his emotions and motivation to act.

Those people who are aware of their effectiveness are able to put maximum effort into completing difficult tasks. And people who doubt their abilities quickly give up and give up. People with high self-efficacy expect success , so their activities always bring positive results. People with low self-efficacy constantly doubt themselves and expect failure , so they are often haunted by failure. It's a vicious circle: thinking about failure, we fail, and as a result, self-esteem drops. Such people pay too much attention to their shortcomings and constantly engage in self-criticism about their incompetence.

Those who perceive themselves as incapable of success are more likely to mentally imagine a bad scenario and focus on how bad it will be. Confidence in your inability to succeed weakens motivation and prevents you from building behavior. In contrast, people who believe in their ability to solve a problem are likely to persist in achieving their goals despite obstacles and will not be prone to self-criticism. © Bandura

Basic provisions

In a number of studies, Bandura showed that another cause of behavioral disorders may be a lack of belief in the effectiveness of one’s own actions. Bandura's discovery is often referred to as "self-efficacy theory." Self-efficacy, or efficacy belief, refers to a person's belief that he or she can perform successful behavior in a difficult situation. That is, belief in effectiveness means evaluating one's own very specifically defined behavioral competence.

According to Bandura, an essential characteristic of many mental illnesses is a lack of trust in one's own behavioral and experiential abilities. Many diseases are accompanied by underestimation or incorrect assessment of one's own abilities and behavioral skills.

Whether a particular person can achieve success in a given situation depends not only on his own competence, but also on a number of other factors. However, for mental health and well-being, it is not so much the objective results themselves that are important, but their interpretation by a specific person and expectations of success, positive results of their own actions.

Bandura hypothesized that self-efficacy, which is cognitive in nature (i.e., self-efficacy expectations), influences motor behavior, such as whether a stressful situation will stimulate mastery attempts, how intense these attempts will be, and how long they will last. The same self-efficacy can also influence the characteristics of the environment—the consequences of behavior.

If, for example, someone does not believe that he is attractive to the opposite sex and his dating self-efficacy is low, then he will arrive at a party in a bad mood, spoil the mood of those around him with his scowl, and his attempt to meet someone will almost certainly fail. The negative consequences of the dating attempt will be perceived in detail, which will further reduce self-efficacy.

If self-efficacy is high, then a person will go to the party in a good mood, expecting a fun time, the attempt at dating will receive positive development, which in turn will strengthen self-efficacy in the field of dating and facilitate subsequent acquaintances.

In his concept of expectations, Bandura distinguishes between effectiveness expectation and outcome expectation.

He defines outcome expectancy as a person’s assessment that a certain behavior will lead to certain results. Efficiency expectancy means assessing the extent to which he is able to behave in the way necessary to obtain some result. The difference is that an individual may believe that a certain response can or will certainly lead to a desired outcome (result expectancy), but not believe that he himself is capable of performing this behavior.

The influence of self-efficacy on behavior depends on its degree, generality, and strength. This influence is manifold: self-efficacy affects the search for or avoidance of situations of a certain type; choice of behavioral alternatives; type, frequency and duration of attempts to master a difficult situation; attribution of success and failure. Although, of course, one cannot underestimate the reverse influence on self-efficacy of the results of actions, models that are accessible to observation, etc.

The formation of self-efficacy is influenced by four circumstances:

The presence of a more or less wide repertoire of behavioral skills.
Experience gained through observing other people (physically or symbolically following a model).
The beliefs expressed by others are verbal reinforcement or punishment.
Physical, psychological, emotional state (a person always evaluates his emotional state in one way or another: fear, calm, excitement in conflict situations - and this affects the assessment of his own behavioral abilities).

Self-efficacy is understood by Bandura not as a stable and static characteristic, but as a variable, which, in its strength, generality and degree, is in reciprocal (mutual) dependence on the current situation and the previous history of the individual’s development.

The impact of behavioral consequences on self-efficacy depends significantly on how a person perceives and evaluates these consequences. If in the past the experience of behavior in a certain range of situations (for example, those requiring the ability to say “no”) was predominantly negative, then self-efficacy in this area will be low, attention will be focused on the negative consequences of refusal, these consequences will be personally interpreted, which in turn will reduce self-efficacy in future.

Bandura's theory is sufficiently substantiated not only theoretically, but also experimentally. A number of studies have confirmed the following hypotheses:

Performance expectations correlate at a high level of significance with actual behavior. In other words, a person predominantly demonstrates the behavior that he expects from himself and sees exactly the consequences that he expects. Expecting to receive a refusal in response to a request, he constructs the request itself in such a way that it naturally leads to a refusal, and it is the refusal that becomes the focus of his attention.
By assessing expectations and self-efficacy levels, actual behavior can be predicted fairly accurately.

After listening to the client and carefully analyzing his words, we can already assume exactly how he will behave in a given situation. By changing his expectations, focusing attention on unusual aspects of his own behavior and the surrounding reality, we also change his behavior.

Bandura conducted his research in the clinic, treating patients with classic phobias - fear of snakes, spiders, heights. However, many of Bandura’s followers in different countries of the world have convincingly proven that Bandura’s ideas that cognitive factors, and primarily self-efficacy, can significantly control behavior can easily be transferred from the field of clinical therapy - the treatment of classical phobias - to the sphere of regulation social behavior. Lack of self-efficacy can be a significant obstacle to the formation of social competence and the formation of human activity. Under certain circumstances, lack of self-efficacy becomes the cause of neurotic disorders.

To measure self-efficacy, with the participation of Bandura, a test of general self-efficacy was developed, which currently exists in more than 20 national versions, including Russian. This test can be used in practical and scientific work, including for cross-cultural research and comparisons.

Methodology for determining self-efficacy

A method for determining a person’s self-efficacy was developed by scientists Medux and Scheer, which consists of constructing a self-efficacy scale.

The self-efficacy scale is a test of 10 statements that must be assessed according to the following parameters:

“Absolutely false” – 1 point;
“This is hardly true” – 2 points;
“Most likely true” – 3 points;
“Exactly true” – 4 points.

Test statements:

If I try hard enough, I can always find a solution to even a complex problem;
If something bothers me, I still find ways to achieve my goal;
I manage to achieve my goals quite easily;
In unexpected situations I always know how I should behave;
When unexpected difficulties arise, I believe that I can cope with them;
If I try hard enough, I can overcome most problems;
I am ready for any difficulties because I rely on my own abilities;
If I am faced with a problem, I usually find several options for solving it;
I can come up with something even in seemingly hopeless situations;
I'm usually able to keep things under control.

If you score up to 27, you have low self-efficacy; 27-35 points – average, and more than 35 points – high self-efficacy.

Human self-efficacy is divided into 2 types:

Social self-efficacy;
Academic (professional) self-efficacy.

Social self-efficacy lies in the individual’s confidence in communication, in the fact that he is competent in communication, and is able to constructively resolve any issues of a communicative nature. It is also confidence, which relates to building interpersonal relationships.

Professional self-efficacy is an individual’s confidence that in any chosen activity he will be able to effectively use his knowledge, skills and abilities. And in this matter he will achieve success and excellent results.

Self-efficacy as a professional quality of future educational psychologists

Bibliographic description:

Gonchar, S. N. Self-efficacy as a professional quality of future educational psychologists / S. N. Gonchar.
— Text: direct // Pedagogical skills: materials of the I International. scientific conf. (Moscow, April 2012). - Moscow: Buki-Vedi, 2012. - pp. 250-253. — URL: https://moluch.ru/conf/ped/archive/22/2163/ (access date: 10/08/2020). Currently, psychological science is shifting the emphasis from the problems of the individual’s weakness to the development of the individual’s potential and finding an internal resource that allows him to be a true subject of life. Modern society requires highly effective people who are able to correctly assess their own capabilities and the results of their activities (including professional ones). A subjective attitude towards the activity being performed is realized in a person’s appeal to his internal reserves, development potentials, possibilities for choosing means of action and building a specific strategy for activity, behavior and life in general. And this is determined by the self-efficacy of the individual.

In modern works devoted to the formation of professional self-awareness of future psychologists, the main attention is paid to the study of its cognitive and emotional-evaluative components, while in order to organize successful activities and achieve high results, another quality is necessary, namely self-efficacy.

The problem of self-efficacy has gained enormous popularity among foreign psychologists (A. Bandura, L. Kjell, D. Ziegler, J. Caprara, D. Servon). In domestic psychology, there is a process of theoretical understanding of this phenomenon and its empirical development (R.L. Krichevsky, M.V. Chistova, T.M. Malanina, T.O. Gordeeva).

The concept of self-efficacy was introduced by Albert Bandura in the 70s not so much as an explanation, but as a purposeful work on personality change. With the help of this concept, A. Bandura assessed the ability of people to realize their abilities and to use these abilities in the best possible way. A. Bandura noted that even with modest abilities, their skillful use allows a person to achieve high results. At the same time, having high potential does not automatically guarantee high results if a person does not believe in the possibility of applying this potential in practice [1].

R.L. Krichevsky defines self-efficacy as “...people’s confidence in their abilities to mobilize motivation, intellectual resources, and behavioral efforts to exercise control over events that influence their lives” [4].

According to T.O. Gordeeva, self-efficacy is “the subject’s belief in his ability to cope with a certain activity” [3].

Having summarized the theoretical materials, Gaidar K.M. clarified the definition of self-efficacy as follows: self-efficacy is a combination of a person’s ideas about his capabilities and abilities to be productive in carrying out upcoming activities, communication and his confidence that he will be able to realize himself in them and achieve the expected objective and subjective effect [2].

A group of American psychologists led by M. Scheer and J. Maddux [5] identified such types of self-efficacy as self-efficacy in the field of activity and in the field of communication. Consider these types of self-efficacy:

Self-efficacy in activity is a person’s ideas and confidence that he will be able to apply his knowledge, abilities, skills, experience, previously developed in a specific type of activity, in similar activities in the future and achieve success.

Self-efficacy in communication is a combination of a person's beliefs that he is competent in communication and his confidence that he can be a successful communicator who constructively solves communication problems.

In order to study the level of self-efficacy of future educational psychologists, we carried out the methodology of M. Scheer and J. Maddux [5]. This technique allows us to identify the level of self-efficacy of an individual and provides an opportunity to obtain information about an individual’s self-esteem and the degree of his self-realization.

93 students of the first and fourth years of the specialty “Pedagogy and Psychology” took part in the study. Analysis of the results showed that students have a predominant average level of self-efficacy both in activities (68%) and in communication (45%). This suggests that students, in general, are aware that they have the necessary professionally important qualities, but are not yet fully confident that they will be able to correctly use these qualities when performing the functions of a psychologist. The fact that the average level of self-efficacy prevails among respondents is natural, since the main condition for its development is successful professional activity. And students in the process of university education are only preparing to implement it. A high level of self-efficacy in the activity sphere was shown by 27% of students and in the communication sphere by 19% of students. Such students are characterized by awareness of their professional qualities and the ability to actualize them in their activities. And a low level of self-efficacy in the activity sphere was shown by 5% of students and in the sphere of communication and 36% of subjects. These results indicate that respondents are poorly aware of their professionally important qualities and are not confident that they will be able to use them as a functional tool in their future professional activities. This point is illustrated by a histogram of self-efficacy levels of future educational psychologists.

Histogram 1.

We analyzed the levels of self-efficacy development among students depending on the course of study. The data show that the dynamics of the development of students’ self-efficacy during their studies at the university is non-linear, i.e. this dynamic does not coincide from junior to senior years with a consistent increase in the level of self-efficacy from low to high. A decrease in the level of self-efficacy is recorded during crises in the professional development of future educational psychologists, coinciding with the time of study in the first and third years. This point is illustrated by histograms of levels 2 and 3 of self-efficacy of future educational psychologists.

Histogram 2.

Histogram 3.

We believe that it is necessary to pay special attention to the development of self-efficacy in first-year students, because in the process of adapting to studying at a university, as L.D. notes. Stolyarenko [6], experience many problems, namely: negative experiences associated with leaving the school team; uncertainty of motivation for choosing a profession, insufficient psychological preparation for it; inability to carry out psychological self-regulation of behavior and activity, aggravated by the lack of habit of daily control of teachers; searching for an optimal mode of work and rest in new conditions; establishing everyday life and self-care, especially when moving from home to a hostel; lack of independent work skills, inability to take notes, work with primary sources, dictionaries, reference books, etc. In order to successfully cope with the problems that arise, a freshman must have a sufficient level of self-efficacy development.

A. Bandura is convinced that self-efficacy can be developed both naturally in the course of life and a person’s accumulation of experience in successful actions or observing the success of others, and through specially organized psychological training. In order to increase the level of self-efficacy of first-year students at the stage of adaptation to university education, we conducted the “Life Navigation” course, developed by Professor, Doctor of Psychology A. S. Ognev. During this course, students search for solutions to professional and personal problems and learn to be ready to take responsibility for them; carry out self-assessment of work; use in practice knowledge of psychological and pedagogical theories related to the field of professional activity. Analysis of the data obtained showed the dynamics of the development of self-efficacy, this is illustrated by histogram 4.

Histogram 4.

In order to check the effectiveness of the “Life Navigation” course, we carried out a calculation using the Student’s t-test. The obtained empirical values in the sphere of activity and in the sphere of communication are equal to t (3.1) and t (4.9), respectively, and are in the zone of significance. Thus, the effectiveness of the Life Navigation course has been confirmed.

Since students’ self-efficacy is one of the most important components of their professional self-awareness and its effective development requires the subjective activity of the students themselves, as recommendations, we can advise future educational psychologists to develop the need for self-development and self-design of professional development, to actively engage in the development of professional activities already at stage of university education, engage in self-diagnosis, revealing one’s personal and professional resources, followed by building a program of professional self-education.

Literature:

Bandura A. Social learning theory / Albert Bandura. - St. Petersburg. : Eurasia, 2000. - 320 p.
Gaidar K.M. New contradictions and problems in the system of training professional psychologists / K.M. Gaidar // Psychology - XXI century. The role and place of the psychologist in the modern educational space / scientific. ed. K.M. Gaidar. - Voronezh: VSU, 2007. - P. 4-14.
Gordeeva T.O. Gender differences in academic and social self-efficacy and coping strategies among modern Russian teenagers / T.O. Gordeeva, E.A. Shepeleva // Vesti. Moscow un-ta. Ser. 14, Psychology. - 2006. - No. 3. - P. 78 -85.
Krichevsky R.L. Self-efficacy and acmeological approach to personality research / R.L. Krichevsky // Acmeology. - 2001. - No. 1. - P. 47-52.
Ognev A.S. Theoretical foundations of the psychology of subjectogenesis. – Voronezh, 1997 – 121 p.
Stolyarenko L.D. Psychology. Rostov-on-Don, “Phoenix”, 2003

Key terms
(automatically generated)
: student, sphere of communication, university education, Life navigation, self-efficacy, volume, level of self-efficacy, professional activity, combination of human ideas, field of activity.

Self-efficacy in psychology

The concept of self-efficacy in psychology is considered as a feeling of subjective self-efficacy and competence. It has nothing to do with self-esteem or self-esteem. This term was introduced into psychology by the scientist Bandura, who meant self-efficacy as a person’s sense of his abilities, the ability to cope with any difficult tasks and situations that arise during life.

Bandura said that if a person has faith in his own strengths and abilities, then failure to cope with certain tasks or situations leads to mental disorders. Self-confidence and self-efficacy are two different things. Realizing personal self-efficacy, a person can and is ready to make every effort to solve even the most difficult task.

Self-efficacy is a certain pattern of human thinking. High self-efficacy changes thinking and increases positive judgments about oneself. It also determines the strength and stability of motivation to act on the path to achieving a goal.

People with high self-efficacy consider themselves masters of their lives, they take responsibility for everything they do and understand that much in life depends on their decisions and actions. People with low self-efficacy attribute their failures to the influence of fate, karma, and magic. The development of self-efficacy influences a person's behavior. It is unlikely to grow from self-hypnosis or self-confidence. What is important here is a person’s successful experience, which influences the formation of certain beliefs about oneself and the ability to solve problems of any complexity.

Self-efficacy and self-control

Self-efficacy depends on the individual's level of self-control. On the one hand, self-control requires a lot of effort and time if an individual directs it to not doing or showing something, that is, to hide. On the other hand, self-control is necessary when performing the necessary actions that a person intends to perform to achieve the desired goals.

For self-efficacy, a person must be able to choose actions, plan, and control the implementation of what was planned. This is achieved through self-control, which in this case performs a useful function.

Self-efficacy factors

Self-efficacy is formed under the influence of the following main factors:

Experience of living your own success . This factor is the most powerful tool for developing self-efficacy, as it strengthens a person’s faith in himself, in his knowledge and abilities. A person becomes convinced that “I can.” This leads to more confident, proactive behavior. It is especially important if a person was able to achieve success on his own, only through his own efforts and work.
Example of other people's success also plays a big role. A person’s self-efficacy especially increases if he sees his similarities with other successful people. For example, I would have done the same thing or I made the same decision. I know this too and I can do it. The more similarities a person finds, the more his sense of self-efficacy strengthens.
Social approval and encouragement also have an effect on the development of self-efficacy, but this effect is short-lived. Every reasonable person realizes that his social status and authority in the eyes of others is a short-lived phenomenon. Then people switch to other objects. Criticism from a loved one can completely kill self-confidence.
If you experience a certain excitement or positive emotions as a result of performing any action , then of course this not only strengthens self-confidence, but also increases a person’s desire to experience a feeling of joy and satisfaction over and over again.

Aim for success and it will come

If a person expects success from his activities, then usually this activity leads to positive results. Low self-efficacy is associated with the expectation of failure, so all actions lead to failure and further increase in stress.

There is a very important concept called collective effectiveness. This is classifying oneself as a successful or not group. The effectiveness of a certain group is assessed not only by its own strengths, but also by what this group is capable of. For example, a group of “tough guys”, “poor people”, “teachers”, “medics”, etc. All groups differ in their ability to achieve success, defend their own or political views, and fight for their rights. Groups have the power to influence the social future and change situations for better or worse.

The concept of personal self-efficacy was tested experimentally by Bandura. He took two groups of students. Gave them a problem that had no solution. He told the first group that the problem was very difficult, and the second that it was simple and easily solved. As a result, the first group gave up very quickly. The second group did not give up for a long time and struggled with the answer. As a result, some students provided solutions to this problem. Of course, they were not faithful, but they went to the end and tried to convince them that they were right.

This is the psychological phenomenality of self-efficacy. Confidence in your own success or the success of your group can work wonders. People with high self-efficacy not only achieve all their goals, but are also able to change the future of society.