Belief in one’s own effectiveness (self-efficacy) is a person’s belief that in a difficult situation he will be able to demonstrate successful behavior. Similar concepts — Faith in yourself, faith in your strength, faith in your success and good luck.
Believing in efficiency is believing that certain behaviors will lead to certain results, plus believing in myself that I will be the one to do it.
The study of belief in one’s own effectiveness was carried out by Albert Bandura. He developed a test of general self-efficacy, which currently exists in more than 20 national versions, including Russian.
Concept boundaries
- Self-efficacy is an assessment of one’s own ability to cope with certain tasks, and not a personality trait;
- The idea of self-efficacy is a private, specific, and not a global characteristic of an individual; it is not associated with an assessment of one’s own personality, as, for example. self-esteem, but reflects the confidence of the individual to cope with specific tasks;
- Self-efficacy depends on the context of the activity, so many factors can influence the activity of the subject, and, consequently, his sense of self-efficacy;
- When measuring self-efficacy, the criteria of skill and competence are used, and not normative or other comparative characteristics;
- Self-efficacy is the expectation of personal mastery in solving future problems, so self-efficacy is measured before a person begins to perform any activity;
- Self-efficacy is understood as a judgment about the actions that a person can take, regardless of the value that he attaches to them.
What influences self-efficacy
Believing in your own effectiveness is essential for success, as well as for mental health and well-being.
If, for example, someone does not believe in their attractiveness to the opposite sex and their self-efficacy in the field of dating is low, they will come to the party in a bad mood, spoil the mood of those around them with their frown, and their attempt to meet someone will almost certainly fail. The negative consequences of an attempt to get acquainted will be perceived in detail, which will further reduce self-confidence.
If faith in one’s abilities is high, then a person will go to a party in a good mood, expecting a fun pastime, an attempt to get acquainted will receive a positive development, which in turn will strengthen self-efficacy in the field of dating and facilitate subsequent acquaintances.
Consequences of believing in one’s own effectiveness:
- What you believe is what you get. A person mainly 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. (Science: Performance expectations correlate at a high level of significance with actual behavior.)
- According to his faith, his behavior will be. Through the assessment of expectations and the level of self-efficacy, it is possible to accurately predict actual behavior. After listening to the client and carefully analyzing his words, we can already guess how exactly he will behave in a given situation. By changing his expectations, focusing on the unusual aspects of his own behavior and the surrounding reality, we also change his behavior.
What influences self-efficacy
The following circumstances influence the formation of faith in one’s own abilities:
1. The presence of a more or less wide repertoire of behavioral skills.
2. Own experience of achievements.
Achieved success reinforces the feeling of self-efficacy to a lesser extent if the task was easy than if it was difficult. The feeling of self-efficacy also increases to a greater extent if success is achieved independently and if the person went to it, overcoming difficulties through persistent efforts.
3. Experience gained through observation of other people (physical or symbolic following of the model).
Self-efficacy increases when a person watches others succeed at difficult tasks and decreases when he sees others like him (equally competent) repeatedly fail despite persistent efforts. Indirect experience (experience of other people) is especially important when there is uncertainty about one’s own ability to perform some task.
4. Beliefs expressed by others — verbal reinforcement or punishment.
Persuasion gives only a short-term and weak effect, its strength is limited by the perceived status, authority and degree of trust and respect for the one who has a verbal impact.
5. Physical, psychological, emotional state.
A person always evaluates his emotional state in one way or another: fear, calmness, excitement in conflict situations — and this affects the assessment of his own behavioral abilities.
Successes, positive experience increase faith in one’s own abilities, negative experience lowers it. However, it is important how a person comprehends his experience, what he focuses on — success or failure. Despite the fear, the first time he tried to get acquainted, he was refused. Consider it as a negative experience (refusal) or as a positive one (still decided to try!)?