1. Bandura’s Self-Efficacy
Presented by Caley Foster

2. Outline Background Definition of Self-efficacy Reciprocal Determinism
Formation of Self-efficacy
Effects of Self-efficacy Beliefs
Self-efficacy & Job Performance
Implications for Trainers
Work Self-efficacy Inventory
Self-efficacy & Academics
Summary

3. Background on Self-efficacy
Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory
Expanded on Social Learning Theory (Miller & Dollard, 1941)
Actions and reactions of an individual are influenced by observed actions of others
Role of observational learning and social experience in personality development
Self-efficacy lies at the heart of this theory
Social cognitive theory stemmed out of work in the area of social learning theory proposed by Miller and Dollard in Their proposition posits that if one were motivated to learn a particular behavior, then that particular behavior would be learned through clear observations. By imitating these observed actions the individual observer would solidify that learned action and would be rewarded with positive reinforcement.
“People observe others acting within an environment whether natural or social. These observations are remembered by an individual and help shape social behaviors and cognitive processes. This theoretical approach proposes the idea that by changing how an individual learns their behaviors in the early stages of mental development could have a large impact on their mental processes in later stages of development. Since Self-efficacy is developed from external experiences and self-perception and is influential in determining the outcome of many events, it is an important aspect of social cognitive theory. Self-efficacy represents the personal perception of external social factors.” -Wikipedia

4. Self-efficacy Defined
“Perceived self-efficacy is defined as people’s beliefs about their capabilities to produce designated levels of performance that exercise influence over events that effect their lives” (Bandura, 1994).
High self-efficacy
Belief that one can perform well
Low self-efficacy
Belief that one lacks the ability to perform well
Bandura Perceived self-efficacy is concerned with people’s beliefs that they can exert control over their motivation, behavior, and social environment. It can be defined as people’s beliefs about their capabilities to produce designated levels of performance that exercise influence over events that effect their lives.
People’s beliefs about their capabilities affect what they choose to do, how much effort they mobilize, how long they will persevere in the face of difficulties, whether they engage in self-debilitating or self-encouraging thought patterns, and the amount of stress and depression they experience in taxing situations.
People with high self-efficacy believe that they can perform well. These people are more likely to view difficult tasks as something to be mastered than avoided.
People with low self-efficacy don’t have much faith in their performances. They express much self doubt in their performance, which causes them to avoid difficult tasks.

5. Reciprocal Determinism
Theory set forth by Bandura in 1986
View that (1) personal factors in the form of cognition, affect, & biological events, (2) behavior, and (c) environmental influences create interactions that result in a triadic reciprocality
Closely related to self-efficacy. What are some connections you can see?
Behavior is determined by the individual and the environment.
A child hates going to school, so he acts out in class. Because of that, teachers and school authority don’t like having the child in class/around them (which makes the process even worse, if the child is punished, I.e. another reason not to want to like school). This stage is known as reciprocal determinism, because the behavior factors and environmental factors coincide with the child.
This ties in with self-efficacy

6. Formation of Self-efficacy
Self-efficacy is formed in part through four major psychological processes
Cognitive
Motivational
Affective
Selection

7. Formation of Self-efficacy: Cognitive
Beliefs in efficacy shape the types of anticipatory scenarios they form and rehearse
High self-efficacy -- successful scenarios
Low self-efficacy -- dwell on possibility of failure, what can go wrong
Those with resilient sense of efficacy in face of difficult tasks set more challenging goals
Success gives confidence and competence, thus reaffirming high efficacy
Cognitive-- higher the efficacy, higher the goals. Then, when high goal is reached, efficacy is higher.
Beliefs in efficacy shape the types of anticipatory scenarios they form and rehearse. People with high self-efficacy visualize successful scenarios which support their performance. People who doubt their efficacy visualize failure scenarios and dwell on what could go wrong. Self-fulfiling prophesy.

8. Formation of Self-efficacy: Motivational
Attribution Theory
High-efficacy people attribute failures to insufficient effort.
Low-efficacy people attribute failure to low ability.
Expectancy-value theory expectations
High-Expect success; Low-expect failure
Goal-setting
Goals lower for low-efficacy
High-efficacy, higher goals, greater sense of achievement
Self-efficacy beliefs influence causal attributions. People who regard themselves as highly efficacious attribute their failures to insufficient effort, those who regard themselves as inefficacious attribute their failures to low ability. Causal attributions affect motivation, performance and affective reactions mainly through beliefs of self-efficacy.
Self-efficacy beliefs contribute to motivation in several ways: They determine the goals people set for themselves; how much effort they expend; how long they persevere in the face of difficulties; and their resilience to failures. When faced with obstacles and failures people who harbor self-doubts about their capabilities slacken their efforts or give up quickly. Those who have a strong belief in their capabilities exert greater effort when they fail to master the challenge. Strong perseverance contributes to performance accomplishments.

9. Formation of Self-efficacy: Affective
High-efficacy people generally feel less threatened by challenges and more likely to consider them exciting
Low-efficacy can produce depression and anxiety
A low sense of efficacy to exercise control produces depression as well as anxiety. It does so in several different ways. One route to depression is through unfulfilled aspiration. People who impose on themselves standards of self-worth they judge they cannot attain drive themselves to bouts of depression. A second efficacy route to depression is through a low sense of social efficacy.
Perceived self-efficacy to control thought processes is a key factor in regulating thought produced stress and depression. It is not the sheer frequency of disturbing thoughts but the perceived inability to turn them off that is the major source of distress. Both perceived coping self-efficacy and thought control efficacy operate jointly to reduce anxiety and avoidant behavior.

10. Formation of Self-efficacy: Selection Processes
People avoid activities and situations they believe exceed their coping capabilities.
People undertake challenging activities and select situations they consider themselves capable of handling.
How do you think high-efficacy and low-efficacy people are influenced by this?

11. Self-efficacy vs Self-efficacy Beliefs
”People's level of motivation, affective states, and actions are based more on what they believe than on what is objectively true.”
Effects of self-efficacy beliefs
Choice behavior
Effort expenditure and persistence
Thought patterns and emotional reactions
Humans as producers vs foretellers of behavior
Quote (Bandura, 1977)
Based on Albert Bandura’s “Social Foundations of Thought and Action” (1986)
Self-efficacy beliefs influence how people feel, think, motivate themselves, and act. They are critical determinants of how well knowledge and skill are acquired. I will further explain ways that self-efficacy beliefs can affect choice behavior, effort expenditure and persistance, thought patterns and emotional reactions, and the view of humans as producers rather than foretellers of behavior.
Self-efficacy versus self-efficacy beliefs, assessments, or expectations. Self-efficacy as a theoretically derived construct can be considered to be any or a combination of the above definitions, but is generally the notion of one’s complete concept of his or her ability to perform a type of task related to a particular context and domain. Self-efficacy beliefs or expectations, however, are the item-specific tasks and measurements of one’s beliefs that such tasks can be performed. Self-efficacy beliefs or expectations combine together to form one’s overall concept of self-efficacy.

12. Effects of Beliefs Explored: Choice Behavior
Tendency to avoid involvement in tasks where efficacy is low
Generally engage in tasks where efficacy is high
High-efficacy/low skill can result in irreparable harm
Low-efficacy/high skill doesn’t allow for growth
Accurate self-efficacy is important. Misconceptions regarding efficacy and skill level can be harmful or restrictive to an individual. A person who has high self-efficacy but low skill level can result in irreparable harm. Someone with low self-efficacy and a high skill level will not grow and develop. The most functional self-efficacy judgments are probably those that only slightly exceed skill level/what one can actually do at any given time. Why do you think this is so?

13. Effects of Beliefs Explored: Effort Expenditure & Persistence
Stronger perceived self-efficacy results in more vigorous/persistent efforts
Individuals with high self-efficacy may feel less of a need to invest much effort in preparation
When applying skills, high-efficacy intensifies and maintains the effort required to realize a difficult performance
Difficult for someone with low-efficacy
High self-efficacy can be a double-edged sword, because people with high self-efficacy may not feel the need to invest much preparatory effort, but this could result in lower levels of performance, which may alter their perception of their efficacy.
Self doubt, on the other hand, creates an impetus for learning, but it hinders adept use of previously established skills.

14. Effects of Beliefs Explored: Thought Patterns & Emotional Reactions
Low-efficacy individuals believe things are more difficult than they actually are
Creates stress and narrow vision
High-efficacy people devote attention and energy to demands of the situation and perceive obstacles as challenges
High-efficacy people attribute failure to insufficient effort
Low-efficacy people relate failure to deficient ability
Low self-efficacy individuals believe things are more difficult than they actually are
Creates stress and narrow vision
High self-efficacy people devote attention and energy to demands of the situation and perceive obstacles as challenges
Causal thinking is also influenced.
High-efficacy people attribute failure to insufficient effort
Low-efficacy people relate failure to deficient ability

15. Effects of Beliefs Explored: Behavior Producers vs Foretellers
People with high self-efficacy act, think, and feel differently from those with low self-efficacy. They create their own futures, rather than foretell it.

16. Self-efficacy & Job Performance
r =.38 for self-efficacy and work-related performance
Skills unaccompanied by positive self-efficacy will lead to deficient or absent performance.
Low-efficacy individuals are more stressed and unhappier than high-efficacy people
High-efficacy/High-skill people may lack the incentive to perform well.
Task uncertainty can mislead efficacy judgments
Stajkovic and Luthans (1998) did a meta-analysis and found a moderate correlation of .38 between self-efficacy and work- related performance.
Low-efficacy individuals are more stressed and unhappier than high-efficacy people
High-efficacy/High-skill people may lack the incentive to perform well. "When performances are impeded by disincentives, inadequate resources, or external constraints, self-judged efficacy will exceed the actual performance" (p. 396). That is, individuals may express that they are capable, but they will fail to perform because they feel impeded by these constraints.
When individuals are uncertain about the nature of their task, their efficacy judgments can mislead them. Tasks perceived as more difficult or demanding than they really are result in inaccurate low efficacy readings, whereas those perceived as less difficult may result in overconfidence. Individuals often perceive their abilities as only partially mastered, feeling more competent about some components than about others. How they focus on and appraise these components will strongly affect their sense of efficacy about the task to be undertaken.If obscure aims and performance ambiguity are perceived, sense of efficacy is of little use in predicting behavioral outcomes, for individuals do not have a clear idea of how much effort to expend, how long to sustain it, and how to correct missteps and misjudgments. The aims of a task and the performance levels required for successful execution must be accurately appraised for self-efficacy judgments to serve as useful regulators and predictors of performance. This factor is especially relevant in situations where an individual's "accomplishment is socially judged by ill-defined criteria so that one has to rely on others to find out how one is doing" (Bandura, 1986, p. 398). In such situations, people lack the experience to accurately assess their sense of efficacy and have no option but to gauge their abilities from knowledge of other experiences, often a very poor indicator and predictor of the required performance. This faulty self-knowledge can have unpredictable results.

17. Implications for Trainers
Self-efficacy is strengthened through a combination of practice and the conditions and consequences that accompany the practice of such skills.
Disparities in self-efficacy will occur if efficacy is measured for a simulated situation and performance is measured in a real situation, or vice versa.
5 ways to strengthen efficacy
Performance mastery
Task-diagnostic feedback
Modeling
Social persuasion
Inference from physiological information
Robert Mager -1992
Given the debilitating effects of low self-efficacy on job performance, trainers should make efforts to increase self-efficacy in low SE individuals. SE can be strengthened through practice and through the conditions and consequences that accompany the practice of the skills to be learned.
Robert Mager recommends five ways to strengthen self-efficacy.
Performance mastery--For performance mastery to have maximum effect on SE, feedback needs to be constructive, and people must learn that they are the cause of their performance. That way feedback will have a positive effect on their perception of competence.
Task-diagnostic feedback--In the self-diagnostic mode, people interpret negative feedback as an indication of personal deficiencies and imagine all kinds of disasters. They perceive failures as a reflection on their basic aptitude. They may also blame others when they fail: "They got in my way." "They didn't give me enough time."In the self-diagnostic mode, people focus on the task to be performed. They interpret feedback and failure as information they can use to improve task performance. They are learning-oriented. They don't see failure as evidence of incompetence or lack of ability to learn. As this is the more productive approach, it is important to keep trainees task-diagnostic rather than self-diagnostic.
Modeling--Self-efficacy can be improved when trainees watch others like themselves performing competently. The more similar the model is to the trainee, the greater the modeling effect, Performance similarity & attribute similarity
Social persuasion--What must be understood is that your own comments and actions are always influencing the SE of your trainees, either favorably or unfavorably. You cannot choose to use or not use social persuasion. That's why it's so important to be careful about your comments and actions while you are in the presence of trainees.
Inference from physiological information--People will infer ability, or the lack of it, from physiological cues: windedness, aches, pains, effort, emotional arousal, and so on. If they have to work hard to achieve, they may interpret that fact as a lack of personal ability rather than a normal state of affairs. Sicknesses and temperature has an effect.

18. The Work Self-Efficacy Inventory (WS-Ei)
Dr. Joe Raelin developed the Work Self-efficacy Inventory (WS-Ei) to measure a range of behaviors/practices related to self-efficacy in the workplace.
Seven 5-point Likert-type scales
Not at all Confident to Completely Confident
30 items in 7 dimensions and composite score
M = 3.8, SD =.6
Cronbach’s Alpha ~.80 for subscores & composite
Strong convergent & divergent validity
Two forms - self or other
Seven dimensions:
Learning: confidence in being able to learn productively on the job.
-Problem-Solving: confidence in solving problems in the workplace.
- Pressure: confidence in coping with stress as well as with time and schedule pressures.
- Role Expectations: confidence in understanding and fulfilling one痴 role(s) assigned at work.
� Teamwork: confidence in working well within a team environment.
- Sensitivity: confidence in demonstrating sensitivity to others in the workplace.
- Work Politics: confidence in scoping out and managing organizational politics and traditions.
- General Work Self-Efficacy: confidence in managing oneself well in the workplace.
Norms for the WS-Ei have set the average score for each of the dimensions and the overall composite score at 3.8 with a standard deviation of .6. The inventory has been submitted to both exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and has consistently shown itself to be highly reliable (with Cronbach Alphas in the .80 range for both subscores and overall score) and to have strong convergent and discriminant validity.
Self version completed by respondent. 30 statements each based on the stem to reflect respondent’s confidence in ability to perform variety of workplace activities. Other version is single item test.

19. WS-Ei sample

20. Self-efficacy & Academics
Beliefs students create, develop, and hold to be true about themselves greatly contribute to success or failure in school
Most influential is a student’s mastery experience
Interpretation of performance-success or failure
Vicarious experience emphasizes teacher’s role
Self-efficacy beliefs influence college students’ choices of majors and career decisions
Efficacy beliefs of teachers are related to their instructional practices, which in turn relate to student outcomes
Students’ academic self-efficacy beliefs strongly influence academic performance and achievement
Bandura’s theories have been applied to the academic setting and used to understand student success or failure in relationship to self-efficacy. The beliefs that students create, develop, and hold to be true about themselves greatly contribute to their success or failure in school. Most influential is their mastery experience, which involves their interpretation of their own performance. Students who perform well on tests and assignments and earn high grades are likely to develop a strong sense of confidence in their academic abilities, and their success typically raises self-efficacy. Poor grades and school performance weakens their self-efficacy.
Vicarious experience emphasizes the teacher’s role. A good teacher will help a student attain higher levels of self-efficacy.
Self-efficacy beliefs influence college students’ choices of majors and career decisions. Some people use this to explain why more men are in math than women. Social influences would play a role here.

21. Summary
Self-efficacy is one’s belief about his/her capabilities to perform
Self-efficacy beliefs can influence behaviors in the workplace, academics, etc
Efforts should be taken to increase self-efficacy in individuals

22. Questions? Comments?