Self efficacy theory Flashcards
What is self-efficacy
Self-efficacy refers to the belief we have in our ability to carry out an action or task.
Who proposed the different influences that would affect self-efficacy?
Bandura
What do people with high self-efficacy believe?
People with high self-efficacy believe they will be successful and therefore are more strongly motivated to tackle difficult tasks.
What do people with low self-efficacy believe?
People with low self-efficacy believe they will fail and therefore avoid such challenges.
Name the four main sources of self-efficacy? (4)
Mastery experiences
Vicarious reinforcement
Social persuasion
Emotional states
Mastery experiences and give an example.
These involve a person’s past experience of success and failure. For example, some who has experienced success will be more confident about succeeding in the future.
Vicarious reinforcement
These consist of comparing yourself with others and judging your own competence according to them.
Social persuasion influences
These can be increased when others encourage the person that they can be successful.
Emotional influences.
These relate to an increase in anxiety when the person believes that they cannot do it .
Give one strength of the self-efficacy theory.
It can be used to reduce stress and depression in lots of people by encouraging their resilience and improving their mental health.
Give one weakness of the self-efficacy theory.
High efficacy can sometimes lead to an individual applying less effort as it can lead to overconfidence in attitude thinking that they know more about the health-related behaviour than they do which results in less effort being applied.
