Glossary
Self Efficacy
What is self-efficacy?
Self-efficacy is your belief that you can perform a particular task or handle a particular situation. You might feel confident cooking dinner and completely out of your depth giving a speech.
How it develops
Bandura's theory describes four sources of self-efficacy:
- Mastery experiences: succeeding at the task yourself. These are successes you can look back on as evidence of what you can do.
- Vicarious experiences: observing other people succeed at the task.
- Verbal persuasion: receiving encouragement about your capability.
- Physical and emotional states: interpreting experiences such as stress or tiredness when judging whether you can manage the task.
Self-efficacy and behavior change
Believing you can do something can influence whether you attempt it and how much effort you put in. But belief and ability are different. Confidence works best as a realistic judgment supported by the skills, resources, and opportunities the task requires.
Verbal persuasion about capability is one technique that uses encouragement to support this belief.