The role of self-efficacy in motivation and performance has been increasingly explored since Bandura’s (1977a, 1977b) original publications. Self-efficacy refers to, “People’s judgments of their capabilities to organise and execute courses of action required to attain designated types of performances” (Bandura, 1986, p. 391). Stated differently, we might say that self-efficacy involves one’s beliefs about accomplishing a task. Research shows that self-efficacy predicts such outcomes as cognitive skill learning, smoking cessation, pain tolerance, athletic performance, career choices, assertiveness, coping with feared events, recovery from heart attack, and sales performance (Bandura, 1986; Maddux, 1993; Schunk, 1989).
Self-efficacy Theory
Bandura (1977a) hypothesized that self-efficacy affects choice of activities, effort, persistence, and achievement. Compared with persons who doubt their capabilities, those with high self-efficacy for accomplishing a task participate more readily, work harder, persist longer when they encounter difficulties, and achieve at a higher level. People acquire information to appraise self-efficacy from their performances, vicarious (observational) experiences, forms of persuasion, and physiological reactions. One’s performances offer reliable guides for assessing self-efficacy. Successes raise efficacy and failures lower it, but once a strong sense of efficacy is developed a failure may not have much impact (Bandura, 1986).
Allowing individuals to set goals can raise self-efficacy, motivation, and performance, presumably because self-set goals enhance goal commitment. Schunk (1985) gave learning-disabled sixth graders subtraction instruction. Some set daily performance goals, others had comparable goals assigned, and those in a third condition worked without goals. Self-set goals led to the highest judgments of confidence for attaining goals (a type of self-efficacy measure), as well as the highest levels of self-efficacy and skilful performance.
