Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Self‐efficacy is the extent to which a person feels capable and effective in a particular domain in life or in accomplishing a particular task. Self‐efficacy theory ( Bandura, 1982 ) states that self‐efficacy is a major determinant of individual motivation and performance. People who have high self‐efficacy believe that they are able to successfully perform a task and should put forth more effort and persist longer at a task. Individuals who have low self‐efficacy, however, do not believe in their ability to perform a task well and as a result, have lower motivation and put forth less effort. Self‐efficacy is domain/task specific. In other words, a person can have different levels of self‐efficacy for various domains/tasks. For example, an engineer may have high self‐efficacy for dealing with the technical demands of work, but low self‐efficacy for dealing with people. This would explain why some engineers are perceived as having poor social skills, although they make valuable technical contributions. The theory would predict that engineers would put forth greater effort on the technical aspects of their work than the interpersonal aspects. The concept of self‐efficacy is somewhat like the expectancy theory concept of expectancy. The difference is that expectancy concerns people's beliefs about their ability to accomplish a task at a given point in time in a specific situation. ... log in or subscribe to read full text