DEFINITION
Self-efficacy
Self-efficacy is a person’s belief in his or her ability to complete a task or achieve a goal. It includes self-confidence and the ability to control one’s behavior, influence the environment and stay motivated in pursuing a goal. People can have self-efficacy in a variety of situations and domains, such as school, work, relationships, and other important areas.
When faced with a challenge, do you feel you can rise up and achieve your goal, or do you give in to failure? Are you like the locomotive from the classic children’s book («I think I can, I think I can!»), or maybe you doubt your own ability to rise up and overcome the difficulties that life throws your way? If you tend to keep going despite obstacles, you probably have a high degree of self-efficacy.
Self-efficacy is important because it plays a role in how you feel about yourself and whether you are successful in achieving your life goals. The concept of self-efficacy is central to Albert Bandura’s social cognitive theory, which emphasizes the role of observational learning, social experience, and reciprocal determinism in personality development.
According to Bandura, self-efficacy is part of the self-system, which consists of a person’s attitudes, abilities and cognitive skills. This system plays a major role in how we perceive and respond to various situations. Self-efficacy is an essential part of this self system.
Basics of self-efficacy
According to Albert Bandura, self-efficacy is «the belief in one’s own ability to organize and carry out the actions necessary to cope with potential situations.» Self-efficacy is a person’s belief in his or her ability to succeed in a particular situation. Such beliefs play a role in determining how people think, behave and feel.
Since Bandura published his groundbreaking article in 1977, «Self-efficacy: Toward a Unifying Theory of Behavior Change», this topic has become one of the most researched topics in psychology. Why has self-efficacy become such an important topic among psychologists and educators?
As Bandura and other researchers have shown, self-efficacy can influence everything from mental states to behavior to motivation. Self-efficacy describes what goals we pursue, how we achieve them, and how we reflect on our own performance.
Our belief in our own ability to succeed plays a role in how we think, how we behave, and how we feel about our place in the world.
The role of self-efficacy
Virtually all people can identify goals they want to achieve, things they would like to change, and things they would like to achieve. However, most people also realize that putting these plans into action is not that easy. Bandura et al. found that an individual’s self-efficacy plays a major role in how he or she approaches goals, tasks, and challenges.
It’s good to have high self-efficacy. People with a strong sense of self-efficacy:
Develop a deeper interest in the activities in which they participate
Create a stronger sense of commitment to your interests and activities
Recover quickly from setbacks and disappointments
Treat difficult problems as tasks to be mastered
On the other hand, low self-efficacy can have many harmful effects. People with poor self-efficacy:
Avoid difficult tasks
They believe that difficult tasks and situations are beyond their capabilities
Focus on personal failures and negative outcomes
Quickly lose faith in your personal abilities
Self-efficacy, self-esteem and self-confidence
Self-efficacy is sometimes confused with self-esteem, but there are important differences between them. What is the difference between self-efficacy and self-esteem? Self-efficacy refers to how you feel about your ability to succeed in various situations, while self-esteem refers to your respect for your own worth and value.
Is self-efficacy the same as self-confidence? Although these two terms are related, there are some important differences. Self-confidence is more general and refers to a person’s overall belief in themselves in all contexts. On the other hand, self-efficacy is more specific and context-dependent. A person may have high self-efficacy in one area (e.g., academics) and low self-efficacy in other areas (e.g., sports).
Research suggests that self-efficacy is a predictor of self-esteem. In other words, people with high self-efficacy also tend to have high self-esteem and vice versa.
How does self-efficacy develop?
We begin to develop our sense of self-efficacy in early childhood, coping with various experiences, tasks and situations. However, growth in self-efficacy does not end in youth but evolves throughout life as people gain new skills, experiences and understanding.
What are the four types of self-efficacy?
Bandura identified four main sources of self-efficacy. The four ways to achieve self-efficacy are mastery experiences, social modeling, social persuasion, and psychological responses.
SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS
Self-awareness is the ability to perceive and understand the things that make you who you are as an individual, including your personality, actions, values, beliefs, emotions, and thoughts. Essentially, it is a mental state in which the self becomes the center of attention.
While self-awareness is crucial to who you are, it’s not something you focus on every moment of every day. Instead, self-awareness becomes woven into the fabric of who you are and emerges at different times, depending on the situation and your personality.
This is one of the first elements of self-concept to emerge. People are not born completely aware of themselves. However, evidence suggests that infants do have a rudimentary sense of self-awareness.
Babies are aware that they are separate beings from others, as evidenced by behaviors such as the doting reflex, during which the baby searches for a nipple when something brushes against their face. Scientists have also found that even newborns can distinguish between their own touch and the touch of others.
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Development of self-awareness
Research has shown that a more complex sense of self-awareness emerges around the first year of life and becomes much more developed by around 18 months of age. Researchers Lewis and Brooks-Gunn conducted research examining how self-awareness develops.
The researchers placed a red dot on the baby’s nose and then held it up to a mirror. Children who recognized themselves in the mirror reached for their noses rather than for their reflection, indicating that they had at least some level of self-awareness.
Lewis and Brooks-Gunn found that almost no child under the age of one would reach for their own nose instead of their reflection in a mirror.
About 25% of infants aged 15 to 18 months reached for their nose, compared to about 70% of infants aged 21 to 24 months.
It should be noted that the Lewis and Brooks-Gunn study only indicates infant visual self-awareness; children may in fact have other forms of self-awareness even at this early stage in life. For example, researchers Lewis, Sullivan, Stanger, and Weiss suggested that the expression of emotions involves self-awareness as well as the ability to think about oneself in relation to other people.
Scientists have proposed that an area of the brain called the anterior cingulate cortex, located in the frontal lobe, plays an important role in developing self-awareness. Research has also used brain imaging to show that this region is activated in adults who are self-aware.
The Lewis and Brooks-Gunn experiment suggests that self-awareness begins to emerge in children around 18 months of age, an age that coincides with the rapid growth of spindle cells in the anterior cingulate cortex.
However, one study found that a patient retained self-awareness even with extensive damage to areas of the brain, including the insula and anterior cingulate cortex.
This suggests that these brain regions are not required for most aspects of self-awareness and that awareness may instead result from distributed interactions between brain networks.
Levels of self-awareness
So how exactly do children become aware of themselves as separate beings? One major theory of self-awareness, introduced by developmental psychologist Philippe Rochat, suggests that there are five levels of self-awareness. Children go through the following stages from birth until about 4 or 5 years of age:
Differentiation : The child begins to recognize his or her own reflection. They may discover that there is something different or special about looking at their reflection.
Situation : The child begins to recognize his own reflection, being and movements as separate from what surrounds him.
Identification : This is the stage during which the child fully knows that he or she is his or her own reflection in the mirror. They know: «This is me .»
Persistence : They have a complete sense of self and can identify themselves in photos or videos even when their appearance changes.
Self-awareness : the child takes a third-person point of view of himself; they realize that others perceive them in a certain way. This may result in feelings such as pride or shame.
Types of self-awareness
Psychologists often divide self-awareness into two different types: public and private.
Public self-awareness
This type occurs when people are conscious of how they appear to others. Public self-awareness usually occurs in situations where people are in the spotlight.
This type of self-awareness often forces people to conform to social norms. When we are aware that we are being watched and judged, we often try to behave in a socially acceptable and desirable way.
Social self-consciousness can also lead to judgment anxiety, in which people become depressed, anxious, or worried about how they are perceived by others.
Examples of public self-awareness
You can experience public self-awareness in the workplace when you give a big presentation. You can also experience this by telling a story to a group of friends.
Private self-awareness
This type occurs when people become aware of certain aspects of themselves, but only in a private way. For example, seeing your face in the mirror is a type of private self-awareness.
Examples of private self-awareness
The sinking feeling in your stomach when you realize you forgot to study for an important test or the fluttering feeling in your heart when you see someone you like are also examples of private self-awareness.
Role play: MAKING ETHICAL DECISIONS
Self-efficacy – exercise: https://wordwall.net/pl/resource/56962863
Self efficacy video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xF60mBAkjcc
self-awareness – exercise: https://wordwall.net/pl/resource/56961188
self-awareness – video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmxZS4Cl5Mk
MATERIALS Self-awareness:
MATERIALS self-efficacy:
excelatlife.com/questionnaires/self-efficacy.htm
BOOKS
Bandura, a.: Self-efficacy: exercising control .
Commons, M. L. and Richards, F. a.: « Self-awareness: Its nature and development «.
Schunk, D. H., and Zimmerman, B. J.: «The Power of Self-Efficacy: Implications for Teaching and Learning.»
Schwarzer, R.: « Self-efficacy: control of thoughts over actions ».
Goleman, D.: » Emotional intelligence: why it may matter more than IQ .»
Conklin, T.D. and Lunenburg, F.C.: « Self-Government and Leadership Development «.
LINKS TO THE WEBSITE
Entrepreneur .
Harvard Business Review – Leadership and People Management .
Stanford Social Innovation Review .
Forbes Leadership .
Inc. Leadership .
TED Talks – Leadership .
MIT Sloan Management Review – Leadership .
Harvard Business School – Leadership and Values .
Business News Daily – Leadership .
