Glossary

Self efficacy

Αυτοαποτελεσματικότητα

Your belief that you can bring about one particular result. It is specific rather than general, so it is not the same as confidence, and it is built mainly from your own record of having handled something demanding rather than from what you were told about yourself.

Also known asmastery experience, vicarious experience
Named byAlbert Bandura (1977)
Belongs to the skillResilience
Level2

How to spot it

Ask what you did in the last month that you were not sure you could do. If nothing comes back, the belief has had nothing to feed on, and no amount of encouragement will stand in for it.

The research behind the term

The term is not our invention. It comes from published research, and what follows is what that research found — our own synthesis of the published abstract, not a translation of the original.

Bandura, A. (1997). Self-Efficacy: The Exercise of Controlπηγή

This work presents the concept of self-efficacy, that is, a person's belief that they can attain a goal. High self-efficacy is associated with greater persistence, better learning and higher performance.

Practised in

The term does not stay a definition. It appears inside missions where the pattern happens in real time and you have to recognise it as it happens to you.

  • The Easier Task

    Level 2

Sources

Every claim on this page maps to published research. The citations link to the original source.

  1. Bandura, A. (1997). Self-Efficacy: The Exercise of Control — Source on macmillanlearning.com