Self-Efficacy Theory
Bandura's construct: belief in one's ability to execute behaviors needed for outcomes.
Self-Efficacy Theory, introduced by Albert Bandura in his 1977 paper 'Self-Efficacy: Toward a Unifying Theory of Behavioral Change' and substantially elaborated in Self-Efficacy: The Exercise of Control (1997), holds that an individual's belief in their capability to execute the behaviors needed to produce specific outcomes is a central determinant of whether the behaviors are attempted, sustained, and successful. Self-efficacy is distinguished from outcome expectations (beliefs about what an action will produce) and from self-esteem (global self-evaluation), and is task-specific — one can be high in self-efficacy for public speaking and low for arithmetic. Four primary sources of self-efficacy belief are mastery experiences (own past successes, the strongest source), vicarious experiences (modeling), social persuasion, and physiological/affective states. The construct has been validated extensively across health behavior, academic performance, athletic performance, work performance, phobic avoidance, and clinical populations, and provides the operational core for many evidence-based interventions including motivational interviewing and cognitive-behavioral therapy.
Core components
- Self-efficacy (capability belief) distinct from outcome expectations
- Task-specific rather than global
- Four sources: mastery experiences (most powerful), vicarious experiences (modeling), social persuasion, physiological/affective states
- Process effects (self-efficacy influences cognitive, motivational, affective, decisional processes)
- Collective efficacy extension
- Integration with Social Cognitive Theory
Primary use case
Foundation construct in health psychology, educational psychology, organizational psychology, sport psychology, and clinical psychology; underpins many evidence-based interventions; framework for designing skill-building experiences (mastery), modeling (vicarious), and persuasion; assessment of motivation and persistence; integration in CBT and motivational interviewing.
Common criticisms
- Substantial measurement variation across studies — task-specific self-efficacy scales are often constructed ad hoc, limiting comparability
- risk of conflation with confidence, optimism, or self-esteem in popular use
- reverse-causality concerns (does success cause self-efficacy or vice versa) addressed but not always satisfied in correlational studies
- modest effect sizes when measured properly, often inflated by common-method bias in self-report studies
- cultural variation in self-belief norms underweighted
- over-emphasis on individual belief can underplay structural and resource constraints
- widely cited but inconsistently operationalized.
Lineage
- Child of
- Social Learning Theory
- Siblings
- Social Learning Theory, Self-Determination Theory, Fogg Behavior Model
- Derived from
- Social Learning Theory