ACHIEVING YOUR GOALS & SELF-EFFICACY

"People who regard themselves as highly efficacious act, think, and feel differently from those who perceive themselves as inefficacious. They produce their own future, rather than simply foretell it."

-Albert Bandura-

Self-Efficacy is our belief in our capabilities to organise and perform actions in order to achieve specific goals. The above quote from Albert Bandura, the leading psychologist in self-efficacy theory, describes just how powerful a strongly perceived sense of self-efficacy can be.

Defining a strong sense of self-efficacy

A person with a powerful sense of self-efficacy will typically approach any challenge with a sense of relish, actively seeking goals with which they can fully engage. They concentrate on mastering the skills necessary to achieve their chosen goal and are not easily deterred. Any setback is perceived as temporary and will be viewed as an opportunity to strengthen knowledge and skills in order to master the specific challenge. This results in a confident 'I can do it' approach. Individuals with a strong sense of self-efficacy are more able to manage their emotional states because they perceive stress to be something they can deal with easily. As a result, the immune system is enhanced and physical health is improved.


Defining a perceived lack of self-efficacy
A person with little belief in their efficacy typically has a greater focus on risk and possible failure than positive outcomes and is therefore more likely to avoid challenging situations. Where goal setting is concerned their concentration is drawn towards failings rather than abilities and recovery from setback is less than easy. They tend to give up on goals more easily due to minimal belief in their abilities. The negative consequences of stress, including depression, are more prevalent amongst those with a lower sense of self- efficacy.


How we develop beliefs about efficacy
There are four major influences on how we develop self-efficacy, these are:

• mastery experiences


• vicarious experiences


• social persuasion


• reduce and alter reactions to stress

Mastery experiences

Experiences of success are the most effective way to build a strong sense of efficacy. Setting a goal and achieving it helps us to master specific knowledge and skills, developing the belief that we can capably use such skills for future goal setting.

Vicarious experiences

Through watching people we perceive to be similar to ourselves and observing them achieve their goals we increase our beliefs that we too can meet such challenges successfully. Perceived similarity plays a significant role here. The more we perceive ourselves to be like our model the more strongly we are influenced by our observations of their successess and failures. If we observe success our belief that we too can succeed is strengthened. If failure is observed, we are more likely to believe the task will be equally difficult for us. Such modelling also provides an opportunity to learn the skills and knowledge necessary for success.

Social persuasion

This is where an individual is able to assuage the self doubt of another, who possesses a low sense of self-efficacy, strengthening belief in their ability to succeed. Such encouragement results in increased effort to persevere and realise goals.

Reduce and alter reactions to stress

Reactions to physical and emotional states is also significant in how an individual judges their capabilities. Those with a strong sense of self-efficacy will perceive their reactions to physical fatigue as a challenge, enabling them to feel energized and focused on achieving goals. Those with a lower sense of self-efficacy perceive physical challenge and fatigue as evidence of their inabilities and deficiencies. Reactions to stress are dealt with in a similar vein, those with a lower sense of self-efficacy interpret stress as being indicative of an inability to perform whereas individuals with a strong sense of self-efficacy perceive stress within a more positive framework.

"Persons who have a strong sense of efficacy deploy their attention and effort to the demands of the situation and are spurred by obstacles to greater effort."

-Albert Bandura-