510 Part VI Learning-Cognitive Theories
reduce environmental pollution, hazardous working conditions, or the threat of infec-
tious disease.
Bandura (1998b) pointed out that different cultures have different levels of
collective efficacy and work more productively under different systems. For exam-
ple, people in the United States, an individualistic culture, feel greater self-efficacy
and work best under an individually oriented system, whereas people in China, a
collectivist culture, feel greater collective efficacy and work best under a group-
oriented system.
Bandura (1997, 1998b, 2001) lists several factors that can undermine collec-
tive efficacy. First, humans live in a transnational world; what happens in one part
of the globe can affect people in other countries, giving them a sense of helpless-
ness. Destruction of the Amazon rain forests, international trade policies, or deple-
tion of the ozone layers, for example, can affect the lives of people everywhere
and undermine their confidence to shape a better world for themselves.
Second, recent technology that people neither understand nor believe that
they can control may lower their sense of collective efficacy. In past years, many
motorists, for example, had confidence in their ability to keep their car in running
condition. With the advent of computerized controls in modern automobiles, many
moderately skilled mechanics not only have lost personal efficacy for repairing
their vehicle but also have low collective efficacy for reversing the trend toward
more and more complicated automobiles.
A third condition undermining collective efficacy is the complex social
machinery, with layers of bureaucracy that prevent social change. People who
attempt to change bureaucratic structures are often discouraged by failure or by
the long lapse of time between their actions and any noticeable change. Having
become discouraged, many people, “rather than developing the means for shaping
their own future,... grudgingly relinquish control to technical specialists and to
public officials” (Bandura, 1995, p. 37).
Fourth, the tremendous scope and magnitude of human problems can under-
mine collective efficacy. Wars, famine, overpopulation, crime, and natural disasters
are but a few of the global problems that can leave people with a sense of power-
lessness. Despite these huge transnational problems, Bandura believes that positive
changes are possible if people will persevere with their collective efforts and not
become discouraged.
Taking a worldwide view, Bandura (2000) concluded that “as globalization
reaches ever deeper into people’s lives, a resilient sense of shared efficacy becomes
critical to furthering their common interests” (p. 78).Self-Regulation
When people have high levels of self-efficacy, are confident in their reliance on
proxies, and possess solid collective efficacy, they will have considerable capacity
to regulate their own behavior. Bandura (1994) believes that people use both reactive
and proactive strategies for self-regulation. That is, they reactively attempt to reduce
the discrepancies between their accomplishments and their goal; but after they close
those discrepancies, they proactively set newer and higher goals for themselves.
“People motivate and guide their actions through proactive control by setting them-
selves valued goals that create a state of disequilibrium and then mobilizing their