Feist−Feist: Theories of
Personality, Seventh
EditionV. Learning Theories 16. Bandura: Social
Cognitive Theory(^494) © The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2009
self-efficacy has a powerful causal influence on people’s actions, it is not the sole
determinant. Rather, self-efficacy combines with environment, prior behavior, and
other personal variables, especially outcome expectations, to produce behavior.
In the triadic reciprocal causal model, which postulates that the environment,
behavior, and person have an interactive influence on one another, self-efficacy refers
to the P (person) factor.
What Is Self-Efficacy?
Bandura (2001) defined self-efficacy as “people’s beliefs in their capability to exer-
cise some measure of control over their own functioning and over environmental
events” (p. 10). Bandura contends that “efficacy beliefs are the foundation of human
agency” (p. 10). People who believe that they can do something that has the poten-
tial to alter environmental events are more likely to act and more likely to be suc-
cessful than those people with low self-efficacy.
Self-efficacy is not the expectation of our action’s outcomes.Bandura (1986,
1997) distinguished between efficacy expectations and outcome expectations.Effi-
cacy refers to people’s confidence that they have the ability to perform certain be-
haviors, whereas an outcome expectancy refers to one’s prediction of the likelycon-
sequences of that behavior. Outcome must not be confused with successful
accomplishment of an act; it refers to the consequences of behavior, not the com-
pletion of the act itself. For example, a job applicant may have confidence that she
will perform well during a job interview, have the ability to answer any possible
questions, remain relaxed and controlled, and exhibit an appropriate level of friendly
behavior. Therefore, she has high self-efficacy with regard to the employment inter-
view. However, despite these high efficacy expectations, she may have low outcome
expectations. A low outcome expectancy would exist if she believes that she has lit-
tle chance of being offered a position. This judgment might be due to unpromising
environmental conditions, such as high unemployment, depressed economy, or su-
perior competition. In addition, other personal factors such as age, gender, height,
weight, or physical health may negatively affect outcome expectancies.
Besides being different from outcome expectancies, self-efficacy must be dis-
tinguished from several other concepts. First, efficacy does not refer to the ability to
execute basic motor skills such as walking, reaching, or grasping. Also, efficacy does
not imply that we can perform designated behaviors without anxiety, stress, or fear;
it is merely our judgment, accurate or faulty, about whether or not we can execute
the required actions. Finally, judgments of efficacy are not the same as levels of as-
piration. Heroin addicts, for example, often aspire to be drug free but may have lit-
tle confidence in their ability to successfully break the habit (Bandura, 1997).
Self-efficacy is not a global or generalized concept, such as self-esteem or self-
confidence. People can have high self-efficacy in one situation and low self-efficacy
in another. Self-efficacy varies from situation to situation depending on the compe-
tencies required for different activities; the presence or absence of other people; the
perceived competence of these other people, especially if they are competitors; the
person’s predisposition to attend to failure of performance rather than to success; and
the accompanying physiological states, particularly the presence of fatigue, anxiety,
apathy, or despondency.
488 Part V Learning Theories