Feist−Feist: Theories of
Personality, Seventh
EditionV. Learning Theories 16. Bandura: Social
Cognitive Theory© The McGraw−Hill^495
Companies, 2009High and low efficacy combine with responsive and unresponsive environ-
ments to produce four possible predictive variables (Bandura, 1997). When efficacy
is high and the environment is responsive, outcomes are most likely to be success-
ful. When low efficacy is combined with a responsive environment, people may be-
come depressed when they observe that others are successful at tasks that seem too
difficult for them. When people with high efficacy encounter unresponsive environ-
mental situations, they usually intensify their efforts to change the environment.
They may use protest, social activism, or even force to instigate change; but if all ef-
forts fail, Bandura hypothesizes, either they will give up that course and take on a
new one or they will seek a more responsive environment. Finally, when low self-
efficacy combines with an unresponsive environment, people are likely to feel apa-
thy, resignation, and helplessness. For example, a junior executive with low self-
efficacy who realizes the difficulties of becoming company president will develop
feelings of discouragement, give up, and fail to transfer productive efforts toward a
similar but lesser goal.
What Contributes to Self-Efficacy?
Personal efficacy is acquired, enhanced, or decreased through any one or combina-
tion of four sources: (1) mastery experiences, (2) social modeling, (3) social persua-
sion, and (4) physical and emotional states (Bandura, 1997). With each method, in-
formation about oneself and the environment is cognitively processed and, together
with recollections of previous experiences, alters perceived self-efficacy.
Chapter 16 Bandura: Social Cognitive Theory 489The most influential source of self-efficacy is performance.