Behavioral Aspects of Human Movement - Coursework Example

Self-Efficacy Introduction James Maddux has placed the concept of self-efficacy among one of the most powerful, yet one of the most simplest, truths, which lie in the understanding that “believing that you can accomplish what you want to accomplish is one of the most important ingredients in the recipe for success” (Maddux, 2000). In short, the idea of self-efficacy can be explained as ones beliefs in his capabilities of completing a particular task. As a result, self-efficacy plays a key role in the processes of motivation, efficient performance, achieving goals, etc. Self-efficacy influences persons thoughts, actions, attitudes to various realms of life. It is observed that those who have high level of self-efficacy are more goal-oriented and self-rigorous, more likely “to work harder and persist longer when they encounter difficulties than those who doubt their capabilities” (Schunk, 1991). Albert Bandura, the founder of social cognitive theory and one of the first who studied the concept of self-efficacy, noted that “successes raise efficacy and failure lowers it, but once a strong sense of efficacy is developed, a failure may not have much impact” (Bandura, 1986; cited in Schunk, 1991). It means that people who have high personal efficacy are less subjected to self-doubts and stresses. Usually their self-believing is not strongly affected by some misfortunes. Even more, while drawing a lesson from their failures or overcoming the latter, such people strengthen their self-efficacy by avoiding similar mistakes in the future or giving more efforts to the tasks which were their weak points. The theory of self-efficacy is relatively new in the world of science and it was of no interest before 1977. Nevertheless, after Banduras publication in 1977, hundreds of researches regarding self-efficacy applied to social cognitive theory in general (J. E. Maddux, 2000. This paper aims to discuss the main aspects of Banduras self-efficacy theory as well as analyze how the concept of self-efficacy can be utilized in the field of academic or school learning and in the workplace and prove the crucial role of personal efficacy in ones successful motivation, performance and outcome. Theoretical aspects of Albert Banduras self-efficacy concept Albert Bandura defined perceived self-efficacy as “peoples beliefs about their capabilities to produce designated levels of performance that exercise influence over events that affect their lives” (Bandura, 1994). He pointed out that “self-efficacy beliefs determine how people feel, think, motivate themselves and behave... and produce their effects through... cognitive, motivational, affective and selection processes” (Bandura, 1994; cited in Encyclopedia of Human behavior). In Business Dictionary self-efficacy is identified as “persons belief about his or her ability and capacity to accomplish a task or to deal with the challenges of life” (Business Dictionary, web). According to Dale H. Schunk self-efficacy is “peoples judgments of their capabilities to organize and execute courses of action required to attain designated types of performances" (Schunk, 1991). Self-efficacy can be analyzed from the position of three different aspects: dimensions, which are magnitude, or “level of difficulty of the task”, generality, and strength (Bandura, 1977); sources, coming from “performance accomplishments, vicarious experience, verbal persuasion, and physiological states” (Bandura, 1977); cognitive, motivational, affective and selection processes, influenced by self-efficacy (Bandura, 1993). Self-efficacy magnitude determines the complexity of the assignments the person can cope with. It means that people with higher level of self-efficacy are likely to master more complicated operations in comparison to those of low level of self-efficacy. Generality frames to the range of situations to which ones self-efficacy is applied. It is believed that ordinarily peoples self-efficacy extends to the number of tasks of somewhat similar nature. However, the higher the personal efficacy, the more tasks different in nature the person believes he can complete: "some experiences create circumscribed mastery expectations. others instill a more generalized sense of efficacy that extends well beyond the specific treatment situation" (Bandura, 1977). Strength of the self-efficacy refers to the ones ability to cope with challenging situations “despite disconfirming experiences" (Bandura, 1977). Bandura assumed that in case that “necessary skills and appropriate incentives” are provided, persons performance tends to be more successful due to the increased level of efficacy. It was observed that people with originally low self-efficacy could cope with the tasks when they were given additional instructions or models of acting. As a result, their self-efficacy applied to the particular task has increased. However, if the person was biased to low self-efficacy, such a “success” did not increase his personal beliefs regarding another tasks and could be used towards a particular assignment only. This explains how, for example, generality, level and strength of self-efficacy correlate with each other. Bandura also introduced four universal sources of self-efficacy. He emphasized that the most important of them was performance accomplishments, or so-called ones individual “victories” in some tasks in his past which made person believe that he can cope with such situations. Gained from personal irresistible experience, performance accomplishments are believed to be the strongest source of ones self-efficacy. Less stronger, however still important, is vicarious experience, or social modeling. It derives from persons observation of other people and can be expressed with the following: “If they can do it, I also can do it”. If person copes with such kind of a task, his self-efficacy grows. Verbal persuasion in embodied in another people saying to a person that he can do it. If a person is rather perceptive, such an encouragement may be beneficial for his self-efficacy. However, if a person does not posses enough skills to complete the task, the influence of persuasion will not affect his self-efficacy in case of failure. Along with dimensions and sources of self-efficacy, its crucial impacts were identified. However, due to the lack of space and necessity to analyze one more significant issue this aspect will not be described in the current paper. For more detailed information, one can consult Albert Banduras “Perceived Self-Efficacy in Cognitive Development and Functioning” (1993). The idea of self-efficacy influence is based on its impact on the cognitive processes, experienced by people, which directly affects motivation and consequently persons behavior: “the capacity to represent future consequences in thought provides one cognitively based source of motivation” (Bandura, 1993). Today healthy way of life became a top priority of American medical practitioners and researchers. The connection between the behavior control and efficacy as the cause of many diseases is clearly determined and the next step is to reveal the factors, which determine the behavior. Notwithstanding that the advertising tries to make us believe that it is possible to, for example, easily loose weight during one day, there is no way to do that. Attaining and preservation of healthy body demand a number of behavior alterations, which imply changing the way of thinking about food consumption and active way of life: doing morning exercises, visiting gymnasium. It is useful to get experts’ consultation for instance, the advice of a nutritionist or physician. It is necessary to remember that changing the behavior is a complicated but reachable goal. It is possible to define the general recommendations: establish achievable aims for your food consumption and exercises. For example, determine the real weight amount that you can lose during a definite period of time; fix your everyday behavior in order to control the alterations. Make necessary notes in your notebook in order to see the progress. It will help control the behavior and make it correspond to the intentions; try to make other people take part in your diet or exercises. For example if you have a diet, make your children also eat healthy food; distinguish and try to change bad and pessimistic way of thinking and mind-set connected with your goal; work out the way to overcome difficulties. For instance if you have diet think what you will eat in the restaurant if you are invited. There are plenty of healthy food you can taste; Actively communicate with your doctor, nutritionist, or physical training instructor. Do not hesitate to apply for advice; Think about the pleasant result of your efforts. There are many factors that prevent us from the implementation of our goals. However, when these goals are related to our health we should try to overcome the difficulties. Some investigations are already made in order to help us understand why we do not do what we were going to do. Further research is needed in order to improve the model and reveal new problems people meet on their way to healthy life. In the current paper the main aspects of self-efficacy concept were described and analyzed. Self-efficacy refers to the persons strong belief in his ability to complete the task. The higher the level of self-efficacy the more complex task the person can do. Self-efficacy has a vast impact on peoples thoughts, motivation, attitudes, behavior. It also determines the persons capabilities of performing efforts, being persistent and coping with stresses and unpredictable problematic situations. References Bandura, A. (1993). Perceived self-efficacy in cognitive development and functioning. Educational Psychologist, 28, 117–148. Retrieved from http://www.uky.edu/~eushe2/Bandura/Bandura1993EP.pdf Bandura, A. (1977). Self-efficacy: Toward a Unifying Theory of Behavioral Change. Psychological Review, 84 (2), 191—215. Retrieved from www.uky.edu/.../Bandura/Bandura1977PR.pdf Lunenburg, F. C. (2011). Self-Efficacy in the Workplace: Implications for Motivation and Performance. International Journal of Management, Business, and Administration, 14 (1), 6. Retrieved from http://www.nationalforum.com/Electronic%20Journal%20Volumes/Lunenburg,%20Fred%20C.%20Self-Efficacy%20in%20the%20Workplace%20IJMBA%20V14%20N1%202011.pdf Maddux, J. E. & J. T. Gosselin. (2003). Self-Efficacy. Psychology Faculty Publications, 217-238. Retrieved from http://digitalcommons.sacredheart.edu/psych_fac/17 Schunk, D. H. (1991). Self-Efficacy and Academic Motivation. Educational Psychologist, 26(3), 207-231. Retrieved from http://libres.uncg.edu/ir/uncg/f/D_Schunk_Self_1991.pdf Read More