Self-efficacy, a concept introduced by psychologist Albert Bandura, refers to an individual’s belief in their capacity to execute behaviors necessary to produce specific performance outcomes. It’s the confidence in one’s ability to influence events and control over one’s environment.
Key Takeaways
- Psychologist Albert Bandura has defined self-efficacy as people’s belief in their ability to control their functioning and events that affect their lives.
- One’s sense of self-efficacy can provide the foundation for motivation, well-being, and personal accomplishment.
- People’s beliefs in their efficacy are developed by four primary sources of influence, including (i) mastery experiences, (ii) vicarious experiences, (iii) social persuasion, and (iv) emotional states.
- High self-efficacy has numerous benefits to daily life, such as resilience to adversity and stress, healthy lifestyle habits, improved employee performance, and educational achievement.
- It differs from self-esteem, which is more about overall self-worth. Self-efficacy focuses on capability in particular domains (e.g., academic tasks, athletic pursuits, work projects).
The term self-efficacy was first coined by psychologist Albert Bandura (1977), a Canadian-American psychologist and a professor at Stanford University.
He originally proposed the concept, in his own words, as a personal judgment of “how well one can execute courses of action required to deal with prospective situations”.
Self-Efficacy is a person’s particular set of beliefs that determine how well one can execute a plan of action in prospective situations (Bandura, 1977). To put it in more simple terms, self-efficacy is a person’s belief in their ability to succeed in a particular situation.
How does Self-Efficacy influence behaviour?
Perceived self-efficacy significantly influences behaviour in several ways.
It affects whether people will even attempt to cope with a situation, as they tend to avoid perceived threats that exceed their coping skills and engage confidently in situations they feel capable of handling.
Self-efficacy also impacts thought patterns and emotional reactions.
Those with low self-efficacy may dwell on deficiencies and magnify potential difficulties, leading to stress and impaired performance.
Conversely, individuals with high self-efficacy focus their attention and effort on the task demands, seeing obstacles as challenges that spur greater effort.
Furthermore, self-efficacy plays a role in self-regulation, determining how much effort is expended, how long someone perseveres in the face of difficulties, and their resilience to setbacks.
People with strong self-efficacy tend to:
- Embrace difficult tasks as opportunities to learn.
- Recover quickly from setbacks.
- Attribute failure to insufficient effort or poor strategy (things they can change).
- Have lower stress and are less likely to develop depression.
People with low self-efficacy tend to:
- Avoid challenging tasks or give up easily.
- Focus on weaknesses and negative outcomes.
- Believe failures are due to lack of ability (a fixed trait).
- Experience higher stress and are more vulnerable to depression.
How Does Self-Efficacy Develop?
Source: The Pennsylvania State University
Albert Bandura (1977) states individuals develop their self-efficacy beliefs by interpreting information from four main sources of influence.
Bandura identified four main sources of self-efficacy:
- Performance Outcomes (Mastery Experiences): Successful mastery of tasks is the most powerful source of self-efficacy information. Experiencing success strengthens beliefs in one’s capabilities, while repeated failures tend to undermine them.
- Vicarious Experiences: Observing others (models) perform tasks successfully can raise observers’ beliefs in their own ability to perform the same tasks, especially if they perceive the model as similar to themselves.
- Verbal Persuasion: Being told by others that one possesses the capabilities to succeed can enhance self-efficacy. However, the persuasiveness of this source depends on the credibility, expertise, and trustworthiness of the persuader.
- Physiological and Emotional Arousal: Physiological states, such as anxiety or stress, can influence perceived self-efficacy. High arousal in threatening situations is often interpreted as an indicator of vulnerability, which can lower self-efficacy. Conversely, managing and reducing stress can enhance efficacy beliefs.
1. Mastery Experiences (Performance Outcomes)
The strongest factor shaping your belief in your abilities (self-efficacy) is mastery experience.
A mastery experience happens when you successfully take on a new challenge or accomplish something difficult, giving you direct proof of your capability.
Why are these experiences so powerful?
Because nothing convinces you of your own skills quite like achieving something firsthand.
Each success – especially when you’ve overcome something that previously felt challenging or intimidating – boosts your confidence and strengthens your belief in what you’re capable of doing.
Of course, not every experience ends in immediate success.
Early setbacks or failures can sometimes damage your self-efficacy, especially if you haven’t yet built a solid foundation of confidence.
However, failure isn’t always negative.
When you push through initial setbacks and eventually succeed, those victories are especially rewarding, showing you clearly that perseverance pays off.
In fact, successfully navigating setbacks can lead to even stronger self-belief than never facing difficulty at all.
People who persist through challenges develop a resilient type of self-efficacy – one that’s powerful enough to withstand future setbacks and difficulties.
Practice is crucial because it’s the clearest path to mastery.
But why does practicing work so effectively?
When you practice regularly, you’re not only improving skills – you’re continually proving to yourself, often without even realizing it, that you have what it takes to succeed.
Each successful practice reinforces your self-belief, creating a positive cycle of growing confidence.
In short, mastery experiences – personal achievements gained through effort and perseverance – offer the most reliable and powerful evidence of your true capabilities.
They’re more convincing than simply watching others succeed (vicarious experiences) or receiving encouragement from others (verbal persuasion), because they show you firsthand exactly what you can achieve.
2. Vicarious Experiences (Social Role Models)
The second important source of self-efficacy is the vicarious experiences provided by social models.
Simply put, this involves learning by watching others successfully complete tasks, especially tasks you find challenging or intimidating.
Bandura (1977) posits that “Seeing people similar to oneself succeed by sustained effort raises observers” beliefs that they too possess the capabilities to master comparable activities to succeed.”
Who Are Our Role Models?
Role models can be anyone you relate to or look up to, including:
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Older siblings or friends
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Teachers and coaches
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Parents, grandparents, or relatives
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Supervisors or colleagues at work
When these role models display confidence and success, especially in tasks you find difficult, you naturally begin to adopt some of their self-belief.
How Do Vicarious Experiences Work?
Watching someone else perform a difficult or feared task successfully gives you a mental blueprint.
You see firsthand that challenges can be overcome through perseverance, effort, and effective strategies.
This builds your expectation that by putting in similar effort, you can also achieve positive results.
However, it’s important to note that while observing others is helpful, it’s typically not as powerful as achieving success yourself (mastery experiences).
Personal accomplishment gives you stronger and more lasting confidence because you’ve directly proven your capability.
How you mentally interpret what you see matters a lot.
If you doubt yourself, you might dismiss a role model’s success by assuming they have special skills or abilities you don’t have.
But if you view their success as achievable through effort and persistence, your self-efficacy will grow significantly.
When Are Vicarious Experiences Most Effective?
Several factors influence how strongly you benefit from watching others:
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Effort and Persistence Shown by the Model: Role models who visibly struggle but eventually succeed through perseverance tend to be the most inspiring.
Their journeys teach you that setbacks and anxiety are normal, temporary, and manageable through sustained effort.
Observing this type of realistic success helps you stay motivated when you face your own difficulties. -
Similarity to the Model: You’re more likely to believe in your capabilities when your role models feel relatable—people who share similar backgrounds, skills, or characteristics.
Seeing someone very much like yourself succeed can significantly boost your belief in your potential.
In contrast, seeing someone very different succeed might not affect your confidence as much. -
Clear and Diverse Examples: The most helpful role models clearly demonstrate the results of their efforts.
When you see someone achieving clear, positive outcomes, your belief that you can achieve similar success grows.
Observing multiple people (rather than just one) successfully handle challenging tasks is even better—it reinforces the idea that success is achievable by different people, including you. -
Practical Skills and Strategies: Watching others successfully manage difficult tasks doesn’t just build confidence—it can also teach you practical skills and effective strategies.
For example, a role model might demonstrate how to stay calm in stressful situations, handle setbacks constructively, or solve complex problems step-by-step.
3. Verbal Persuasion
Verbal persuasion means receiving encouragement, positive feedback, or reassurance from others about your ability to succeed at a task or handle a situation.
Receiving positive verbal feedback while undertaking a complex task persuades a person to believe that they have the skills and capabilities to succeed.
Self-efficacy is influence by encouragement and discouragement pertaining to an individual’s performance or ability to perform (Redmond, 2010)
Think of a coach telling an athlete, “You’ve trained hard; you’ve got this!” or a teacher reassuring a student, “You’re capable of great things – keep going!”
Such positive encouragement can significantly boost your confidence and motivate you to put forth more effort, especially when tackling challenging tasks.
When someone you trust expresses confidence in your abilities, it helps you believe in yourself.
Hearing supportive, realistic feedback motivates you to persist longer and try harder, even when you face setbacks or challenges.
Over time, this increased effort often leads to actual success, which further reinforces your belief in your capabilities.
How to Make Encouragement Effective
Not all encouragement is equally effective. Here’s what matters most:
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Realistic and Genuine: Encouragement should be believable and specific. Empty praise, such as telling someone they’re great at something when they haven’t genuinely succeeded, tends to backfire, making the recipient doubt future feedback. Genuine recognition of real progress and strengths is far more powerful.
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Credibility of the Encourager: Feedback from someone you see as trustworthy, knowledgeable, and sincere has the greatest impact. For example, feedback from a respected coach, teacher, or mentor is more likely to boost your self-efficacy than casual compliments from someone less credible.
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Timing and Specificity: Feedback works best when it clearly highlights what you’ve done well and how you can realistically improve further. For example, a teacher might say, “You did really well on this project, and I believe you can do even better by using this strategy next time.”
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Combined with Practical Support: Verbal encouragement works best when accompanied by tangible support, such as guidance or resources to help you succeed. Simply being told you can succeed without having the tools or strategies to actually achieve the task can set you up for disappointment.
Limits of Verbal Persuasion
While encouragement can significantly boost your confidence, it’s generally less powerful than personal experiences of success (mastery experiences).
Direct experiences of achievement provide clearer proof of your capabilities.
Without actual success, verbal encouragement alone can quickly lose its impact when you face setbacks or obstacles.
However, even though verbal encouragement isn’t as strong as firsthand experiences of mastery, it still plays an important role, especially when you’re uncertain or new to a task.
Positive feedback can motivate you to take the first step, try a little harder, and keep going despite difficulties.
Encouragement and positive feedback are most powerful when combined with opportunities to experience success firsthand.
By hearing supportive feedback, then actually achieving your goals through practice and persistence, you build a stronger, more resilient belief in your abilities.
Over time, this balanced approach – encouragement combined with genuine opportunities for success -creates lasting confidence and motivation.
4. Emotional and Physiological States
The emotional, physical, and psychological well-being of a person can influence how they feel about their personal abilities in a particular situation.
For example, if you are struggling with depression or anxiety, you might find it harder to have a healthy level of well-being.
Is it impossible to build self-efficacy while suffering from some of these struggles?
Of course not, but boosting your self-efficacy is much easier when one feels healthy and well (Bandura, 1982).
It’s All About How You Interpret Your Feelings
Psychologist Albert Bandura noted something important: it’s not necessarily how strongly you feel certain emotions (like nervousness or excitement) that matters most – it’s how you interpret these feelings.
For example, imagine you’re about to give an important presentation and feel your heart racing, palms sweating, and butterflies in your stomach.
If you doubt your abilities, you might interpret these physical sensations as proof that you’re unprepared or incapable, increasing anxiety and lowering your self-confidence.
But if you have higher self-efficacy, you might interpret the same sensations differently – as a natural excitement or energy boost that helps you perform at your best.
The physical reaction itself is similar, but your mindset transforms how you experience and use that energy.
Imaginal Experiences/Visualization
Bandura wasn’t the only psychologist to delve into researching self-efficacy. One example of another influential self-efficacy researcher is James Maddux, who is actually responsible for suggesting the existence of a fifth main source of self-efficacy: imaginal experiences, or visualization (Maddux and Meier, 1995).
James Maddux (2013) has suggested a fifth route to self-efficacy through “imaginal experiences,” the art of visualizing yourself behaving effectively or successfully in a given situation.”
Imaginal experiences (or visualization) are basically someone attempting to portray their goals as achievable.
It’s like the old saying that goes, “it’s so close you can almost taste it” – visualization is about putting yourself (in your head) in a pole position to being capable of achieving anything one sets your mind to.
With this method, in order to enhance one’s own self-efficacy or that of a child, the focus needs to be on painting a picture – making success seem like the most likely outcome (Maddux and Meier, 1995).
By painting oneself or others in a favorable position, Maddux (1995) hypothesized that the levels of self-efficacy in said individuals would rise given that they are now more susceptible – after portraying themselves at the finish line – to believe in themselves.
Improving Self-Efficacy
People’s beliefs about their abilities have a profound effect on those abilities. Ability is not a fixed property; there is huge variability in how you perform.
People who have a sense of self-efficacy bounce back from failure; they approach things in terms of how to handle them rather than worrying about what can go wrong (Bandura, 1977b).
1. Goal Setting
Setting clear, challenging goals is essential for keeping us motivated and enhancing our performance. Goals not only guide our actions but also provide benchmarks for measuring progress and satisfaction.
Long-term goals—such as getting a degree or starting a new career—are inspiring but can also feel overwhelming.
Because they’re so distant, it’s often tough to stay motivated or even recognize progress along the way.
This is why breaking down large goals into smaller, achievable subgoals (also called proximal goals) is so powerful.
Proximal goals act as stepping stones, offering immediate incentives, clear direction, and a sense of achievement that keeps motivation alive.
Each time we reach a subgoal, we experience a sense of accomplishment. These frequent successes build our confidence, increasing our self-efficacy – the belief in our own ability to succeed.
Research shows that repeated small victories significantly strengthen our self-belief, empowering us to persist even when we encounter setbacks (Bandura & Schunk, 1981).
Importantly, short-term goals help us see our progress more clearly.
Without them, it’s hard to accurately judge our performance, and motivation can fade quickly.
By regularly achieving these smaller milestones, we can clearly track improvements, making us feel more competent and capable.
Additionally, achieving proximal goals creates feelings of satisfaction and even enjoyment in the task itself.
Rather than feeling discouraged by how far we are from a distant target, we find intrinsic motivation and fulfillment in regular, smaller wins.
This cycle of setting, achieving, and celebrating short-term goals makes the entire process rewarding, sustaining both our motivation and our belief in our ability to achieve even bigger goals down the road.
2. Emphasize Peer Modeling
Learning from examples set by those around you happens at any age (think of how a teacher is a role model for a student, but in a similar manner an employer is a model for an employee).
This concept of peer modeling, while it can be applied to any age, is, of course, especially true for children on the early side of the spectrum and is most effective when a child’s direct peers (brothers, sisters, parents, teachers, friends) set the example (Bandura, 1988).
To put peer modeling into simple terms – it is when a child or an adult shows good social behaviors and is interested in passing on those same values to a new person.
Take, for example, a work setting – one employee takes center stage for the week and shows both business savvy and good social behaviors.
This employee will be a peer model to the rest of the employees of the company – they will want to learn how to act and behave in that manner, especially if this good behavior helped them achieve more success or drew more praise from the boss.
3. Seek Feedback
The problem with understanding feedback is that some people tend to believe that getting no feedback is the same as being told that one is doing their job well (hence the common phrase: “no feedback is great feedback”).
When done with both the right intentions in mind and also in the right manner, feedback can be one of the most important sources of building levels of self-efficacy.
Employees and students alike tend to want to know how they are doing. In order for the feedback to work positively, feedback must be delivered both concisely and frequently.
Without frequent feedback, one can be confused as to whether they should remain doing what they are doing, and without concise feedback, the individual will not understand what in particular they should fix about themselves.
Self-efficacy and subsequent task performance improve after receiving higher, more detailed levels of performance feedback (Beattie, Woodman, Fakehy, Dempsey, 2015).
4. Encourage Participation
Participation tends to be essential in any work environment – it encourages the person to be active and engaged, great qualities in someone that are usually influential in a person’s levels of self-efficacy.
Participation is especially important at an early age – those students who engage with the class are not only being more active in their learning, they are probably absorbing more information in regards to the material. Active class participation is also correlated to having high critical and higher-level thinking skills.
Participation is also an essential quality of a peer model – this is a person who has previously engaged in active learning and can teach others in a similar manner.
The level of thinking associated with an activity that requires participation goes beyond simple comprehension of text – it engages both the instigator and the audience.
More importantly, participation helps fellow students learn from each other – and people tend to build their levels of self-efficacy depending on how those who are most close to them behave.
5. Allow People to Make Their Own Choices
When talking about the importance of letting people make their own choices, the term self-accountability usually tends to come to mind.
Whether the outcome is positive or negative – making one’s own decisions allows for one to feel responsible (due to your cunning or due to your negligence, the person themselves is the one held accountable for if the outcome turned out in your favor or against you).
Another important reason to emphasize self-accountability – making one’s own choices and decisions allow one to make their own mistakes and – most importantly – gives one the opportunity to learn from them.
Advice is not the same as a command – an individual can advise one on something, but it is a person’s own responsibility to do whatever they feel like with said information.
This is why a peer – although very helpful – is not enough; the person needs to understand that at the end of the day – if they want to model anyone – the only person capable of taking action is themselves.
6. How to Use Emotions and Physical States to Boost Self-Efficacy
So how can you shift your mindset and improve your self-efficacy, even when you’re feeling anxious or stressed?
Here are a few helpful strategies:
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Reframe Your Anxiety as Excitement: Recognize that feeling anxious can be a sign that something matters deeply to you. Reminding yourself that these emotions are normal—and even helpful—can transform anxiety into motivation.
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Manage Your Stress and Mood: Learning stress-management techniques like deep breathing, mindfulness, or relaxation exercises can calm your physical responses, making it easier to maintain confidence under pressure.
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Focus on Situational Factors, Not Personal Flaws: Instead of viewing physical reactions (like increased heart rate or tension) as evidence of personal inadequacy, try attributing them to external factors like the high-stakes nature of the situation. This perspective reduces negative self-judgments and maintains your self-confidence.
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Stay Physically Healthy: Improving your physical well-being – through regular exercise, proper sleep, and balanced nutrition – helps reduce stress and anxiety, giving you a solid foundation for stronger self-efficacy.
Examples of Self-Efficacy
High self-efficacy has been linked with numerous benefits to daily life, such as resilience to adversity and stress, healthy lifestyle habits, improved employees performance, and educational achievement.
1. Healthy Habits
Health psychologists emphasize that people are more likely to consistently engage in healthy behaviors when they believe they have the ability to succeed (Bandura, 1988).
For example, imagine someone who wants to become physically fit.
If this person has high self-efficacy, they’ll feel confident enough to set realistic fitness goals, consistently attend workouts, and persist even when motivation wanes or obstacles arise.
Each successful workout not only reinforces their confidence but also improves their overall physical health and mental well-being.
Similarly, self-efficacy can help individuals successfully adopt other healthy lifestyle choices, like sticking to a nutritious diet, losing weight, or quitting smoking.
Believing in one’s capability transforms challenging lifestyle changes into achievable steps, making lasting positive habits more likely.
2. Academic Success
Research by van Dinther and colleagues (2011) highlights a strong connection between self-efficacy and educational outcomes.
Students who believe in their academic capabilities tend to use more effective learning strategies, set meaningful goals, and ultimately achieve higher academic performance.
For instance, a college student with high academic self-efficacy might approach studying strategically by organizing their coursework, actively participating in class, and confidently tackling difficult assignments or exams.
This proactive attitude, driven by their belief in their ability, results in better grades and a more fulfilling educational experience.
In short, students with strong self-efficacy don’t just dream about academic success—they actively create it through disciplined and focused behaviors.
3. Treating Phobias
Bandura (1982) demonstrated how self-efficacy could effectively reduce fears and phobias through direct experience.
In a classic experiment, he divided participants afraid of snakes into two groups.
One group directly interacted with snakes (touching or holding them), while the other group merely observed someone else interacting with snakes.
The results showed that participants who directly faced their fear by handling snakes had significantly higher self-efficacy – they felt more capable and were less fearful in subsequent encounters compared to those who had only observed.
This clearly illustrates that directly engaging with a feared situation boosts confidence more effectively than mere observation, highlighting self-efficacy’s crucial role in overcoming fears.
Can Self-Efficacy generalize across different situations?
Usually, self-efficacy – your belief in your ability to succeed – is specific to certain tasks or situations.
But confidence built in one area can actually help you feel more capable in other, seemingly unrelated areas too.
This happens most often when tasks share underlying skills.
For example, if you’re great at organizing and problem-solving at work, you might also feel more confident tackling these same skills at home, like planning events or managing household tasks.
Another reason this generalization happens is because our minds naturally look for patterns.
Even when tasks seem very different on the surface, recognizing similar demands or challenges can help transfer your confidence from one context to another.
Lastly, our core beliefs about ourselves – what psychologists call self-schemas – also play a role.
If you see yourself as someone who consistently handles challenges well, that self-image makes it easier to maintain strong self-efficacy across various situations.
In other words, building confidence in one area can ripple outwards, helping you feel capable and empowered in many areas of life.
How is Self-Efficacy Measured?
Self-efficacy refers to your belief in your ability to succeed at specific tasks or situations -and psychologists measure this by asking people how confident they feel in their skills.
Because self-efficacy is specific, it’s important that measurements clearly match the task or area being evaluated.
For example, some assessments focus on very specific actions, like how confident you feel about solving a particular math problem.
Others are broader and look at your confidence in an entire domain—such as how capable you feel in academic settings or maintaining healthy habits.
When measuring self-efficacy, researchers typically consider three main aspects:
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Level: How confident you feel handling tasks from easy to challenging.
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Strength: How strongly you believe in your capability.
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Generality: How widely your confidence applies across different situations or tasks.
In practice, psychologists often use surveys or questionnaires.
Participants rate their belief in their abilities, usually on a scale from 0 (not at all confident) to 100 (completely confident).
This provides a clear, practical picture of someone’s self-efficacy across various activities within a specific area of their life.
General Self-Efficacy Scale
The General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSE) was developed by Matthias Jerusalem and Ralf Schwarzer – the scale is composed of only 8 items, rated on a scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).
- “I will be able to achieve most of the goals that I have set for myself”
- “When facing difficult tasks, I am certain that I will accomplish them”
- “In general, I think that I can obtain outcomes that are important to me”
- “I believe I can succeed at most any endeavor to which I set my mind”
- “I will be able to successfully overcome many challenges”
- “I am confident that I can perform effectively on many different tasks”
- “Compared to other people, I can do most tasks very well”
- “Even when things are tough, I can perform quite well.”
The scores are then calculated by taking the average of all eight responses (these will respectively range from 1 to 5).
The way the test is supposed to work is so that the higher one’s score is, the greater the level of self-efficacy in said individual.
Self-Efficacy and Related Ideas
Self-efficacy refers to a person’s belief in their ability to successfully perform a specific task or behaviour.
It is a key concept within social cognitive theory and is distinct from broader concepts like self-esteem or self-concept.
While self-concept is a more general evaluation of self that includes feelings of self-worth and can be domain-specific but not task-specific, self-efficacy is a context-specific judgment of one’s capability to achieve a specific outcome.
For example, someone might have a generally positive self-concept regarding their academic abilities, but their self-efficacy for passing a particular difficult exam might be low.
Self-efficacy judgments are typically measured at a microanalytic level, focusing on specific tasks and situations, and are considered a strong predictor of behaviour.
Self-esteem vs. Self-efficacy
Self-esteem is your overall sense of self-worth—how much you value yourself as a person. It’s a broad feeling that doesn’t usually change dramatically from one task to another.
Self-efficacy, on the other hand, is your belief about your ability to succeed at a specific task or goal. Unlike self-esteem, self-efficacy can vary greatly depending on the situation you’re in.
Let’s look at a quick example:
Imagine someone who’s not very good at horseback riding. They’d probably have low self-efficacy for riding – they doubt their ability to perform well.
However, if horseback riding isn’t important to how they see themselves, their overall self-esteem probably wouldn’t be impacted.
On the flip side, a person might actually be very skilled at riding horses but still struggle with low self-esteem.
This could happen if they’ve set such high personal standards or depend heavily on riding for their sense of worth, constantly feeling they aren’t good enough despite their high skill level.
Here’s how these concepts differ clearly:
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Self-efficacy is about believing in your ability to perform a specific action or succeed in a particular situation. For instance, you might have high self-efficacy speaking publicly about your favorite hobby in front of friends but low self-efficacy speaking about an unfamiliar topic to a critical audience.
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Self-esteem is more general. It reflects your overall feelings about yourself—how positively or negatively you view yourself across all aspects of life.
Another important difference involves feelings of worth:
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Self-efficacy isn’t necessarily about how good or bad you feel about yourself—it’s simply your belief that you can achieve something. You can be confident in your math skills without necessarily feeling proud or deriving personal worth from that skill.
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Self-esteem, however, always includes this evaluative component—how positively you see yourself and how worthy you feel as a person.
Finally, these beliefs develop differently:
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Self-efficacy is mostly shaped through direct experiences of success (mastery), observing others (vicarious learning), receiving encouragement (verbal persuasion), and managing emotional responses (stress or anxiety). Mastery experiences, like succeeding at tasks, are especially powerful.
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Self-esteem tends to develop through broader comparisons—either comparing yourself with others (social comparison) or comparing your performance across different areas of your own life.
Understanding these differences can help you recognize how each contributes uniquely to your overall confidence, motivation, and sense of well-being.
Confidence vs. Self-Efficacy
When psychologist Albert Bandura introduced the idea of self-efficacy in the 1970s, he was careful to separate it from the broader, everyday concept of confidence.
While the two terms might seem similar, they describe distinctly different things.
Confidence refers generally to your strength of belief – how certain you feel about something – but it’s often vague.
You can be confident in your ability to succeed just as easily as you can be confident you’ll fail.
Confidence alone doesn’t specify exactly what you’re capable of or how well you think you can perform.
Self-efficacy, however, is more precise. It describes your belief in your ability to successfully perform a specific task or handle a particular situation.
For instance, you might have high self-efficacy about presenting a work project because you trust your skills and preparation.
In other words, self-efficacy isn’t just general assurance – it’s confidence directly connected to performing certain actions.
Think of it this way:
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Confidence: “I generally feel good about how I handle things.”
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Self-efficacy: “I know I can deliver a great presentation because I’ve prepared thoroughly.”
Another important distinction is how each affects our behavior:
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High self-efficacy encourages you to view tough tasks as exciting challenges, boosting your motivation and commitment. Successfully meeting these challenges can, in turn, lead to increased confidence overall.
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General confidence, while helpful, doesn’t necessarily tell you whether you feel capable of completing a specific action effectively.
In short, while confidence gives you a general feeling of assurance, self-efficacy provides the targeted belief in your capability, driving your motivation, persistence, and ultimate success in specific areas of your life.
Motivation vs. Self-Efficacy
At first glance, motivation and self-efficacy might seem very similar—but they’re actually two distinct ideas that shape our behavior differently.
Motivation refers to your desire or drive to reach a certain goal. It’s the inner energy that pushes you to take action.
Think of it as the reason why you decide to get out of bed in the morning and start your day.
Self-efficacy, on the other hand, is your belief in your ability to successfully achieve a specific goal or complete a particular task.
This is the confidence that you have the skills and resources needed to get out of bed, face the day, and handle whatever comes your way.
While people who feel highly capable (high self-efficacy) often have strong motivation—and vice versa—they aren’t the same thing.
You might really want to achieve something (high motivation), but if you doubt your ability (low self-efficacy), you may hesitate to start or quickly give up when things get tough.
On the flip side, believing strongly in your ability can significantly boost your motivation.
Each time you successfully complete tasks, your confidence increases, which in turn strengthens your motivation to keep going and take on even bigger challenges.
How Does Self-Efficacy Fit with Other Theories of Motivation?
Psychologists place self-efficacy alongside other motivational concepts to help explain how people behave and succeed:
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Intrinsic Interest: Feeling skilled and competent (high self-efficacy) can significantly boost your intrinsic motivation the pleasure you get from an activity itself. When you meet smaller goals along the way, you gain satisfaction and a greater interest in continuing, fueling a positive cycle of motivation and performance.
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Attribution Theory: This explains how our beliefs about why we succeeded or failed affect our motivation and future actions.
People with high self-efficacy tend to attribute setbacks to factors they can change, such as effort or strategy, motivating them to keep trying.
People with low self-efficacy often blame failures on a lack of ability, reducing motivation and increasing discouragement. -
Expectancy-Value Theory: This theory suggests we’re motivated by two factors: how likely we think success is (expectancy) and how valuable the goal is to us.
Including self-efficacy makes this even more precise because we don’t just consider outcomes—we also evaluate whether we have the ability to achieve them.
Many valuable goals go unpursued simply because we doubt our capability.
Learning Activity
Develop a measure of self-efficacy for any health-related behavior that avoids the confounding of self-efficacy with related constructs such as confidence or motivation.
Health-related behaviors include:
- Smoking cessation
- Alcohol use
- Eating
- Pain control
- Exercise
Design an intervention program that will enhance self-efficacy for a health-related behavior and a research design to measure changes in self-efficacy.
References
Bandura, A (1977). Self-efficacy: Toward a Unifying Theory of Behavioral Change. Psychological Review. 84 (2): 191–215.
Bandura, Albert (1977), Social Learning Theory Vol. 1). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-hall.
Bandura, A. (1997b). Self-Efficacy: The Exercise of Control. New York: Freeman.
Bandura, Albert (1982). Self-efficacy mechanism in human agency. American Psychologist. 37 (2): 122–147.
Bandura, A (1988). Organizational Application of Social Cognitive Theory. Australian Journal of Management. 13 (2): 275–302.
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Beattie, S., Woodman, T., Fakehy, M., & Dempsey, C. (2016). The role of performance feedback on the self-efficacy–performance relationship. Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology, 5 (1), 1.
Dinther, M.V., Dochy, F., & Segers, M.S. (2011). Factors affecting students’ self-efficacy in higher education. Educational Research Review, 6, 95-108.
Gaumer Erickson, A.S., Soukup, J.H., Noonan, P.M., & McGurn, L. (2016). Self-Efficacy Questionnaire. Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas. Center for Research on Learning.
Kolbe, Kathy (2009) “Self-efficacy results from exercising control over personal conative strengths”, Wisdom of the ages.
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Further Reading
- Bandura: Self-Efficacy
- Social cognitive theory: An agentic perspective
- Health promotion by social cognitive means
- Perceived behavioral control, self-efficacy, locus of control, and the theory of planned behavior
- Perceived self-efficacy in cognitive development and functioning
- Self-efficacy: A theoretical analysis of its determinants and malleability
- Self-efficacy and work-related performance: A meta-analysis
- Self-Efficacy: An Essential Motive to Learn
- Self-efficacy and the stages of exercise behavior change
