Importance of Self-Efficacy

Self-efficacy can greatly impact how people feel, think, behave, and motivate themselves. People who have a heightened sense of self-efficacy:

• See challenging problems as tasks to be mastered, rather than threats to be avoided.
• Develop greater intrinsic interest and focus in their activities.
• Set challenging goals and demonstrate a stronger sense of commitment to them.
• Quickly recover their self-efficacy following setbacks and disappointments (Bandura, 1994).

People who have a low sense of self-efficacy:

• Avoid difficult tasks and view them as personal threats.
• Have a weak commitment to their goals and believe that difficult tasks and situations are beyond their capabilities.
• Dwell on personal failings and negative outcomes, rather than how to succeed.
• Quickly lose faith in their personal abilities and easily develop depression and stress (Bandura, 1994).

In addition, people who possess high self-efficacy have a tendency to learn and achieve more than those with low self-efficacy, "even when actual ability levels are the same" (Ormrod, 2008, p. 137).