Reflection for Module 4
According to Albert Bandura (1977), self-efficacy is “the belief in one’s capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to manage prospective situations.” Miriam Akhtar (2008) defined self-efficacy as “the belief we have in our own abilities, specifically our ability to meet the challenges ahead of us and complete a task successfully”. In my readings about self- efficacy, I have encountered several terms that are commonly equated with self-efficacy like self-esteem, self-regulation, self-confidence, self-control, resilience and motivation. Each is closely linked with the other but each is its own construct. It’s confusing, so I tried to look for how they are applied in psychology. Fortunately, I found this article written by Courtney Ackerman (2018) in Positive Psychology that helped me a lot in dealing with these terms.
Putting it simply:
Self- esteem is how you value or put worth to yourself while self-efficacy is your belief in your self that you are capable of meeting and achieving a task.
Self–regulation is how you think, feel and act that affects how you learn while self-control is how you adjust your behavior to reach your goal.
Self-confidence is the strong belief in yourself that is nondescript or unspecific as to what it is, while self-efficacy is your belief that you can do something and can produce a result.
Motivation is your desire to achieve something while self-efficacy is belief in oneself to achieve.
Resilience is ability to bounce back from failure and greatly enhanced by high sense of self -efficacy.
Now, how does high self-efficacy look like? An old person like me with very limited basic computer skills who enrolls in a distant learning course that she has never done before, but feels that she can succeed in!
What does it take to have a high self-efficacy? It would take a lot of self-esteem, self-confidence, self-regulation, motivation and resilience in times of failure.
How to increase self-efficacy? Mastery from experience and past successes, modeling success of people under similar circumstances. Social persuasion by surrounding self with supportive people and adopt the right mindset.
I once read a quote by Lisa Lieberman Wang which says, “avoid focusing on what you cannot do. Instead focus on what you can do and accomplish it without expecting approval and recognition from others”. I guess it got stuck in my mind and inspire me to do the things that my heart feels like to.
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