ALBERT BANDURA

Sources of Self EfficacyBy: Matt Hull and Courtney Pieper

Introduce Bandura Define Self-Efficacy and

it’s Sources

Present and Interpret Our Data

GOALS:

INTRODUCTION TO BANDURA’S LIFE

Born December 4, 1925 in Alberta, Canada

He received his bachelor’s degree in

psychology at University of British Columbia and his PHD

from University of Iowa in 1952

He is currently president of the American Psychological

Association and Works at Stanford

University

INTRODUCTION TO BANDURA’S

SOCIAL LEARNING THEORYoobservational learning

"Learning would be exceedingly laborious, not to mention hazardous, if people had to rely solely on

the effects of their own actions to inform them what to do. Fortunately, most human behavior is learned observationally through modeling: from observing others one forms an idea of how new behaviors are performed, and on later occasions

this coded information serves as a guide for action." ~ Bandura

SELF EFFICACY What people believe they are

capable of doing and how well they think

they can do it These ‘judgments’ of oneself are

called self efficacy appraisals

Influences how people think, feel, behave, and motivate themselves

DIFFERENT FROM SELF CONCEPT

OR SELF ESTEEMSelf concept- the idea or mental image one has of

oneself and their strengths, weaknesses, status, etc.; also called self image

Self esteem- a realistic respect for oneself or favorable impression of oneself

Self efficacy refers only to one’s capabilities on a given subject rather than generalities

FOUR SOURCES OF SELF EFFICACY:

1. Actual Performance2. Vicarious experiences

3. Verbal persuasion4. Physiological cues

ACTUAL PERFORMANCE

The most influential source of knowledge and the most effective way of creating a strong sense of efficacy

Repeated success increases our sense of efficacy

Repeated failure decreases our sense of efficacy

VICARIOUS EXPERIENCE

If we observe others, who we believe have roughly the same abilities as we do, succeed at a task, we infer that we can do it too and our sense of self efficacy increases.

In the same way, if we see others fail who we feel are as capable as us, our self efficacy will be lowered

VERBAL PERSUASION

When someone convinces us we can perform a task, we usually do better and exert more effort on it

‘pep talks’ Often easier to lower self efficacy than

raise it with this appraisal

PHYSIOLOGICAL CUES

The interpretation of emotional and physical reactions

Examples: adrenaline running, butterflies in your stomach,

fatigue, your mood or attitude

OUR QUESTIONS: Is self efficacy related to performance

and interest in subject matter?

Which sources of self efficacy have the most influence?

Do the sources of self efficacy differ between age and gender?

OUR HYPOTHESIS:Students will like the class they are

best at and will spend the most time working on classes they like

the mostActual Performance will be the

most influential source of self efficacy

Girls and boys will have different sources of self efficacy but the fifth

and second graders will show similar results

OUR STUDY:Who? Sixteen 5th graders and eighteen 2nd graders

What? A survey with 19 questions concerning the sources of self efficacy

When? During their regular school hours

Where? In their classrooms

How did we interpret the data? Awarded points for answers to questions positively pertaining to self efficacy

OUR FINDINGS

GENDER

AGE

COMPARISONS:Second grade: 11 out of 18 said

that their favorite class was the class they were best out

3 of the 18 spent the most amount of time working on that class

Fifth grade: 11 out of 16 said

that their favorite class was the class they were best out

10 of the 16 spent the most amount of time working on that class

PROBLEMS Overwhelming amount of data that we

had a hard time interpreting Our physiological cue questions are

inconclusive We were unable to compare the

sources of self efficacy Some kids were unable to finish the

survey A survey may not have been the best

means of determining self efficacy

CONCLUSIONS:Vicarious experiences has a greater influence than we realized

Actual performance didn’t play nearly as large of a role as verbal persuasion