How Much Do You Trust Yourself to Cope?
Not whether you like yourself, but whether you believe you can do it
Self-efficacy is the belief that you can do what a situation demands. It is not the same as self-esteem, and it is not a measure of talent: two equally able people can take on very different challenges because one expects to cope and the other does not. Bandura's research showed that this expectation shapes what people try, how hard they push and how long they last when things go wrong.
Before you start There are no right answers. Pick what is usually true for you, not what sounds best.
Answer about how you usually feel when facing something difficult, not about how you would like to feel.
What it measures
The first bar is general self-efficacy as measured by Schwarzer and Jerusalem's scale: confidence in coping with difficult or unexpected demands. The other two are related areas from the same literature - confidence in taking on new tasks, and confidence with people. It differs from locus of control, which asks whether outcomes depend on you, and from a growth mindset, which asks whether ability can change.
Based on: General Self-Efficacy Scale (Schwarzer & Jerusalem, 1995); self-efficacy theory (Bandura, 1977)
Possible results
Coping with the unexpected
Whether you expect to find a way through problems and setbacks.
Taking things on
Whether you expect to manage new or complicated tasks before you start.
Confidence with people
Whether you expect to handle meeting, approaching and getting on with people.
Common questions
Is self-efficacy the same as self-esteem?
No. Self-esteem is how much you value yourself; self-efficacy is how confident you are that you can do things. You can like yourself and still doubt you could rescue a failing plan, or feel very capable and think little of yourself as a person. The two are correlated, but raising one does not automatically raise the other.
How is it different from locus of control or a growth mindset?
Locus of control is about whether outcomes depend on your actions or on luck and other people; self-efficacy is whether you believe you can carry out those actions. A growth mindset is a belief that ability can change; self-efficacy is how capable you feel right now. They often go together, but you can believe effort matters and still doubt your own ability to deliver it.
Can self-efficacy be raised?
Yes, and Bandura described how. He named four sources, and the strongest is mastery: doing something difficult and succeeding. Watching someone similar succeed, being encouraged by people you trust and reading your nerves as readiness rather than danger also help, but less. Small, deliberately chosen wins tend to work better than big leaps.
Sources
- Bandura, A. (1977). Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. Psychological Review. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.84.2.191
- Schwarzer, R., & Jerusalem, M. (1995). Generalized Self-Efficacy scale. In J. Weinman, S. Wright & M. Johnston (Eds.), Measures in health psychology: A user's portfolio. Causal and control beliefs (pp. 35-37). NFER-NELSON.
- Sherer, M., Maddux, J. E., Mercandante, B., Prentice-Dunn, S., Jacobs, B., & Rogers, R. W. (1982). The Self-Efficacy Scale: Construction and validation. Psychological Reports. doi:10.2466/pr0.1982.51.2.663
- Scholz, U., Gutiérrez Doña, B., Sud, S., & Schwarzer, R. (2002). Is general self-efficacy a universal construct?. European Journal of Psychological Assessment. doi:10.1027//1015-5759.18.3.242
An honest note The General Self-Efficacy Scale gives a single score, and studies across 25 countries support it as one factor, so only the first bar corresponds to it. The other two are related constructs from the self-efficacy literature, not validated factors of that scale. The items are Quinthea's own wording adapted from the published scales, so scores are not comparable to their norms. Bandura himself argued that self-efficacy is best measured for specific tasks, so a general score is only a rough guide.