Achieving Self-Efficacy: Vicarious Reinforcement, Emotional Arousal & More - Essay Sample

Introduction

The self-efficacy concept is known to have been introduced by Albert Bandura, a social cognitive psychologist (Cherry, 2019). According to Bandura (1977), vicarious reinforcement, emotional arousal, verbal persuasion, performance achievement as well as observational learning are important elements that promote self-efficacy among individuals. People usually exert effort and persist when faced with challenges to achieve self-efficacy and this determines their perception of success (Bandura, 1977). In achieving self-efficacy through performance attainments, it is critical to ensure that a balance is achieved between the perceived capacity to complete the activity and the effort exerted. Achievement of self-efficacy requires people to master tasks that are challenging as a way of conveying noticeable evidence of improved competence (Bandura, 1977).

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Effects of Self-Efficacy

Perceived self-efficacy enables an individual to handle different situations by taking the most appropriate courses of action (Bandura, 1982). Self-appraisal is a capability that determines people's behavior, emotional response as well as thoughts in different situations. People can make judgments through self-efficacy skills, complete their tasks, and choose a level of effort to exert in activities. According to Bandura (1993), four main processes are involved in the beliefs of self-efficacy including selection, effective, motivational and cognitive. Personal goal setting is an example of a cognitive process that influences the self-efficacy beliefs. In the personal goal setting, an individual with stronger perceived self-efficacy has higher goals and will set objectives to achieve greater. The beliefs of self-efficacy determine that anticipation of success or failure among people when undertaking an activity. Also, people will act accordingly depending on their self-efficacy beliefs (Bandura, 1993). People who fight with self-doubt have difficulties in achieving great things.

The motivational processes influencing self-efficacy are determined by planning. Motivation improves self-efficacy as people begin by planning what they want to do, their anticipations of outcomes and guidance of their actions based on beliefs. Bandura (1993) stated that the motivational process can help in achieving low-self efficacy or perceived low capacity for practicing control and this can lead to depression. The selection process helps people to make appropriate choices based on their self-efficacy beliefs. The cognitive skills development of children is impacted by their self-efficacy capacity. Kids with higher levels of cognitive skills have greater self-efficacy achievement (Bandura, 1993).

The ability to practice control is a critical component of self-efficacy (Bandura, 1997). When a person lacks self-efficacy, such an individual does not believe in their capabilities. Weak self-efficacy is influenced by negative experiences while strong self-efficacy is useful in enabling a person to persevere when faced with adversities (Bandura, 1997). The achievement of self-efficacy resilience is by overcoming challenges, practicing perseverance as well as effort to achieve targets. It requires people learning that success is possible by persevering difficulties. However, teaching and training are crucial elements towards enabling people to master how to handle challenging situations. Selective focus on personal achievements is also an approach or pursuing self-efficacy (Bandura, 1997). The people who focus on their previous successes have a likeliness of having strong efficacy and the vice versa is true. However, those who work on their failures improve with time and become more efficient in raising their sense of self-efficacy that people whose success remains stagnant.

Self-Efficacy in the Educational Context

In an education context, students with self-efficacy usually believe in their abilities to attaining their classwork by sustained effort (Betrando, D'Antonio & Eisenberger, 2005). When students attain things that they never thought of achieving, it enhances their self-efficacy. For those interested in achieving growth, it is necessary to practice self-efficacy (Betrando, et al., 2005). Teachers are advised to use specific strategies to help students in building self-efficacy to achieve academic success. Students with self-efficacy skills can withstand challenges such as peer pressure, address adolescence issues as well as attaining success in their academic. Self-efficacy skills were also revealed to assist students in their career planning.

Self-Efficacy and Employee Performance

In the workplace, self-efficacy skills are critical for employees to achieve improved performance. Machmud (2018) stated that the ability of workers to perform different tasks and solve problems in the workplace is supported by self-efficacy skills. Self-efficacy is the perception of finishing a job, it relates to an individual's confidence in the attainment of duties when faced with uncertainty. Therefore, it relates to the worker's job satisfaction, performance, and perception of work (Xiao et al., 2016). Job satisfaction is the nature of the person finishing one's task. High job satisfaction achieves optimal performance for the business and greater self-efficacy plays a huge role in job-related satisfaction. Furthermore, an individual will, as well as capability, relates to one's satisfaction (Peng & Mao, 2018).

Self-efficacy is an essential skill in achieving self-regulated learning and improved performance in the workplace (Lyons and Bandura (2019). In different fields such as education, business, athletics, and psychology, personal self-efficacy is a motivational aspect that improves performance through learned strategies and tactics. Self-efficacy impacts on the activities that a worker will choose to complete and learn as well as the goals they set for themselves (Lunenburg, 2011). When learning tasks that are challenging, self-efficacy affects the level of effort and persistence exerted by the employee. In that case, in an organization, four sources of self-efficacy are evident including verbal persuasion, emotional cues, vicarious experiences as well as past performance.

For military leaders, self-efficacy relates to their emotional intelligence. Hudson (2016) established that higher leaders' emotional intelligence leads to increased self-efficacy in the military. In the medical field, Garcia (2015) noted that there is a relationship between self-efficacy as well as employee commitment among perfusionists. However, their self-efficacy is impacted by job-related stress. It is recommended that a policy should be devised in the form of formative assessments for guiding self-efficacy training among perfusionists including leaders, in the clinical setting and community. These are essential skills that promote self-efficacy for every perfusionist.

The dimensions of social, emotional, and cognitive self-efficacy relate to well-being, health, and leadership in organizations. According to Loeb (2016), emotional self-efficacy is a useful precursor towards prosocial behavior. Work-related self-efficacy scales should be used to measure the well-being and health of workers. However, when the emotional self-efficacy of a leader is high, it may impact on their expressive exhaustion. Social self-efficacy provides a positive climate for leaders to manage teams and especially when using the transformational leadership style (Loeb, 2016). Therefore, in the workplace, self-efficacy is useful in promoting the well-being and health of employees when undertaking activities such as team-building, staff development, and recruitment.

The studies suggest that self-efficacy is a useful concept in all dimensions of success in an organization and to individuals. It promotes a team climate, motivation of workers, and enhancing problem-solving capabilities among other benefits. In some situations, high emotional self-efficacy can be productive and especially for leaders to help followers in improving their emotional capacities. However, it can also be counterproductive by making the leader exhausted instead of exhilarating the group. It is recommended that self-efficacy skills be applied depending on the specific organization setting and situation to improve on the desired performance.

References

Bandura, A. (1977). Social learning theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Bandura, A. (1982). Self-efficacy mechanism in human agency. American Psychologist, 37, 122-147.

Bandura, A. (1993). Perceived self-efficacy in cognitive development and functioning. Educational Psychologist, 28(2), 117-148.

Bandura, A. (1997). Self-Efficacy: The exercise of control. New York, NY: W.H. Freeman.

Betrando, R., D'Antonio, M., and Eisenberger, J. eds (2005). Self-efficacy: Raising the bar for all students. 4th edition. New York: Routledge. ISBN 9781315852607

Cherry, K. (2019). Self-efficacy: Why believing in yourself matters. Personality Psychology. Retrieved from https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-self-efficacy-2795954

Garcia, G. (2015). The relationship between self-efficacy and employee commitment among perfusionists. Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies Collection.

Hudson, K. (2016). Emotional intelligence and self-efficacy in military leaders. Dissertations. 35. Retrieved from http://digitalcommons.brandman.edu/edd_dissertations/35

Loeb, C. (2016). Self-efficacy at work: Social, emotional, and cognitive dimensions. Malardalen University Press Dissertations, 208.

Lunenburg, F. (2011). Self-efficacy in the workplace: Implications for motivation and performance. International Journal of Management, Business, and Administration, 14(1), 1-6.

Lyons, P., & Bandura, R. (2019). Self-efficacy: the core of employee success. Development and learning in organizations: An International Journal, 33(3), 9-12. https://doi.org/10.1108/DLO-04-2018-0045

Machmud, S. (2018). The influence of self-efficacy on satisfaction and work-related performance. International Journal of Management Science and Business Administration, 4(4), 43-47. DOI: 10.18775/ijmsba.1849-5664-5419.2014.44.1005

Peng, Y., and Mao, C. (2015). The impact of person-job fit on job satisfaction: the mediator role of Self-efficacy. Social Indicators Research, 121(3): 805-813

Xiao, W., Zhou, L., Wu, Q., Zhang, Y., Miao, D., Zhang, J., & Peng, J. (2014). Effects of person-vocation fit and core self-evaluation on career commitment of medical university students: the mediator roles of anxiety and career satisfaction. International journal of mental health systems, 8(8): 1-6. DOI: 10.1186/1752-4458-8-8