Talk:Self Efficacy

Is learned helplessness a related construct? Has it been interpreted as a lack of self-efficacy? (VA)

(VA) Question: have researchers distinguished between beliefs about one's ability to _perform_ in a certain domain and one's ability to _learn_ in a certain domain? One probably expects these to be highly correlated and perhaps often not clearly distinguished in people's minds ... has that distinction/correlation been studied? Would it be interesting to study? Would it be a PSLCish thing to study? (VA) (The following paper makes the distinction: Lodewyk, Ken R. Department of Human Performance and Sport Management, Mount Union College, Alliance, OH, US; Winne, Philip H. Faculty of Education, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada E-mail: lodewykk@muc.edu Relations Among the Structure of Learning Tasks, Achievement, and Changes in Self-Efficacy in Secondary Students. Journal of Educational Psychology Vol 97(1) (Feb 2005): 3-1.

(VA) Some studies find that self-efficacy is a better predictor of learning (future academic achievement - probably fair to view that as learning???) than prior knowledge.

(VA) Are there findings that show that people's attributions of success and failure in learning affect their self-efficacy?

(VA) The often-observed correlations between self-efficacy and learning (learning??? or performance???) could simply reflect the fact that people are (somewhat) accurate in their assessment of their own competence, although there is probably more to it than that. (E.g. I personally find it rather likely that self-efficacy would lead to greater persistence. Conversely, learned helplessness - if we may interpret it for now as a manifestation of low self-efficacy - would lead one to not try or give up easily.) But a causal link between self-efficacy and learning is hard to establish, because it is different to manipulate self-efficacy without also manipulating other factors of the learning environment (but see Schunk & Ertmer (2000); also, perhaps attribution re-training is an effective way of fairly directly "manipulating" self-efficacy).

(VA) From McQuiggan et al: "Bandura distinguishes four types of self-efficacy effectors: enactive mastery experiences, vicarious experiences, verbal persuasion, and physiological and affective state (Bandura, 1997)." (Need to discuss this under interventions that enhance self-efficacy.)