0.1 Motivation  (Page 4/7)

Self-efficacy beliefs, furthermore, are not the same as “true” or documented skill or ability. They are self- constructed, meaning that they are personally developed perceptions. There can sometimes therefore be discrepancies between a person’s self-efficacybeliefs and the person’s abilities. You can believe that you can write a good term paper, for example, without actually being able to do so, and viceversa: you can believe yourself in capable of writing a paper, but discover that you are in fact able to do so. In this way self-efficacy is like the everyday idea of confidence , except that it is defined more precisely. And as with confidence, it is possible to have either too much or too little self-efficacy. The optimum level seems to be either at or slightly above true capacity (Bandura, 1997). As we indicate below, large discrepancies between self-efficacy and ability can create motivational problems for the individual.

Effects of self-efficacy on students’ behavior

Self-efficacy may sound like a uniformly desirable quality, but research suggests that its effects are a bit more complicated than they first appear. Self-efficacy has three main effects, eachof which has both a negative or undesirable side and a positive or desirable side.

Choice of tasks

The first effect is that self-efficacy makes students more willing to choose tasks where they already feel confident of succeeding. While this seemsintuitive, given the definition of the concept of self-efficacy, it has also been supported by research on self-efficacy beliefs (Pajares&Schunk, 2001). For teachers, the effect on choice can be either welcome or not,depending on circumstances. If a student believes that he or she can solve mathematical problems, then the student is more likely to attempt themathematics homework that the teacher assigns.

Unfortunately the converse is also true. If a student believes that he or she is in capable of math, then the student is less likely to attempt the math homework (perhaps telling himself, “What’s the use of trying?”), regardless of thestudent’s actual ability in math.

Since self-efficacy is self-constructed, furthermore, it is also possible for students to miscalculate or misperceive their true skill, and themisperceptions themselves can have complex effects on students’ motivations. All may be well if studentsoverestimate their capacity but actually do succeed at a relevant task anyway, or if they underestimate their capacity, yet discover that they can succeed and raise their self-efficacy beliefs as a result. All may not be well, though, if students do not believe that they can succeed and therefore do noteven try, or if students overestimate their capacity by a wide margin, but are disappointed unexpectedly by failure and lower their self-efficacy beliefs.

Persistence at tasks

A second effect of high self-efficacy is to increase persistence at relevant tasks. If you believe that you can solve crossword puzzles, but encounter onethat takes longer than usual, then you are more likely to work longer at the puzzle until you (hopefully) really do solve it. This is probably a desirablebehavior in many situations, unless the persistence happens to interfere with other, more important tasks (what if you should be doing homework instead ofworking on crossword puzzles?). If you happen to have low self-efficacy for crosswords, on the other hand, then you are more likely to give up early on adifficult puzzle. Giving up early may often be undesirable because it deprives you of a chance to improve your skill by persisting. Then again, the consequent lack of success because of giving up may provide auseful incentive to improve your crossword skills. And again, misperceptions of capacity make a difference. Overestimating your capacity by a lot (excessivelyhigh self-efficacy) might lead you not to prepare for or focus on a task properly, and thereby impair your performance. So as with choosing tasks, theeffects of self-efficacy vary from one individual to another and one situation to another.