Instructions
for this Report Back
to G18 Class Home To
Dr.Leon James Home Page
A Review of
Albert Bandura, Self-Efficacy in Changing Society,
by Kaylor, May 1, 2003
Generation
18 University of Hawaii
We are continuously experiencing changes
in our society. The technology is
advancing in a fast pace. People face
social and economic changes. People
face not only social changes but also changes within themselves as well as
their immediate surroundings such as at home, work, and school.
1.
The Book's Overall Content:
The
concept of motivation process introduced by Albert Bandura
is self-efficacy. This approach
explains that we can understand behavior change by examining the extent to
which people expect they are capable of performing the behaviors required to
reach their goals. That is, how
strongly we believe we can control events determines how much effort we put
into change and how long there efforts persists. For instance, people who believe in
their capability of quitting smoking would most likely be able to quit smoking
and successfully continue the action for a long time. Bandura
explains that efficacy beliefs effect people’s performance through four major
processes: cognitive, motivational, affective and selection processes.
According
to the concept of Bandura, people with high
self-efficacy believe their capabilities in succeeding, so that they would
challenge even more difficult tasks rather than avoid them. They determine to strive forward their
set goals and maintain strong commitment to accomplish them. When they face obstacles or setbacks,
they intend to come up with the ways to overcome them, and continue to pursue
their original actions along with control beliefs. Such optimistic attitude influence the
consequences of the actions, reduces stress and the likelihood of depression. On the other hand, people with low self-efficacy
shy away from difficult tasks or something they think as threats. They have low aspirations and weak
commitment to the goals they choose to pursue. When they faced with difficult tasks,
they give up easily and quickly instead of concentrating on how to perform
successfully. They are slow
to recover their sense of efficacy following failure or setbacks because they
do not believe in their capabilities to perform successfully. Because of the negative attitude, they
are more vulnerable to stress and depression.
Major Topic 1: (Chapter 1, p.3) People’s efficacy beliefs can be
developed by four main forms of influences; 1) mastery experiences, 2)
vicarious experiences, 3) social persuasion, and 4) physical and emotional
states. When people have been able
to perform the actions successfully before and familiar with the knowledge of
what to do to accomplish the goals, they come to create a strong sense of
beliefs that they would be able to reach the goals successfully. People’s efficacy beliefs are also
enhanced by seeing others succeed in the similar types of situations. The efficacy beliefs are not much
influenced by the models if they see the models as different from
themselves. In addition, efficacy
beliefs can be strengthened by convincing what they can do to others. Verbal persuasions about their ability
toward others make them try harder to accomplish the goals. They become motivated to do as they
promise. Lastly, people’s physical
condition and mood have some influences on the judgment of their
capabilities. Bad physical
conditions and negative moods make people feel down about themselves, and lower
the efficacy beliefs. On the other
hand, their positive feelings and good physical health can increase efficacy
beliefs, or vice versa.
Major Topic 2: (Chapter 2, p.46) Social transformation have a great
influence throughout the course of human lifespan. This chapter discusses some studies held
on the life courses in relation to social change. The studies show that younger children,
especially boys were more strongly influenced by economic hardships, whereas
the strong family relationship actually reduces the risk of such negative
influence. Self-efficacy is also
necessary to make a right choice in a course of life. A sense of personal control is also an
important element in the rapidly changing society.
Major Topic 3 (Chapter 5, p.149) Cross-cultural researches on self-efficacy
explain how different social and institutional practice effect efficacy beliefs
differently. Each culture possesses
distinctive values which affect how people feel about themselves,
therefore how they perceive their efficacy beliefs is different among cultures. Although self-efficacy beliefs are
universal, people in the collective society seem to have more efficacy beliefs
than people in individualistic societies.
Major Topic 4 (Chapter 6, p.177) The research in this chapter shows that
perceived self-efficacy, employment and partnerships play the important role in
overcoming the migration stress on cognitive, psychological and physical
well-being.
Major Topic 5 (Chapter 7, p.202 & Chapter 8, p.232) The research in this chapter reviews that the efficacy
beliefs is the key self-regulatory process in developing the successful
academic skills. Students with high
self-efficacy are more likely to carry on their academic challenge and achieve
higher success than those with low self-efficacy. The stronger the efficacy beliefs become
for a given profession, the higher the interest in that occupation, whereas
weak self-efficacy for career making leads to anxiety.
Major Topic 6 (Chapter 9, p.259) Health-risk behaviors, such as smoking
and drinking alcohol, are often attractive and persistent. The studies have shown that perceived
self-efficacy has the most effect on decision-making process of changing risk
behaviors into health behavior as well as the initiation and maintenance of the
healthy behaviors.
Theses topics are all
related and are based on the researches of self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is not my best interest in
psychology, but I think this book introduced me the concept of self-control and
behavior differences among people.
This book contains various relevant researches which have been done to
access how the efficacy beliefs affect self-control in changing societies. I, therefore, feel that this book may
interest other researchers whose studies are focus on the similar topic. General readers of psychological books,
however, may look for confirmation that what they are feeling or doing is
normal. They may seek
problem-solving strategies that can be used for self-improvement or may search
for coping strategies to help them adjust to changing circumstances in their lives. Since there are not many specific strategies
of how to increase self-efficacy beliefs introduced in this book, I believe
that the content of this book does not help those who are searching for the
ways of self-improvement.
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2.
The Book's Importance:
Although American culture continues to
emphasize the potential for individual control and development, the studies of
psychology imply that there are what we can control and we cannot control. It would be wonderful if we could
control all our behaviors. We would
avoid over-eating, alcoholism, all bad habits. We'd have good health, excellent habits,
and a successful life. The truth is
that we can't control all our behaviors.
We are all a little out of control.
Some of us are seriously out of control. For example, some are ruining our lives
or killing ourselves with food, drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, etc. Some are blowing off our school work or
our jobs. Some can't get or hold a
job, or hold on to love, or properly care for our children, or manage a home
and pay our debts. There is an
enormous difference between the people who are out of control and those in
control. Therefore, it is important
to understand the causes of behavior and how to change it. We could all gain better control.
Self-efficacy has been researched in areas of
athletics, information media, social and political change, psychology,
education and so forth. In
psychology, self-efficacy
has been the focus of studies on clinical problems such as phobias, depression,
social skills, assertiveness, smoking behavior, and moral development. The studies of self-efficacy play an
important role in the field of psychology because of this. In general, researchers have implied
that self-efficacy beliefs and behavior changes and outcomes are highly
correlated and that self-efficacy is an excellent predictor of behavior. For instance, self-efficacy predict
intention and health habits in different domains of health functioning. The intention to engage in a certain
health behavior (e.g. healthy-eating) and the actual behavior itself (e.g.
buying healthy foods) are positively associated with beliefs in one’s personal
efficacy. Therefore, in my opinion,
the wisdom regarding self-efficacy is definitely beneficial as psychologists or counselors in order to help their clients
with their problem behaviors.
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3.
The Book's Structure:
This book contains
contents, preface, contributors, ten chapters, name index, and subject
index. All chapters are constructed
with introduction, research reports, tables, diagrams, conclusion and
references. Name index of the
researchers and subject index are located in the last portion of this
book. The subject index is short
and easy to use. Each chapter is 30–40
pages and 5-8 pages of references.
The layout is simple, basic, and understandable throughout the
book. I think that the diagrams and
tables in each chapter are helpful to organize the concept of the research
reports. The titles of chanters are
self-explanatory and clearly reflect the content. The size of the print is just fine.
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4.
Critique of the Book:
To be honest, I did not
enjoy this book, because the content was mostly about the researches on the
various dimensions of self-efficacy, which I have had a difficult time to
operationally define. It took me
some time and effort to read and understand the content of this book. The quotations I think worthwhile are
the followings.
“The most effective way of creating a strong sense of efficacy is
through mastery experiences…The
second influential way of creating and strengthening efficacy beliefs is
through the vicarious experiences
provided by models…social persuasion
is a third way of strengthening people’s beliefs that they have what it takes
to succeed…people also rely party on their physiological
and emotional states in judging their capabilities” (pp.3-4).
This quotation
explains the source of efficacy beliefs, which gives us a clue of how to strengten our efficacy beliefs. The most portion of the book talks about
the researches and does not educate the readers how to develop positive attitude
in our lives. What I learned from
this book is the roles of self-efficacy in our lives. Efficacy beliefs influence
decision-making process, intension, academic and career choice, family and peer
relationship, and so on.
Individuals who are characterized by high efficacy beliefs tend to make
positive decision, and possess the ability to cope with stressful
situation. As a result, they
acquire more challenging opportunities and gain the wisdom of their lives. Moreover, self-efficacy is universal
among all societies. Each culture
put distinct value on efficacy beliefs.
For instance, collectivist cultures had a higher self efficacy than
those from individualistic culture.
The related links:
Albert Bandura & Self-efficacy
Self Efficacy
Research
General Perceived Self-Efficacy
Self Efficacy and
Addictions
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5.
Additional Observations:
We face many changes
throughout our lives. The changes
could be internal or external..
Looking back, my biggest change in my life was moving away from my home
county to Hawaii all alone when I was 20 years old. I was born and raised in Japan. I had a fortunate and comfortable life
in
Some people would
actually experience culture-shock, home-sick, depression while living in an
unfamiliar place. The other would
be able to feel at home right away.
In my case, I did not experience any negative feelings. Instead, I came to realize how much I
have been supported by my family and friends throughout my life. I think I was able to grow stronger
through difficulties that I faced by being alone. Instead of being influenced by the fact
that I am a minority in this society, I was able to become a person with my own
identity. Although I am not in
perfect control of my life, whenever I encounter challenges in my life, I try
to take them as my opportunity to become a well-rounded person in society. Perhaps, my efficacy beliefs may have
some to do with my current life situation.
But most importantly I am what I am today because of the support I have
received from people around me.