THE ROLE OF SELF-EFFICACY

The Role of Self-Efficacy in Influencing Educational and Career Development

Self-Efficacy in Influencing Educational and Career Development



The self is a concept long been out of fashion in an era that favors the objective over the subjective, but which, over the past three decades, has been under examination again, from a variety of separative and sometimes conflicting perspectives. There is little agreement as to what the self may be--construct or process or function--or whether it even exists beyond being a convenient handle on which to hang life narratives. This article draws upon the viewpoint of Italian psychiatrist Roberto Assagioli and his associate Piero Ferrucci which insists that the self does indeed exist and is a demonstrable experiential phenomenon, a "point of pure self-awareness" (Assagioli, R. (1965). Further, it agrees with Augusto Blasi, of the University of Massachusetts at Boston, who cogently argues that self cannot be just a construction or just a process but must also be an active evaluator, a necessary subjective judge of the truth of what is perceived, conceived, even received affectively: The implication of this view of human cognition, particularly concerning the role that the individual self plays in it, can be elaborated by looking at the meaning of asking questions about an object and of answering them through judgments. Asking a question about an object or about the world is different from adapting to the world, or even from behaviorally discriminating and anticipating events in the world. (Tannenbaum, A. J. 1992) This recognition of the active evaluative aspect of the self, fits well with observations that many children are idiosyncratic learners, assert their own opinions, learn through immersion in their own interest areas, and are chary with respect for authority from a very early age. It is interesting that the evaluative function, stressed by Blasi, appears at the top of Bloom's taxonomy as the culminating thinking skill. and highly young children are active investigators who make up their own minds and know their own hearts. Further, if children assume an evaluative attitude (much more than simple liking and disliking) early, are they displaying the self in action in ways that make its investigation more clinically viable? Are they providing, especially in the upper ranges of intellectual functioning, a window on the self?The concept of efficacy has deep roots in the psychological literature. Drawing on diverse sources ranging from animal learning studies to the formulations of Piaget and the early ego psychologists, White ( 1959 ) developed the concept of effectance motivation (i.e., the intrinsic satisfaction that organisms derive from exploring their environment and extending their capabilities). This motivation was believed to energize a broad range of nondrive-related behaviors. The terms effectance motivation and efficacy were used to describe the wellspring of such activity and the affect associated with its mastery, respectively. Later, White ( 1979 ) suggested that people's confidence in being able to have desired effects on their surroundings (sense of efficacy) enhances self-esteem and favors effective ...