On the facilitation of self-efficacy

This article begins by briefly considering the current theoretical and research status of self-efficacy theory, suggesting that self-efficacy expectations may provide us with a useful index of the extent to which certain learning experiences have been cognitively processed. Moreover, self-efficacy theory leads us in the direction of considering how individuals may actually go about encoding, storing, and retrieving corrective experiences, so as to alter self-efficacy expectations. This article discusses and illustrates procedural guidelines that may be useful in facilitating cognitive processing of efficacy information in the clinical context, whereby the role of the therapist becomes that of (a)aiding the client in discriminating between past and present behaviors, (b)helping the client to view changes from both an objective and a subjective vantage point, (c)helping the client to retrieve past success experiences, and (d)aligning the client's expectancies, anticipatory feelings, behaviors, objective consequences, and subsequent self-evaluations. The ultimate objective of these therapeutic strategies is to effect a lasting change in clients' self-schemata. Some of the clinically related research questions that need to be addressed are noted. © 1982 Plenum Publishing Corporation.

Duke Scholars

Author Clive Justin Robins Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Adult Psychiatry & Psychol ...