Self‐efficacy perspective on achievement behavior

This article examines the idea that perceived self‐efficacy is an important variable in understanding achievement behavior. Self‐efficacy refers to personal judgments of one's capability to organize and implement behaviors in specific situations. Students gain information about their level of self‐efficacy from self‐performances, vicarious experiences, verbal persuasion, and physiological indices. In forming efficacy judgments, people take into account factors such as perceived ability, task difficulty, effort expenditure, performance aids, and outcome patterns. Even when students acquire efficacy information from self‐performances, efficacy judgments are not mere reflections of those performances because educational practices differ in the type of information they convey about students’ capabilities. Some experimental tests of these ideas are summarized along with their educational implications. The self‐efficacy framework is compared with locus of control, attribution, and self‐worth theories of achievement behavior.