Introduction
Self-efficacy beliefs or self-efficacy expectancies are “people’s beliefs in their capabilities to produce desired effects by their own actions” (Bandura 1997, p. vii). Since the publication of Albert Bandura’s 1977 Psychological Review article “Self-Efficacy: Toward a Unifying Theory of Behavior Change,” the term “self-efficacy” has become ubiquitous in psychology and related fields. Thousands of articles on every imaginable aspect of self-efficacy have appeared in journals devoted to psychology, sociology, kinesiology, public health, medicine, nursing, and other fields.
Defining and Measuring Self-Efficacy
One of the best ways to get a clear sense of how self-efficacy is defined and measured is to distinguish it from related concepts. Self-efficacy is not perceived skill; it is what you believe you can do with your skills under certain conditions. It is not concerned with beliefs about your ability to perform specific and trivial motor acts, but with your beliefs about...
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Maddux, J.E. (2020). Measurement of General Self-Efficacy. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T.K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24612-3_57
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