Albert Bandura - Self-efficacy - Toward a Unifying Theory of Behavioral Change 1977.pdf

Psychological Review
1977, Vol. 84, No. 2, 191-215
Self-efficacy: Toward a Unifying Theory of Behavioral Change
Albert Bandura
Stanford University
The present article presents an integrative theoretical framework to explain
and to predict psychological changes achieved by different modes of treatment.
This theory states that psychological procedures, whatever their form, alter the
level and strength of self-efficacy. It is hypothesized that expectations of per-
sonal efficacy determine whether coping behavior will be initiated, how much
effort will be expended, and how long it will be sustained in the face of ob-
stacles and aversive experiences. Persistence in activities that are subjectively
threatening but in fact relatively safe produces, through experiences of mastery,
further enhancement of self-efficacy and corresponding reductions in defensive
behavior. In the proposed model, expectations of personal efficacy are derived
from four principal sources of information: performance plishments,
vicarious experience, verbal persuasion, and physiological states. The more de-
pendable the experiential sources, the greater are the changes in perceived self-
efficacy. A number of factors are identified as influencing the cognitive processing
of efficacy information arising from enactive, vicarious, exhortative, and emotive
sources. The differential power of diverse therapeutic procedures is analyzed in
terms of the postulated cognitive mechanism of operation. Findings are reported
from microanalyses of enactive, vicarious, and emotive modes of treatment that
support the hypothesized relationship between perceived self-efficacy and be-
havioral changes. Possible directions for further research are discussed.
Current developments in the field of be- apparent divergence of theory and practice
havioral change reflect two major divergent can be reconciled by postulating that cogni-
trends. The difference is especially evide