fei75766_ch17_534-568.indd 547  02/24/20 10:49 AM
Chapter 17    Bandura: Social Cognitive Theory547
company president willdevelop feelings of
discouragement, giveup,andfailtotrans -
ferproductive efforts toward asimilar but
lesser goal.
What Contributes to  
Self-Efficacy?
Personal efficacy isacquired, enhanced, or
decreased through anyoneorcombination 
offoursources: (1)mastery experiences, 
(2)social modeling, (3)social persuasion, and
(4)physical andemotional states (Bandura, 
1997). With eachmethod, information about 
oneself andtheenvironment iscognitively 
processed and,together withrecollections 
ofprevious experiences, alters perceived 
self-efficacy.
Mastery Experiences  Themost influential 
sources ofself-efficacy aremastery experi -
ences, thatis,pastperformances (Bandura, 
1997). Ingeneral, successful performance raises efficacy expectancies; failure tends 
tolower them. Thisgeneral statement hassixcorollaries. 
First, successful performance raises self-efficacy inproportion tothedifficulty 
ofthetask.Highly skilled tennis players gainlittleself-efficacy bydefeating clearly 
inferior opponents, buttheygainmuch byperforming wellagainst superior oppo -
nents. Second, tasks successfully accomplished byoneself aremore efficacious than
those completed withthehelpofothers. Insports, team accomplishments donot
increase personal efficacy asmuch asdoindividual achievements. Third, failure is
most likely todecrease efficacy when weknow thatweputforth ourbesteffort. To
failwhen onlyhalf-trying isnotasinefficacious astofallshort inspiteofourbest
efforts. Fourth, failure under conditions ofhighemotional arousal ordistress isnotas
self-debilitating asfailure under maximal conditions. Fifth, failure prior toestablish -
ingasense ofmastery ismore detrimental tofeelings ofpersonal efficacy thanlater
failure. Asixth andrelated corollary isthatoccasional failure haslittleeffect oneffi-
cacy, especially forpeople withagenerally highexpectancy ofsuccess.
Social Modeling  Asecond source ofefficacy issocial modeling: thatis,vicarious  
experiences provided byother people. Ourself-efficacy israised when weobserve the
accomplishments ofanother person ofequal competence, butislowered when wesee
apeerfail.When theother person isdissimilar tous,social modeling willhavelittle
effect onourself-efficacy. Anold,sedentary coward watching ayoung, active, brave 
circus performer successfully walkahighwirewillundoubtedly havelittleenhance -
ment ofefficacy expectations forduplicating thefeat.
Ingeneral, theeffects ofsocial modeling arenotasstrong asthose ofper-
sonal performance inraising levels ofefficacy, buttheycanhavepowerful effects 
Themost influential source ofself-efficacy is
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