Third factor in the motivation to transfer category is Performance self-efficacy. Performance self-efficacy is an individual's general belief that they can change their behavior when they want to. It refers to that judgment about the capability to perform particular tasks. Individuals or learners who have high self-efficacy expectations, are more likely to attempt new behaviors and to persist with them, meet with success thus reinforcing their self efficacy expectations, and increase the likelihood of them taking on great challenges in the future. Self-efficacy although similar, is distinct from self-esteem. Self-esteem refers to a more general level of self-confidence and feelings of adequacy, whereas self-efficacy refers to a person's belief that he or she can successfully perform a specific task. An individual may have high self-esteem, but still know that for a given task, they may not be well equipped to handle it. Equally, an individual can be confident to complete a given task, but not be very satisfied with him or herself in general. Past mastery experience or past success, a powerful determinants of self-efficacy expectations. You could also of course say that high individual self-efficacy led to that past success in the first place. Self-efficacy is thought to be a task-specific version of self-esteem. Individuals are far more likely to engage in tasks and activities for which they have high self-efficacy. People behave in a way that realizes their initial beliefs, thus self-efficacy functions as a self-fulfilling prophecy. Person A has high ability and a lot of experience in creating presentations, but doesn't believe that he can create one for a CEO for an important event. Person B has average ability, and only a small amount of experience, yet has great confidence that she can work hard and create the presentation that's needed. Low self-efficacy means that person A lacks the motivation, and he tells his manager that he is unable to complete the task. Person B due to her high self-efficacy is highly motivated, works over time to learn how to create a high quality presentation, presents her work and earns high recognition for her efforts. Self-efficacy has influence over people's ability to learn, their motivation, and their performance. People will only often attempt to learn and perform those tasks which they believe they'll be successful. Albert Bandura's social cognitive theory, emphasizes how cognitive, behavioral, personal, and environmental factors, all interact to determine motivation and behavior. The influencing factors are not equal nor concurrent. Social cognitive theory is composed of four processes of goal realization. To complete a goal, a person goes through each of these levels, all of which are dependent on one another. One self observation, two self-evaluation, three self reaction, and four self-efficacy. Self-efficacy beliefs develop in individuals mainly four sources, a mastery experience, so becoming a knowledge expert or a highly proficient in a particular skill, vicarious experience of observing others, or social persuasion or influence from others, or somatic and emotional states like anxiety, stress, or mood states. Let's take a look at self-efficacy in the work environment now. According to Bandura's research, he concluded that there were two levels of self efficacy; high and low, which interacted with two different types of environment either responsive or unresponsive. If an individual has high self-efficacy, and is in a very responsive environment, they will be successful. Their positive can do attitude towards their ability, upward with the environment that's open to change, promote success and improves long-term motivation. A person who has high self-efficacy, and who is in an unresponsive environment is a pioneer. They'll be highly motivated, they'ill continually struggle and battle to apply any learning. However, a person with low self-efficacy, in a highly responsive environment, may well fall into a depressed state. They know the environment is open for change, but their lack of belief in their own ability stops them from trying and ultimately succeeding. If an individual has low self-efficacy, and they're in an environment which is unresponsive, and blocks change, then they will feel helpless and decide that all efforts are pointless. They'll lack any motivation, and will become completely inactive. High self-efficacy is also the desired state for good health and resilience. Clinicians observe that individuals with high self-efficacy, take responsibility for their health and their healing, and they cure themselves quicker and more effectively than those with low self-efficacy. Judgments of self-efficacy are measured along three different scales; magnitude, strength and generality. Magnitude measures the level of difficulty an individual feels is required to perform a certain task, strength refers to the level of conviction an individual has that they can perform at different levels of difficulty, and generality refers the degree to which expectation is generalized across different contexts and situations. The idea behind self-efficacy is that performance and motivation are in part determined by how effective people believe they can be. This is clearly illustrated by Gandhi's quote "If I have belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it, even if I may not have it at the beginning." Self-efficacy is also at the heart of Labi Siffre's lyrics in his song, "Something inside so strong".
