International Journal of Existential Psychology & Psychotherapy
Performance and Self-Perception: Study of Self-Efficacy Richard Graye Tyndale University Our personal beliefs about ourselves unfold like a self-fulfilling prophecy. What we believe is what we will receive, accomplish, and become. Human limitations are a construction of what we imagine ourselves capable, so it is integral that we perceive an accurate and positive self-concept to be empowered to be success in life. This is something that is at the kernel of all humanity: we are what we think we are. In popular psychology we tend to look at this area of our being as related to positive psychology, a branch of psychology that uncovers peoples strengths and promotes their positive functions to bring about positive human transformation. It is the purpose of this department of psychology to release more human potential and have people live better lives. In this field of psychology an area that has been studied the most and has produced the most empirical data to prove its validity is the study of self-efficacy. The definition of self- efficacy in the Positive Psychology textbook (2007) is, “Peoples beliefs in their capabilities to produce desired effects by their own actions” (p.174). Another leading authority in Psychology has marked self-efficacy to mean, “What I believe I can do with my skills under certain conditions (Snyder, 2007, p.174). The Bible also defines self-efficacy, “As he thinks in his heart, so he is” (KJV, 2007, pro. 23:7). The synthesis www.ExistentialPsychology.org
Volume 2, Number 2 June, 2008
of these three denotations defines self-efficacy to be about the personal belief of who we our, what we can do, and the level of our ability to produce the best results in response to a challenge in varying environments. Therefore, it is my view our performance is directly related to our self-perception. In this paper it will be demonstrated that self-efficacy can be cultivated in three different ways, through our personal beliefs, through our environment, and through coaching techniques. Personal Aspect We are not born with the view that we are able to conquer the world. Self-efficacy is a learned pattern of thinking. It is something that is cultivated within us from an early childhood and continues to grow and develop as we age. It initially comes from our parents instilling within us the belief that we will be high achievers, or capable of accomplishing a certain task. It is essentially important for such motivating verbal affirmation in the earlier stages of ones life because so much of that stage of life comes as a challenge from taking our first steps to going to the washroom for the first time. When we are older it is the positive transfer of our parents and teachers telling us that we are capable of producing the desired results that motivates us. Those encouraging words support much of our life lead independently from our home life. The condition of our life is now about our ability to draw our strength from the knowledge of our previous success and other agencies to reaffirm ourselves in the belief that what lies ahead—a challenge of difficulty—is not to be deviate from but con1