My Self-Efficacy Philosophy

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MY SELF-EFFICACY PHILOSOPHY My Self-Efficacy Philosophy An Overview Mike Holmes Educational Psychology, Psych 225 Johnson County Community College “I Think I Can! I Think I Can!” Recently I read the children’s story The Little Engine That Could to my grandson. It is a delightful tale of defying impossible odds by believing in one’s self. Defying impossible odds, the little engine did what was almost impossible to everyone but him, yet was there a message that was missed in the reading of this book? It has been about 60 years since this book was originally published with the lesson that anything is possible if you truly believe in yourself, yet many of us are hampered by how difficult it is to pursue our dreams and we are handicapped with self-doubt and negative thoughts that are either “that is so difficult” or “I don’t think I can do it” as part of our daily vocabulary. While many positive mental attitude speakers and writers such as Thomas D. Whillhite have espoused the positive attitude of “Think success and it will happen….Think failure and it will happen,” there is a scientific term - “self-efficacy” – that was introduced by Albert Bandura MY SELF-EFFICACY PHILOSOPHY in 1986 (Snowman & McCown, 2013, p. 187.). Almost four decades later, the scientific potency is still evident. Not to be confused with self-esteem, self-efficacy is not about self-worth. Rather, self-efficacy is directed to believing one can produce a result that is desired and that goals can be achieved through self-regulation and determination. Merely thinking one can achieve a goal doesn’t make it happen nor does it truly describe self-efficacy. (Cherry, 2008,). The truth is -- there’s so much more to “I think I can” than childhood fiction or a clichéd, feel-good maxim, spouted from someone shilling his next great self-help book. Is there anyone who does not have
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