Overview of Bandura's Self-Efficacy Theory and Sports Psychology

This essay provides an overview of Albert Bandura's theory of self-efficacy within the context of sports psychology. It defines self-efficacy as an individual's confidence in their ability to influence events and achieve goals, highlighting its significance in positive psychology. The essay details Bandura's four primary sources of self-efficacy: mastery experiences, social modeling, social persuasion, and psychological responses. It then applies these concepts to a football coaching scenario, suggesting how coaches can utilize these principles to enhance player confidence and performance. The essay emphasizes the importance of observational learning and verbal encouragement in fostering self-efficacy among athletes, supported by research findings on the relationship between coaches and players' perceptions of self-efficacy. The essay concludes by highlighting the role of coaches in shaping player behavior and motivation through the application of self-efficacy principles.

Running head: INTRODUCTION TO SPORTS AND EXERCISE PSYCHOLOGY
Overview of Bandura's Theory of Self-Efficacy and its application is sports
Name of the Student
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Author Note

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INTRODUCTION TO SPORTS AND EXERCISE PSYCHOLOGY
Albert Bandura is an eminent psychologist who has widens the understanding of the
people on the Human psyche along with his contributions in positive psychology. However,
his theory of self-efficacy is a part of social cognitive theory is elementary to positive
psychology and peruses to shape thinking in this field. According to Bandura, Self-efficacy is
the confidence in an individual’s capability to influence incidents that affect one’s life and get
control over those events are experienced (Maddux & Kleiman, 2012). Self-efficacy mainly
associates to one’s perception of their capability to attain a goal. It is mainly the belief exists
in individuals that they are capable of performing in a way that can take them to the targeted
goal. Therefore, self-efficacy theory is mainly the expectation that makes an individual
confident enough that they can master a condition and create a positive result out of it.
Bandura has highlighted four major sources of self-efficacy, which are as follows-
1. Mastery Experiences- An effectual way that can built a powerful recognition of
efficacy is through successfully performing a given task which strengths the
awareness of self-efficacy in the individual.
2. Social modeling- Another important source is when one observes that other people
can successfully complete a task. When similar person are perceived successfully
doing a task actually makes the observer raise their beliefs that they also have the
potentials to do it (Duarte, Garganta & Fonseca, 2014)
3. .
4. Social persuasion- When people are encouraged verbally by others leads them to
leave aside their self-doubts and pushes them to give their best for the task in hand.
5. Psychological Responses- An important role is also played by an individual’s
responses and emotional reactions. The way a person feels about their capabilities to
perform a given job is greatly affected by his mood, reactions, stress and emotions
(Schwarzer, 2014).
Therefore, from the sources of self-efficacy it is evident that it can help the football
coach to organize practices in such a way so that young players can become as well as stay
confident in the pitch. Before starting a practice session, the coach can take the players to
observe another similar group of players playing football. Through observing, the coach can
make this team boost up their confidence that if they can play it well then why not these
players can (Gilson, Chow & Feltz, 2012). Then another major way that will be very much
helpful is by encouraging the players verbally. If the plays will get constant, encouragement
from their coach while they are playing this will surely make them confident enough to push

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INTRODUCTION TO SPORTS AND EXERCISE PSYCHOLOGY
themselves more and give 200 percent more in the game. However, from a research example,
which was done, to find out the relevance of the coaches in football practices to make the
players understand the influence of their self-efficacy it was found that there exists a unity
between the coach and the players on a rank of significance of the appraised factors. Thus,
they get motivated and adopt similar behaviors that of their coaches in the practice session
which in a help them gain self-efficacy and show the confidence in the pitch.

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INTRODUCTION TO SPORTS AND EXERCISE PSYCHOLOGY
References
Duarte, D., Garganta, J., & Fonseca, A. (2014). Importance of Efficacy in Achieving
Coaches’ Success in Football. A Perspective from Elite Athletes and
Coaches. International Journal of Sports Science, 4(1), 14-20.
Gilson, T. A., Chow, G. M., & Feltz, D. L. (2012). Self‐efficacy and athletic squat
performance: Positive or negative influences at the within‐and between‐levels of
analysis. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 42(6), 1467-1485.
Maddux, J. E., & Kleiman, E. M. (2012). Self‐efficacy. The Wiley Handbook of Positive
Clinical Psychology, 89-101.
Schwarzer, R. (Ed.). (2014). Self-efficacy: Thought control of action. Taylor & Francis.