What is Self-efficacy and What Role Does it Play?

 All social learning theorists agree that there are important cognitive processes which need to be studied as well in order to explain behavior. These cannot be observed but are inferred from observing actual behavior. How learning occurs in the social learning theory has been subject to several investigations.  Bandura has been credited for adding the cognitive processes element to the behaviorist learning theory and he contends that a person can regulate their own behavior to some extent by visualizing self-generating consequences.  According to Bandura, self-efficacy is our own estimate of how competent we feel we are likely to be in a particular environment. This self-assessment influences how effective we are in interacting with others and our environment.  A video on self-efficacy http://youtu.be/wrzzbaomLmc