Performance accomplishments, vicarious experiences, verbal persuasion and…

The idea

Self-efficacy is a performer's belief in their ability to succeed at a specific task in a specific situation. Bandura identified four sources. Performance accomplishments are the strongest: past success at a similar task raises efficacy, repeated failure lowers it. Vicarious experiences involve watching a similar other succeed, which raises the observer's belief that they too can succeed. Verbal persuasion is encouragement or feedback from a credible significant other, such as a coach, and works best when realistic and combined with evidence. Emotional arousal is the performer's interpretation of physiological state: reading raised heart rate as readiness helps, reading it as fear harms. A gymnast who has landed a vault before, watches a teammate land it, hears the coach's calm instruction and interprets pre-performance nerves as useful is drawing on all four sources.

What earns the marks

• Performance accomplishments: previous success or failure at the task is the most influential source of self-efficacy.
• Vicarious experiences: observing a similar model succeed raises the observer's belief in their own capability.
• Verbal persuasion: credible encouragement or feedback from a significant other can raise or lower self-efficacy.
• Emotional arousal: the performer's interpretation of physiological and emotional state affects self-efficacy, with arousal read as readiness helping and arousal read as fear harming.

Common mistakes and how to put them right

• Treating confidence and self-efficacy as identical.

  Put it right: Self-efficacy is task- and situation-specific belief, whereas confidence is a broader, more general belief, so a performer can be confident overall yet have low efficacy for one skill.

• Assuming verbal persuasion alone is enough.

  Put it right: Encouragement works best when realistic and supported by evidence such as past success, so a coach's praise without any basis is unlikely to raise efficacy.

• Believing arousal is always harmful.

  Put it right: The effect depends on how the performer interprets the arousal, so the same raised heart rate can help one performer and harm another.

Exam tips

• Name the source first, then explain its effect on the performer's belief, so each mark-earning point is clearly identifiable.
• Use a specific sporting example for each source, such as a netball shooter recalling previous successful shots for performance accomplishments.
• When discussing emotional arousal, state the performer's interpretation rather than the physiological change alone, because interpretation is what links arousal to self-efficacy.