Self-Efficacy in Changing Societies

This book is a collection of articles reviewing the state of research into self-efficacy in a variety of contexts (see the table of contents below). It's an interesting book, somewhat challenging if you are not a professional or academic in this space.

The takeaway is that perceived self-efficacy, defined by psychologist Albert Bandura as one's belief in one's ability to succeed in specific situations or accomplish a task can play a major role in how one approaches goals, tasks, and challenges. (Luszczynska, A., & Schwarzer, R. (2005). Social cognitive theory. In M. Conner & P. Norman (Eds.), Predicting health behaviour (2nd ed. rev., pp. 127-169). Buckingham, England: Open University Press. cited in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-efficacy).

Each article expands on the specific application of self-efficacy theories (and frequently compares them with other theories used in the application area under discussion) and reviews research and how it supports the theories.

A basic knowledge of statistics is helpful to reading the book since the discussion of research frequently includes the statistical analysis and inferences about causality and magnitude of self-efficacy in the areas of behavior being studied.

It's not a light read but there is a lot of detail about self-efficacy in a wide variety of contexts. Recommended if you are interested in understanding self-efficacy theory in a fairly in-depth psychologically rigorous way. Stay away if you want a fast, summarized introduction with little effort needed to read.

Table of Contents

1 Exercise of personal and collective efficacy in changing societies
2 Life trajectories in changing societies
3 Developmental analysis of control beliefs
4 Impact of family processes on control beliefs
5 Cross-cultural perspectives on self-efficacy
6 Self-efficacy in stressful life transitions
7 Self-efficacy and educational development
8 Self-efficacy in career choice and development
9 Changing risk behaviors and adopting health behaviors: The role of self-efficacy beliefs
10 Self-efficacy and addictive behavior