Objectives

- Understand the term self-efficacy and self-confidence.

- Know how a coach can help develop these.

- Understand the term learned helplessness.

- Know how a coach can deal with this.

Key Words

• Self-efficacy - The degree of self-confidence experienced by a performer when placed in a specific situation.

• Learned Helplessness – Feelings experienced by an individual when he or she believes that failure is inevitable because of negative past experiences.

Video

• Watch the following video and make notes on the main points made for discussion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIIqxYJX_I4

Notes

Task 1

List examples of things that have happened in your sporting career that have impacted on your confidence both in a positive and negative fashion.

Positive Negative

                         

Team or Individual• The concept of self-efficacy does not just apply

to individuals, it is of equal importance to teams.

• Teams that are often successful develop a high level of self-efficacy. This enables them to win games late on or win tournaments when things are not going their way.

• Low levels of self-efficacy can also effect teams. Teams that always lose to a certain opposition or in a certain round can experience this effect.

Impact of Self-Efficacy

The individual performer’s level of self-efficacy can affect the following:

1. Choice of activity – high levels will ensure the athlete participates

2. Amount of effort applied – high levels will ensure the athlete is highly motivated and applies themselves fully.

3. Level of persistence – high levels will ensure the athlete works hard and maintains his or her effort and commitment.

Task 2

1. List 6 different sports in which you have participated.

2. Rank order them (1 being the highest) according to your personal level of self-efficacy.

3. Give reasons why you have a higher level of self-efficacy in the first two compared to the last two.

4. For your top-ranked activity, list three specific situations in which you have high levels of self-efficacy and explain why this is the case.

Development of Self-Efficacy Bandura (yes him again) suggested the following model with regards

to the development of self-efficacy:

Past Performance accomplishments

Vicarious experience (modelling)

Verbal Persuasion

Imaginal experiences

Emotional and physiological

arousal

Efficacy Expectations

Sporting Performance

Past Experiences/Past Performance Accomplishments

A performer who has experienced success and enjoyment is more likely to develop high levels of confidence

Example:

Vicarious Experiences (Modelling)

A performer who has watched others achieving the task will feel that he or she is able to do well, especially if the model is of similar ability.

Example:

Verbal Persuasion A performer who receives encouragement

about their abilities and actions, especially from significant others, will feel more confident about their actions.

Example:

Emotional Arousal A performer who is encouraged to perceive his or

her physiological and psychological arousal before participation in a positive manner is more likely to develop high self-efficacy. For example, increased heart rate should be viewed positively in terms of being ready to compete rather than being ill-prepared.

Example:

How do we develop high levels of self-efficacy?

Below are a list of strategies a coach can use to increase levels of self-efficacy:

- Experience early success- Observe demonstrations by competent others of similar

ability- Set realistic but challenging goals- Set performance goals rather than outcome goals- Offer verbal encouragement and positive feedback- Develop effective stress management techniques- Use mental rehearsal- Avoid social comparison with others- Use attributions correctly, controllable and unstable

factors.

Task 3

Remember all of the things in the last slide for a game of verbal tennis.

Learned Helplessness

‘Feelings experienced by an individual when he or she believes that failure is inevitable because of negative past experiences.’

Learned helplessness can come about due to:1. Inappropriate attributions2. Negative feedback3. Criticism4. Lack of success

High self-efficacy

Negative experience and inappropriate attributions

Specific LHGeneral LH

Learned Helplessness

Lower self-efficacy

Global/Specific

• Global/General LH – This suggests that the performer will think failure is inevitable in all sports or types of sport. For example, if a person has a negative experience when swimming they may be put off all water sports.

• Specific LH – This suggests that the performer will have low self-confidence in a specific situation. For example, not necessarily be concerned about all water-based activities but maybe just canoeing.

What can a coach do?

- Use all the strategies used to boost self-efficacy.

- One to one attention- Attribution re-training- Highlight performance goals- Use correct attributions i.e. attribute

failure to external factors.

The Debate 1:

Is it more important for a coach to take action to improve a performer’s self-efficacy or take action to ensure they don’t reach learned helplessness?

The Debate 2:

Is it easier to deal with global learned helplessness or specific learned helplessness?

The Debate 3:

As a coach is it more important to deal with stress and stress management or self-efficacy and learned helplessness?

Homework Once again answer the following questions and ensure they are to me

by Wednesday (either by hand or e-mail).1. Why is it important to develop a performer’s self-efficacy?2. Hoe does self-efficacy differ from self-confidence?3. Name the four main factors which contribute to an individual’s level

of self-efficacy.4. Why are performance accomplishments important to develop self-

efficacy?5. Explain the term vicarious experiences.6. Suggest two methods to develop self-efficacy.7. Suggest two reasons why learned helplessness may occur.8. Explain the differences between general and specific learned

helplessness.9. Outline two strategies to reduce the effects of learned helplessness.10. How might the inappropriate use of attributions contribute to

learned helplessness?

Extra Task

Write down a situation where a performer may have developed low self-efficacy. These will then be moved to another person to write down their solution to the problem.