TEACHING STRATEGY IN NURSING

MODULE 1
HEALTH EDUCATION PERSPECTIVE

A. Historical development in health education

• Mid-1800s
– Nursing was acknowledged as unique discipline
– Teaching as an important role of nurses as caregivers: promoting the health of the well public
• Educating other nurses for professional practice

Florence Nightingale
– Ultimate educator
– Teaching nurses, physicians and health officials—importance of proper conditions in hospitals
and homes to improve the health of people.
– Importance of teaching patients of the need for adequate nutrition, fresh air , exercise, and
personal hygiene to improve the well being
– Early 1900s ---public health nurses in this country clearly understood the significance of the
role of the nurse as teacher in preventing disease and in maintaining the health of society.
– For decades, then, patient teaching has been recognized as an independent nursing function.
– nurses has always educated others-patients, families and colleagues
– It is from this roots that nurses have expanded their practice to include the broader concepts of
health and illness
– In 1918, The National League of Nursing Education in the US (Now NLN –National League for
Nurses) observed the importance of health teaching as a function within the scope of nursing
practice.
– 2 decades later, this organization recognized nurses as agents for the promotion of health and
the prevention of illness in all settings in which they practiced
– By 1950,, the NLNE had identified course content in nursing school curricula to prepare nurses
to assume the role as teachers of others.

Recently, the NLN developed the first certified nurse educator (CNE) exam to raise the “visibility
and status of the academic nurse educator role as am advanced professional practice discipline with a
defined practice setting”
• American Nurses Association has for years put forth statements on the functions, standards and
qualifications for nursing practice of which, patient teaching is a key element.
• The ICN (International Council of Nurses) has long endorsed the nurse’s role as educator to be an
essential component of nursing care delivery.
• Today, all state nurse practice acts (NPAs) include teaching within the scope of nursing practice
responsibilities.
• Nursing career ladders often incorporate teaching effectiveness as a measure of excellence in
practice.
• By teaching patients and families as well as health care personnel, nurses can achieve the
professional goal of providing cost effective, safe, and high quality care.

As early as 1993 the Joint Commission (JC) formerly the Joint Commission on Accreditation of
Health care Organizations (JCAHO) established nursing standards for patient education.
• These standards , known as mandates, describe the type and level of care, treatment and services
that must be provided by an agency or organization to receive accreditation
• 1980s the role of the nurse as educator has undergone a paradigm shift, evolving from what once
was a disease oriented approach to a more prevention –oriented approach.
• Education , once done as part of discharge plans at the end of hospitalization

As described by Grueninger (1995) this transition toward wellness has entailed a progression
from disease oriented patient education (DOPE) to prevention oriented patient education (POPE)
• To ultimately become a health oriented patient education (HOPE)
• This new approach has changed the role of nurse from one of wise healer to expert advisor/teacher
to facilitator of change.
• The emphasis is now on empowering patients to use their potentials, abilities and resources to the
fullest (Glanville 2000)

Role of the nurse as health educators

1. Serving as a clinical instructor for students in the practice setting.
2. Clinical preceptors and mentors to ensure that nursing students meet their expected learning
outcomes

The role of the clinical educator

– Is a dynamic one that requires the teacher to actively engage students to become competent and
caring professionals
– Role – training the trainer

FRIAS – 2A 1/12
 – That is preparing the nursing staff through continuing education, in service programs, and staff
development to maintain and improve their clinical skills and teaching abilities
– The key to the success of our profession is for nurses to teach each other nurses
• The professional teacher – Licensed professional who possesses dignity and reputation with
high moral values as well as technical and professional competence

Nurses as Teachers
– With shorter hospital stays, increase in community based care, and the growth of health care
consumerism, we can expect that staff nurse will have to be skilled teachers.

Health education
– Is a process concerned with designing, implementing, and evaluating educational programs that
enable families, groups, organizations and communities to play active roles in achieving, protecting
and sustaining health.
Purpose
• Is to contribute to health and well being by promoting lifestyles, community actions and conditions
that make it possible to live healthful lives
• Health education= is also defined as any combination of learning experience designed to facilitate
voluntary adaptations of behavior conducive to health.
• Refers to the act of providing information and learning experience for purposes of behavior change
for health betterment of the client.
• It is a process with intellectual , psychological and social dimensions relating to activities that
increase the abilities of people
Process of health education
1. Physical Health
2. Emotional health
3. Mental health
4. Social health
5. Spiritual health
Key aspects
1. Planned opportunity
2. Specific setting
3. Program series or events
4. Based on what was previously learned
5. Comprehensively emphasizes how various aspects of health interrelate and how health affects the
quality of life
6. Interaction between qualified educator and learner

Purposes why health educators plan and conduct heath teachings

• Be aware of the values of health
• Develop skills
• Acquire and apply concepts and information received
• Develop and discuss opinions
• Formulate accurate and effective decision making

Purposes of health education

1. Propagating health promotion and disease prevention
2. Maybe used to modify or continue health behaviors if necessary
3. Provides health information and services
4. Emphasis on good health habits and practices
5. Means for communication
6. Advocacy

Types of health education

1. Information
2. Health services
3. A friendly environment

Purposes, Goals, and Benefits of Client and Staff Education

Purpose:
– To increase the competence and confidence of clients for self management
Goal:
– To increase the responsibility and independence of clients for self-care
Benefits of Client Education:
– Increase consumer satisfaction
– Improve quality of life
– Ensure continuity of care
– Decrease client anxiety
– Effectively reduce the complications of illness and incidence of disease
– Promote adherence to treatment plans
FRIAS – 2A 2/12
 – Maximize independence in the performance of ADL
– Energize and empower consumers to become actively involved in the planning of their care

Discipline – A branch of knowledge or instruction

Profession – is an occupation that properly involves a liberal, scientific or artistic education

Characteristics of a profession by Upton
1. Provide a unique and essential social services
2. Require of its members an extensive period of preparation ( BSN, MAN)
3. Have a theoretical base underlying its practice
4. Have a system of internal controls that tends to regulate the behavior of its members
5. Have a culture peculiar to the profession
6. Be sanctioned by the community
7. Have an association that is representative of all and can speak on behalf of all the members of the
occupation

PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH EDUCATION

1. Good health practices
2. Use of preventive services like immunization, screening, antenatal and child health clinics
3. The correct use of medications and the pursuit of rehabilitation regimen
4. The recognition of early symptoms of disease and promoting early referral
5. Community support for primary health care and government control measures.

2. Issues and trends in health education

• In the USA , patients are being discharge “quicker and earlier” due to:
– New “health care economics
– Advances in medical technology
Nurse’s greater involvement
1. Client teaching in self care management
2. Discharge planning
3. Providing for continuing care

Practice in particular and the health care system in general

• Lifestyle related and preventable thru educational intervention
• Increase in chronic and incurable conditions requires the individual and families become informed
participants to manage their own illnesses
• Advance technology
• Increasingly aware that client health literacy is an essential skill if health outcomes are to be
improved .
• Client education improves
• Increasing number of self help groups
The call for developing global health strategies with the integration of health education and action is
now a clamor that can no longer be ignored.

3. Theories in health education

1. Bandura’s Self Efficacy Theory
2. Pender’s Health Promotion Theory
3. Health Belief Model
4. Green’s Precede-Proceed Model

B. Perspective on teaching and learning

1. Overview of education on health care

• Teaching function will always be an integral part of the duties of a professional nurse. This dates
back to the time when Nursing was given recognition as a discipline in the 1800s and health
education became a unique and independent function of the nurse.. This was regarded as the
period of educated Nursing.
• Florence Nightingale, who has earned the title of “Mother of Modern Nursing”, was the epitome of
the true nurse educator as she advocated the important function of teaching to promote health and
recovery through a clean, pleasant and inhabitable environment
• 1918- The NLNE recognized the importance of health teaching as a responsibility of the nurse for
the promotion of health and prevention of illness in different settings.
• 1950- NLNE specified the course content dealing with teaching skills, developmental and
educational Psychology and Principles of teaching and learning as part of the nursing curriculum of
all nursing schools
• THE ICN has endorsed health education as an essential requisite for the delivery of nursing care.
• Today, NPAs in USA “universally include teaching within the scope of nursing practice
responsibilities. They are expected to assist clients to maintain health, prevent disease, manage

FRIAS – 2A 3/12
 illness and render supportive care to family members through health teachings/education as a
means to providing cost-effectiveness, safe and high quality care.
• 1993- JCAHO delineated nursing standards or mandates for patient education which ARE BASED on
positive outcomes of patient care. the teachings must be patient and family oriented.
• 1998- The Pew Health Professionals Commission released a follow up on health professional
practice and more than half of the recommendations were on the importance of patient and staff
education and the role of the nurse as educator.

Concepts of teaching, learning, education process vis-a-vis nursing process, historical

foundation s for the teaching role of the nurse
Education Process – is a systematic, sequential planned course, planned course of action
with teaching and learning as its two major interdependent functions.
Key players:
1. Teaching – is a deliberate intervention involving the planning and implementation of
instructional activities and experiences.
• Instruction – involves communicating of information about a specific skill: cognitive,
affective, psychomotor.
2. Learning – a change in behavior (knowledge, skill, attitudes)
- Acquisition of knowledge of all kinds such as: Abilities, Habits, Attitudes, Values, Skills

Patient education – a process of assisting people to learn health related behaviours (knowledge, skill,
attitudes, values)

Education – is an interactive process of imparting knowledge through sharing, explaining, clarifying and
synthesizing the substantive content of the learning process in order to arrive at a positive judgment and
well developed wisdom and behavior

Patient teaching – is the process of influencing patient behavior and producing changes in knowledge,
attitudes and skills necessary in maintaining or improving health.
Purposes of patient teaching:
• 1. Increase clients awareness
• 2. Increase client’s satisfaction
• 3. Improve quality of life
• 4. Ensure contuinity of care
• 5. Decrease patient anxiety
• 6. Increase self reliant behavior
• 7. Reduce effectively the incidence of complications of illness
• 8. promote adherence to health crea treatments
• 9. Maximize indpendence in the performance of ADL
• S to become actively involved in the planning of their care

Health – is the sense of being physically fit, mentally stable and socially comfortable. It encompasses
more than the state of being free from diseases.

3 Pillars of the Teaching-Learning Process

1. Teacher
2. Learner
3. Subject matter
Contributions of teaching and learning:
1. The vital role of the teacher is motivating students to learn
2. Inspiring them to go out of their comfort zones, to stretch and develop the 98% portion of their
brain which is still untapped and unused.

Education Process vs. Nursing Process

• Assessment
 Nursing process: Appraise physical and psychosocial needs
 Education process: Ascertain learning needs, readiness to learn, and learning styles
• Planning
 Nursing process; Develop care plan based on mutual goal setting to meet individual needs
 Education process: Develop teaching plan based on mutually predetermined behavioral
outcomes to meet individual needs
• Implementation
 Nursing process: Carry out nursing care interventions using standard procedures
 Education process: Perform the act of teaching using specific instructional methods and
tools
• Evaluation
 Nursing process: Determine physical and psychosocial outcomes
 Education process: Determine behavior changes in knowledge, attitudes and skills

Nurse Educator
FRIAS – 2A 4/12
 1. The primary source of knowledge of learners in nursing
2. The primary catalyst for the learning process
3. A role model for nursing students
4. An active facilitator, who demonstrates and teaches patient care to nursing students in the
classroom and clinical settings
5. A source of health care information and patient care to clients of care
6. Is diligent; keeps abreast of developments in his or her field through continuing education, reading
of nursing journals and active participation in workshops and seminars

Role of the Nurse as a Health Educator

1. Provide clinically competent and coordinated care to the public
2. Involve patients and their families in the decision making process regarding health interventions
3. Provide clients with education and counselling on ethical issues
4. Expand public access to effective care
5. Ensure cost effective and appropriate care for the consumer
6. Provide for prevention of illness and promotion of healthy lifestyle for all Americans
• Effective health education programs are envisioned to cut health care costs and prevent the
premature onset of disease and disability
• The battle cry is to” attain and maintain healthy lifestyle through health education” since the
leading cause s of morbidity and, mortality are lifestyle –related diseases.

Health Educator
• Is a practitioner professionally prepared in the field of health education, who demonstrate
competence in both theory and practice and accepts responsibility in advancing the aims of the
health education process.
A health educator performs the following:
1. Collaborates with health specialists and civic groups in assessing community health needs and
availability of resources and services and in developing goals for meeting health needs of clients
2. Designs and conducts evaluation and diagnostic studies to assess the quality and performance
of health education programs.
3. Develops and implements health education and promotion programs such as training
workshops , conferences and school or community projects
4. Develops operational plans and policies necessary to achieve heath education objectives and
services

Hallmarks of a Good Teaching

What constitutes good teaching?
1. Following: behaviors of both nursing students and faculty generally agree contribute to effective
teaching in nursing, especially clinical teaching
2. Effective teaching in more general terms

Hallmarks of Effective Teaching in Nursing

In 1966, Jacobson
6 major categories:
• Professional Competence
• Interpersonal Relationship
• Teaching Practices
• Personal Characteristics
• Evaluation Practices
• Availability to students

1. Professional competence
A. Thorough knowledge of subject matter
B. Proper demonstration of skills
C. Expands knowledge through reading, research, clinical practice and continuing education

2. Interpersonal relationships with students – most important

A. Takes personal interest in the welfare of the student;
B. Sensitive to their feelings and problems;
C. Conveys respect for them;
D. Alleviates their anxieties;
E. Accessible for conferences;
F. Fair
G. Permits learners to express differing points of view
H. Creates an atmosphere in which they feel free to ask questions
I. Conveys a sense of warmth
3 basic therapeutic approaches for the educators can help learners maintain self esteem and minimize
anxieties
1. Empathetic Listening – teachers listen to learners and try to see the world through their eyes.

FRIAS – 2A 5/12
 2. Acceptance – accept learners as they are; whether or not you like them. Affirming the fact that
learners are worthwhile people, even though different from yourself, enhances their self esteem
and convince s them that you have faith in their desire and ability to learn.
3. Honest communication – need to know something about the teacher’s thoughts regarding the topic
and regarding the learner’s abilities and performance. Openness between the educator and
students creates a relaxed atmosphere

3. Desirable personal characteristics

A. Charisma (personal magnetism)
B. Enthusiasm
C. Cheerfulness
D. Self-control
E. Patience

F. Flexibility
G. A sense of humor
H. A good speaking voice
I. Self-confidence
J. Willingness to admit errors
K. Caring attitude

4. Teaching practices
A. Mechanics
B. Methods
C. Skills in the classroom and clinical practice

5. Evaluation practices
A. Clearly communicating expectations
B. Providing timely feedback on student progress
C. Correcting the students tactfully
D. Being fair in the evaluation processes
E. Giving tests that are pertinent to the subject matter and assignments

6. Availability to students
• Nursing students, especially those taking courses, expect the instructor to be available to them
when needed.
• This may take the form of being there in stressful clinical situations, physically helping students to
give nursing care, giving appropriate amounts of supervision, freely answering questions and
acting as a resource person during clinical learning experiences
• One of the great stressors for teachers in nursing is trying to be available to students or patients
who need instructions, at the precise time they need it.
• The reality is that teachers usually have many other students or patients they are working with and
they cannot be in six places at once.

Other important characteristics of a teacher include…

1. Teacher clarity
• Deals with behaviors that teachers use to make what is to be learned as intelligible,
comprehensible and learnable as possible.
• A clear teacher is one who:
• Logically organizes instruction
• Explains what is to be learned
• Uses simple terms in presenting new materials
• Constantly assesses whether student can understand and follow the teacher’s train of thought
• Uses examples, whenever possible
• Uses repetitions and summarizations
Commonalities (common characteristics
1. Viewing a learner as collaborators , which lead to the teachers being respectful and supportive of
the learners
2. Admitting weaknesses. They made themselves somewhat vulnerable when they admitted to
students that they did not know an answer or had no experience in a certain field of knowledge
3. They recognized when their students were having difficulty and were able to figure out what to do
help.
• To be a good teacher, you have to really have the desire to be good because it takes a lot of
work to succeed in every aspect of teaching.
• Is also a form of parenting-caring about students , knowing when to set boundaries and
knowing a student’s potential
• A good teacher is concerned with more than just what students know, he or she should also be
concerned wit student’s beliefs, values, and relationship. In short a good teacher cares.
• Are committed And creative. They are committed in that they don’t’ want the clock, often
working long hours.
FRIAS – 2A 6/12
 • Creative in the attempts to stimulate intellectual inquisitiveness in their students and to help
students explore their world.

2. Teacher style – involves interpersonal, professional and personal aspects of good teaching which
includes:
• A blend of form or content which is a combination of certain ways of talking, moving, relating and
thinking; scholarliness, intelligence and sincerity;
• The teaching persona which is the ability to stimulate the student’s interest and enthusiasm for the
subject;
• A pleasant speaking voice
• The use of a variety of teaching strategies, jokes, humor
• Good timing wherein the teacher knows how to adapt the speed of delivery for individual learners
or the whole class and knowing when they are ready for a new material, when to stop and when to
shift gears.
Effective means to change the style
• Discuss your teaching with a knowledgeable peer or consultant
• Reading books on teacher style

Seven Principles of Good Practice Teaching in Undergraduate Education

1. Encourage student-faculty contact.
2. Encourage cooperation among students.
3. Encourage active learning.
4. Give prompt feedback.
5. Emphasize time on task.
6. Communicate high expectations.
7. Respect diverse talents and ways of learning.

Barriers to education
Factors impeding the nurse’s ability to deliver educational services:
1. Lack of time to teach
2. Many nurses admit that they do not feel competent or confident with regard to their teaching skills
3. Personal characteristics of the nurse educator
4. Low priority
5. The lack of space and privacy in the various environmental settings
6. An absence of third-party reimbursement
7. Some nurses and physicians question whether patient education is effective as a means to improve
health outcomes.
8. There seems to be a “malfunction” of the healthcare team
9. Both formal and informal teaching

Obstacles to Learning
Factors that negatively affect the ability of the learner to attend to and process information:
1. The stress of acute and chronic illness, anxiety, sensory deficits, and low literacy in patients.
2. The negative influence of the hospital environment itself, resulting in loss of control, lack of
privacy, and social isolation, can interfere with a client’s active role in health decision making and
involvement in the teaching-learning process.
3. Lack of time to learn due to rapid patient discharge from care can discourage and frustrate the
learner, impeding the ability and willingness to learn.
4. Personal characteristics of the learner have major effects on the degree to which predetermined
behavioral outcomes are achieved.
A. Readiness to learn

B. Motivation to learn
C. Compliance
D. Developmental stage characteristics
E. Learning styles
F. The extent of behavioral changes needed can overwhelm learners and dissuade them from
attending to and accomplishing learning objectives and goals.
• Lack of support and ongoing positive reinforcement from the nurse and significant others
serves to block the potential for learning.
• Psychological obstacles to accomplishing behavioral change:
• Denial of learning needs
• Resentment of authority
• Lack of willingness to take responsibility
- The inconvenience, complexity, inaccessibility, fragmentation, and dehumanization of the healthcare
system often result in frustration and abandonment of efforts by the learner to participate in and
comply with the goals and objectives for learning.

Principles of Learning
1. Satisfying stimulus
FRIAS – 2A 7/12
 2. Reinforcement
3. Over learning
4. Verbal and non-verbal associations
5. Cognitive –perceptual readiness and internal motivation
6. The ordering principles
7. Stimulus response associations and discrimination abilities
8. Cognitive construct
9. Multiple discrimination and generalization responses
10. Previous knowledge
11. Critical thinking skills
12. Flexibility and adaptation
13. Feedback
14. Balanced growth and development patterns

Changes :
– Growth – which is quantitative involving increase in the size of the parts of the body
– Development – which is qualitative involving gradual changes in character

PENDERS HEALTH PROMOTION MODEL

The Health Promotion Model was designed by Nola J. Pender to be a “complementary counterpart to
models of health protection.” It defines health as a positive dynamic state rather than simply the absence
of disease. Health promotion is directed at increasing a patient’s level of well-being. The health promotion
model describes the multidimensional nature of persons as they interact within their environment to
pursue health.

Pender’s model focuses on three areas: individual characteristics and experiences, behavior-specific
cognitions and affect, and behavioral outcomes. The theory notes that each person has unique personal
characteristics and experiences that affect subsequent actions. The set of variables for behavior specific
knowledge and affect have important motivational significance. The variables can be modified through
nursing actions. Health promoting behavior is the desired behavioral outcome, which makes it the end
point in the Health Promotion Model. These behaviors should result in improved health, enhanced
functional ability and better quality of life at all stages of development. The final behavioral demand is also
influenced by the immediate competing demand and preferences, which can derail intended actions for
promoting health.

The Health Promotion Model makes four assumptions:

Individuals seek to actively regulate their own behavior.

Individuals, in all their biopsychosocial complexity, interact with the environment, progressively
transforming the environment as well as being transformed over time.

Health professionals, such as nurses, constitute a part of the interpersonal environment, which exerts
influence on people through their life span.

Self-initiated reconfiguration of the person-environment interactive patterns is essential to changing

behavior.

There are thirteen theoretical statements that come from the model. They provide a basis for
investigative work on health behaviors. The statements are:

Prior behavior and inherited and acquired characteristics influence beliefs, affect, and enactment of health-
promoting behavior.

Persons commit to engaging in behaviors from which they anticipate deriving personally valued benefits.

Perceived barriers can constrain commitment to action, a mediator of behavior as well as actual behavior.

Perceived competence or self-efficacy to execute a given behavior increases the likelihood of commitment
to action and actual performance of the behavior.

Greater perceived self-efficacy results in fewer perceived barriers to a specific health behavior.

Positive affect toward a behavior results in greater perceived self-efficacy, which can in turn, result in
increased positive affect.

When positive emotions or affect are associated with a behavior, the probability of commitment and action
is increased.

FRIAS – 2A 8/12
Persons are more likely to commit to and engage in health-promoting behaviors when significant others
model the behavior, expect the behavior to occur, and provide assistance and support to enable the
behavior.

Families, peers, and health care providers are important sources of interpersonal influence that can
increase or decrease commitment to and engagement in health-promoting behavior.

Situational influences in the external environment can increase or decrease commitment to or

participation in health-promoting behavior.

The greater the commitments to a specific plan of action, the more likely health-promoting behaviors are
to be maintained over time.

Commitment to a plan of action is less likely to result in the desired behavior when competing demands
over which persons have little control require immediate attention.

Persons can modify cognitions, affect, and the interpersonal and physical environment to create incentives
for health actions.

The major concepts of the Health Promotion Model are individual characteristics and experiences, prior
behavior, and the frequency of the similar behavior in the past. Direct and indirect effects on the likelihood
of engaging in health-promoting behaviors.

Personal factors are categorized as biological, psychological and socio-cultural. These factors are
predictive of a given behavior and shaped by the nature of the target behavior being considered. Biological
personal factors include variables such as age gender body mass index pubertal status, aerobic capacity,
strength, agility, or balance. Psychological personal factors include variables such as self esteem self
motivation personal competence perceived health status and definition of health. Socio-cultural personal
factors include variables such as race ethnicity, accuculturation, education and socioeconomic status.

Perceived benefits of action are the anticipated positive outcomes that will occur from health behavior.
Perceived barriers to action are anticipated, imagined, or real blocks and costs of understanding a given
behavior. Perceived self-efficacy is the judgment or personal capability to organize and execute a health-
promoting behavior. Perceived self efficacy influences perceived barriers to action so higher efficacy result
in lowered perceptions of barriers to the performance of the behavior.

Activity-related affect is defined as the subjective positive or negative feeling that occurs based on the
stimulus properties of the behavior itself. They influence self-efficacy, which means the more positive the
subjective feeling, the greater the feeling of efficacy. In turn, increased feelings of efficacy can generate
further positive affect.

Interpersonal influences are cognition-concerning behaviors, beliefs, or attitudes of the others.

Interpersonal influences include: norms (expectations of significant others), social support (instrumental
and emotional encouragement) and modeling (vicarious learning through observing others engaged in a
particular behavior). Primary sources of interpersonal influences are families, peers, and healthcare
providers.

Situational influences are personal perceptions and cognitions that can facilitate or impede behavior.
They include perceptions of options available, as well as demand characteristics and aesthetic features of
the environment in which given health promoting is proposed to take place. Situational influences may
have direct or indirect influences on health behavior.

Within the behavioral outcome, there is a commitment to a plan of action, which is the concept of
intention and identification of a planned strategy that leads to implementation of health behavior.
Competing demands are those alternative behaviors over which individuals have low control because there
are environmental contingencies such as work or family care responsibilities. Competing preferences are
alternative behavior over which individuals exert relatively high control.

Health-promoting behavior is the endpoint or action outcome directed toward attaining a positive
health outcome such as optimal well-being, personal fulfillment, and productive living.

BANNDURAS SEL EFFECACY THEORY

Self Efficacy Theory (SET)
Alberta Bendura
This page was last updated on February 12, 2012

Introduction

Self-efficacy theory was originated from Social Cognitive theory by Alberta Bendura.

FRIAS – 2A 9/12
Self-efficacy is the belief that one has the power to produce that effect by completing a given task or
activity related to that competency.
Self-efficacy relates to a person’s perception of their ability to reach a goal.
It is the belief that one is capable of performing in a certain manner to attain certain goals.
It is the expectation that one can master a situation, and produce a positive outcome.
Self-efficacy is an important concept in positive psychology.
Major Concepts

Bandura’s Social Cognitive Model says that there are 3 factors that influence self-efficacy:
Behaviors
Environment, and
personal/cognitive factors.
They all effect each other, but the cognitive factors are important.
Self-efficacy developing from mastery experiences in which goals are achieved through perseverance and
overcoming obstacles and from observing others succeed through sustained effort.
Self-efficacy and self-esteem are different concepts, but related.
Self-efficacy relates to a person’s perception of their ability to reach a goal, whereas self-esteem relates to
a person’s sense of self-worth.
Application of the Theory

"Motivation, performance, and feelings of frustration associated with repeated failures determine affect
and behaviour relations" - Bandura, 1986)
SET is widely applied in health behaviour change.
Cognitive and behavioural psychotherapy for depression are based on theoretical concepts of self-efficacy.
Conclusion

Self-efficacy is the most important precondition for behaviour change.

References

Bandura, A. Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavior change. Psychological Review, 1977, 84,
191-215.
Bandura, A. Self-efficacy mechanism in human agency. American Psychologist, 1982, 37, 122-147.

Self-Efficacy Theory by Albert Bandura

The self-efficacy theory holds is that people are likely to engage in activities to the extent that they
perceive themselves to be competent. 4 sources of self-efficacy are Performance Accomplishments,
Vicarious Experience, Social Persuasion, and Physiological and Emotional States.

Self-Efficacy Theory of Bandura follows the principle that people are likely to engage in activities to the
extent that they perceive themselves to be competent at those activities.

Self-efficacy is the belief in one’s effectiveness in performing specific tasks. Albert Bandura’s theory of
self-efficacy has important implications for motivation.

According to staples et al. (1998), the self-efficacy theory suggests that there are four major sources of
information used by individuals when forming self-efficacy judgments.

In order of strength; people who regard themselves as a highly efficacious act, think, and feel differently
from those who perceive themselves as inefficacious. They produce their future, rather than simply foretell
It. – Albert Bandura

Sources of Self-Efficacy Beliefs

4 sources of self-efficacy are;

1.Performance Accomplishments.
2.Vicarious Experience.
3.Social Persuasion.
4.Physiological and Emotional States.

FRIAS – 2A 10/12
Performance Accomplishments
Personal assessment information that is based on an individual’s accomplishments.
Previous successes raise mastery expectations, while repeated failures lower them.

Vicarious Experience
Gained by observing others perform activities successfully.

This is often referred to as modeling, and it can generate expectations in observers that
they can improve their performance by learning from what they have observed.

Social Persuasion
Activities where people are led, through suggestion, into believing that they can cope
successfully with specific tasks. Coaching and giving evaluative feedback on performance
are common types of social persuasion.

Physiological and Emotional States

The individual’s physiological or emotional states influence self-efficacy judgments
concerning specific tasks. Emotional reactions to such tasks (e.g., anxiety) can lead to
negative judgments of one’s ability to complete the tasks.

FRIAS – 2A 11/12
FRIAS – 2A 12/12