The Self-Efficacy Test
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The psychological term ‘Self-efficacy’, refers to the belief that you are the source of your own success, having a high sense of self-efficacy means that you wholeheartedly believe that you can make the changes necessary to achieve the goals that you’re striving towards. Psychologists have suggested that, If you don’t have belief in yourself to reach your goals, then you may as well throw in the towel.
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If your goal is to lose weight, but you haven’t managed it yet, then perhaps it is due to your lack of self-efficacy, if you don’t truly believe that you can commit to the changes needed to reach that goal, then you’ll never achieve that goal. This fact is often a bombshell to most people when I tell them this.
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Bandura, a very famous psychologist, invented the term and suggests the following;
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Bandura and Locke (2003) state: Among the mechanisms of human agency, none is more central or pervasive than beliefs of personal efficacy. Whatever other factors serve as guides and motivators, they are rooted in the core belief that one has the power to produce desired effects; otherwise one has little incentive to act or to persevere in the face of difficulties.
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Not convinced? Then perhaps the following research might inspire you!
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Numerous studies have examined the relationship between perceived self-efficacy beliefs and weight management. Research by Kitsantas (2000) compared the weight management self-regulation strategies used by healthy-weight individuals, those who had had weight problems in the past and successfully lost weight, and those who were currently overweight. Self-efficacy measures were also taken for each of the groups. Results indicated that currently overweight participants used significantly fewer self-regulation strategies than the healthy weight and previously overweight participants. This correlated with significantly lower self-efficacy perceptions than seen with the other two groups.
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The project, however, did not consider whether participants in the previously overweight group had high perceived self-efficacy initially, which led to their current health state, or whether their self-efficacy increased due to the positive results seen from weight loss.
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How might one improve their self-efficacy score?
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McAuley, Talbot, and Martinez (1999) suggest that - self-efficacy beliefs can be manipulated not simply by participants’ own interpretations of their mastery over a situation but by how they were led to believe they performed through feedback that they received.
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So perhaps one way that you can improve your self-efficacy is to get some social support, get somebody you trust to encourage you and remind you when you’ve been successful. Remind yourself of how well you’ve been doing on your plan to lose weight, don’t let your negative thoughts derail you.
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Current research predicts that participants who watch the successful, positive weight loss behaviours of others who were like themselves would experience a change in self-efficacy, allowing them to feel more confident in their own ability to successfully lose weight just as the models had done.
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Try to find people who are on a weight loss journey, have you found others who can share their weight loss story with you, maybe this will inspire you and ultimately improve your own self-efficacy?