When and Why Does Self-Efficacy Impair Performance?

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While considerable research indicates that self-efficacy (i.e. perceived competence) has beneficial effects on performance, recent work suggests that self-efficacy may actually be detrimental to performance. These findings present a challenge to the existing state of knowledge, and raise questions concerning the advisability of interventions designed to facilitate self-efficacy. The goal of this research project is to understand when and why self-efficacy impairs, rather than facilitates, task performance. Specifically, it is proposed that self-efficacy will have a detrimental effect on performance when (1) there is ambiguity regarding the true level of one's performance, and (2) competing demands on one's time motivate individuals to minimize the time spent on the task. It is posited that, when performance is ambiguous, individuals draw from their self-efficacy beliefs to estimate how well they are performing, with higher efficacy leading to overestimates of performance. These overestimates of performance may result in subsequent underinvestment of time and effort towards goal completion (thus leading to poorer performance) particularly when there are competing demands vying for one's time and attention. With salient competing demands, individuals are predicted to rely upon their estimates of performance to allocate only the minimum time and effort believed to be necessary to meet the primary goal, thus maximizing the time spent on remaining activities. It is under these conditions that self-efficacy is expected to impair performance. However, without competing demands, individuals are predicted to invest more resources than seen as minimally necessary. This, in turn, is predicted to negate the performance detriments of overestimated performance and thus reduce or eliminate the negative effects of self-efficacy on performance. The knowledge gained through this research may foster development of more effective practical applications, including identification of contexts in which inflated self-efficacy should be guarded against, and where efficacy-enhancing interventions should be approached with caution.