Self-Efficacy is defined as the belief in one's capabilities to achieve a goal or an outcome (Ormrod,2012).
Self-Efficacy may "affect several aspects of an individual's behavior, including their choices of activities, their goals, their effort and persistence, and ultimately their learning and achievement"(Ormrod, 2012).
An individual with high self-efficacy will welcome difficult activities and challenges, while individuals with low self-efficacy are more apprehensive with challenging tasks fearing failure (Bandura, 1994).
"Social Cognitive Theorists have found that several factors affect the development of self-efficacy, including one's own previous successes and failures, one's current emotional state, the messages that others communicate, the successes and failures of others, and the successes and failures of one's group as a whole" (Ormrod, 2012).