There's three other influences that we’ll
talk about that will impact your self-concept.
We have Self-efficacy, which is the belief
in one’s own competence and effectiveness.
Like the name implies self-efficacy
you’re taking about yourself,
how good are you at the things that you do?
This can vary task by task.
You can be really great at drawing or organizing
but you’re terrible at say Math and cooking.
Self-efficacy is a blanket
term that covers everything.
It covers specific task and
it can vary task by task, okay.
Your Locus of control is our ability
to control or influence outcomes
and can be perceived as either internal or external.
When an individual feels they have
no control it is known as learned helplessness.
Let’s break that down.
What we’re saying here is if you are doing a task
or if you doing something or you’re even
just talking about your self-concept.
Do you feel like you can control your future?
Do you have control over what’s happening to you?
There is two types of control.
The internal situations would be,
“I did really well on this MCAT exam
because I’m smart, I studied, I work my ass off.
That is why I've done so well on those exams.
You were in control and
that’s an internal control, okay.
Now, the other option is say external,
meaning this is outside factors.
Things that you didn’t specifically have control over
but the impact of the success of what you were doing.
So you did amazing on the MCAT because, I don’t know,
I guess I got lucky or the test was easy.
Maybe there is two versions and this
is an easier version, I don’t know.
You’re not taking ownership of what’s happened.
So a locus of control falls outside of you
And the scenario is when an individual feel
like they had no control over what happened.
and they were just throw in the situation.
They did what they did.
And whatever happened, happened.
Now, that’s a little bit different than external
because we’re not even saying that
something outside influences.
We don’t even know what influences.
We don’t know what controlled this.
And so an individual is said
to have acquired learned helplessness.
And at that point a lot of times,
they’ll actually kind of give up.
Even when control is returned
where they do have the ability
to either internally or externally control the situation.
They will still lean on that learned helplessness
saying, “I don’t even know”.
So let’s go back to this study example.
If you had good internal control, you would say,
“I’m smart, I will study, I will do well.”
That’s fairly obvious.
External says, “Well, I’ll study
but it’s kind of outside of my hands.
It’s a test that they’re writing and
I’m just going to write what they give me.
And if I do well. Hopefully,
I will get lucky.” that’s external.
Learned helplessness means you go in,
I’m not getting to bother studying 'cause,
“You know what it’s not going to make a
difference and who knows what’s going to happen.
And I have no control over the situation.
Now that’s a learned helplessness.
Now, what if they say to you,
“Well we can even provide you a study notes
and we’ll give a tutor?”
“Oh what’s the point. You know, whatever
is going to happen is going to happen.
I have no control. There is no control.
You do what you got to do.”
So this individual even though they now
presented with options to gain some control
they’re just washing their hand and
bit of saying, “Well there's no point”.
The last point is self-esteem.
And this is overall self-evaluation
of one’s self worth, self- efficacy
and they can actually bolster your esteem.
So you’ve heard of this term before,
you have good self-esteem or almost confidence.
and what you’re doing is your saying,
“I am worth it. I am good.
and that actually bolsters your efficacy.
And so too much of this is actually not a good thing.
And not enough of it is not a good thing either.
So you might choose what you feel is
an attribute they gives you self-esteem.
And that’s linked to self-efficacy.
So if you are really good or have
good self-efficacy in a certain thing,
Let’s say you’re quite bright.
And that is why you want to go medical school
'cause you know that I can do well in the MCAT.
I’m going to get a medical school. I can do this.
you are quite confident in your
abilities in terms of an intelligence
and therefore your self-esteem
is quite high in that area
But you might say, “I’m kind of a bookworm
and a Science nerd and I’m not a jock.
So I’m kind of suck at basketball or
running or I’m terrible at all sports.”
And so your self-esteem in terms of athleticism is quite low.
So you can actually have that disparity
where you are really good at something intelligence.
and so your esteem in that area is quite high
but you are weak in other areas.
So you can have a mix of both.
This also can have higher self-efficacy.
You’re great at something and
you still have low esteem.
you see this all the time using an
example of a young woman who is beautiful
and she could easily be a model but she
does not have that belief that she's beautiful
and so she has very low self-esteem.
or somebody who is quite bright
but doesn’t have that self-esteem
despite the fact that they’re quite
efficacious or have good self-efficacy
than an intelligence area.
They feel that they were not that bright.
Maybe it is because they’ve been told so.
Maybe it’s because at one point
they’ve poor on an exam
even though they are quite bright
they don’t have that self-esteem
and that’s linked to poor outcomes.
So you can see how all these different
variables will impact your overall identity.
And it all shapes your self-concept
or identity based on
the different schemata as you might have.