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Socializing efficacy: a reconstruction of self‐efficacy theory within the context of inequality *
Author(s) -
Franzblau Susan H.,
Moore Michael
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
journal of community and applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.042
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1099-1298
pISSN - 1052-9284
DOI - 10.1002/casp.617
Subject(s) - ideology , social psychology , social cognitive theory , psychology , context (archaeology) , control (management) , power (physics) , social cognition , self efficacy , cognition , social control , foundation (evidence) , social environment , sociology , social science , politics , political science , paleontology , physics , management , quantum mechanics , neuroscience , law , economics , biology
Bandura's self‐efficacy (SE) theory claims that if people believe that they can control the outcome of their behaviour, then they can. SE theory positions the self as the centre and originator of change, beginning with control over belief systems, which determine levels of performance. This conception depoliticizes social mechanisms of control, internalizing them within individual cognitive processes. We argue that SE theory emanates from culturally‐positioned and ideologically informed functional trends in US psychology, which perpetuates a blaming‐the‐victim approach to social problems. Through an examination of the way gender and disability are manipulated in SE research, we show that efficacy is socially construed, and is actually about control over and access to power and the ideological, institutional, and social resources that provide the foundation for taking certain actions. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.