Self, relational, and collective efficacy in athletes

Abstract

“Athletes and their coaches know that successful performance in sport is based, in part, on psychological factors. One of those factors is self-efficacy: the confident belief that one can perform skillfully, cope with performance pressure, and sustain the hard work necessary to perfect one’s skills (Bandura, 1997). In fact, self-efficacy is considered one of the most influential cognitive variables involved in athletic performance. Not only is one’s self-efficacy beliefs important to performance, but the relational beliefs between athletes and coaches and athletes with athletes, that is, their relational efficacy, is important to performance outcomes. Athletes and coaches also realize that much of sport performance occurs in teams. It is essential that athletes and coaches have confidence in their team’s abilities, referred to as collective efficacy, to be successful. Bandura’s theory (1977) of self-efficacy (and its collective efficacy extension) has been proposed as a cognitive explanation for differences in the abilities of athletes, teams, and their relational confidence in each other to carry out their challenges in sport performance. In this chapter, we provide an overview of self-efficacy, relational efficacy, and collective efficacy constructs. In each section, we outline the concepts, provide some research examples, and identify ways to enhance efficacy beliefs." (Hepler, Hill, Chase, & Feltz, 2021, Chapter Overview)