Motivation Self-beliefs of efficacy play a key role in the self-regulation of motivation. Most human motivation iscognitively generated. People motivate themselves and guide their actions anticipatorily by the exercise offorethought. They form beliefs about what they can do. They anticipate likely outcomes of prospectiveactions. They set goals for themselves and plan courses of action designed to realize valued futures.There are three different forms of cognitive motivators around which different theories have been built.They include causal attributions, outcome expectancies, and cognized goals. The corresponding theories areattribution theory, expectancy-value theory and goal theory, respectively. Self-efficacy beliefs operate in eachof these types of cognitive motivation. Self-efficacy beliefs influence causal attributions. People who regardthemselves as highly efficacious attribute their failures to insufficient effort, those who regard themselves asinefficacious attribute their failures to low ability. Causal attributions affect motivation, performance andaffective reactions mainly through beliefs of self-efficacy.In expectancy-value theory, motivation is regulated by the expectation that a given course of behavior willproduce certain outcomes and the value of those outcomes. But people act on their beliefs about what theycan do, as well as on their beliefs about the likely outcomes of performance. The motivating influence ofoutcome expectancies is thus partly governed by self-beliefs of efficacy. There are countless attractiveoptions people do not pursue because they judge they lack the capabilities for them. The predictiveness ofexpectancy-value theory is enhanced by including the influence of perceived self- efficacy.
PerseveranceIt requires a strong sense of efficacy to remain task oriented in the face of pressing situational demands,failures and setbacks