What's The Difference Between Self-efficacy, Self-concept, & Self-esteem? Ed Psych Insight Ep. 7

(upbeat music)

[DR. BRETT JONES] Hey.

Today I'm gonna answer
the question,

"What's the difference
between self-efficacy,

self-concept, and self-esteem?"

I'm here at the Citi Open
tennis tournament,

because I want you to think
about how your self-efficacy,

for serving in tennis,

can be different
from your tennis self-concept,

which can be different
from your athletic self-concept,

your academic self-concept,

and your overall self-esteem.

Let's go back to Virginia Tech
to find out how these

self-beliefs contribute
to your sense of self.

This video is part
of the Ed Psych Insight series,

in which I explain educational
psychology concepts.

(buzzer buzzing)

[INTERVIEWER] How good are you
at tennis?

[DR. BRETT JONES] At tennis,
on a zero to ten scale,

I would say about a seven.

I'm pretty good, but not great.

[INTERVIEWER] How good are you
at baseball?

[DR. BRETT JONES] Baseball
is not my best sport.

I'm not too bad.

I would say, probably a three.

(bell chiming)

[INTERVIEWER] How good are you
at football?

[DR. BRETT JONES] Well
I'm a pretty good wide receiver.

I mean, compared to guys on
the Virginia Tech Football team,

I'm probably a two or three
but, compared to guys my age,

I'm probably like a eight,
or nine.

I'm fast, and I catch the ball.

(upbeat instrumental music)

How you rate your ability
in different domains,

is called your self-concept.

Self-concept is
about your ability,

which is also referred to
as your competence,

or your level of knowledge
and skills in a domain.

In the videos you just saw,

I rated my self-concept
as a seven in tennis,

a three in baseball,
and a two or eight in football,

depending on who I
was comparing myself to.

So the first key point,

is that our self-concepts are
multi-dimensional,

because we can have different
ratings,

for different self-concepts.

A second key point,

is that our self-concept
in a particular domain,

such as tennis or football,

can vary depending on who
we're comparing ourselves to.

My rating is much lower
when I compare myself

to a Division One football
player,

than when I compare myself
to an average guy my age.

A third key point,

is that our self-concepts are
hierarchical,

because they are comprised
of broader,

and narrower self-concepts.

Here, you can see
that my tennis, baseball,

and football self-concepts,

are part
of my athletic self-concept,

which is part
of my physical self-concept.

I also have other physical
self-concepts,

such as an attractiveness
self-concept, and others.

In fact, if we were
to expand this,

we would see
that we have many self-concepts,

such as
an academic self-concept,

that's comprised
of self-concepts in science,

math, writing,and other domains.

So to summarize,

self-concept is your perception
of your competence,

in a particular domain, such as
academics, athletics, or tennis.

Now, let's define self-efficacy.

[INTERVIEWER] How confident are
you that you can make a serve?

[DR. BRETT JONES]
On a ten-point scale,

I would say seven.

The question,
"How confident are you,

that you can do
a specific activity?"

is asking about self-efficacy.

Self-efficacy is your confidence
that you can complete

a specific activity
within a domain.

In the video,

I rated my confidence
that I could hit a serve,

as a seven on a ten-point scale.

But I also have self-efficacies,

related to solving double-digit
addition problems,

and making friends
in biology class.

So while self-efficacy
focuses on a specific activity,

self-concepts, are your broader
perceptions of your abilities,

within the domain,

and are likely informed
by your self-efficacies.

For example,
your math self-concept,

would likely be higher
if your self-efficacy

for solving double-digit
addition problems was high,

and vice versa.

But if you were in high school,
your math self-concept

would also be informed
by your self-efficacy,

in solving algebra,
and geometry problems.

So as you can see,

we have a lot of perceptions
about ourselves.

One reason that self-efficacy is
important,

is that it tends
to correlate with performance.

For example, someone with
a higher self-efficacy,

for hitting a successful serve,

would be more likely
to perform higher when serving.

Let's test this out.

I rated my self-efficacy as
a seven,

so I will estimate,

that I should make seven
out of ten serves.

It probably doesn't work exactly
like that,

but it makes sense that a fairly
high self-efficacy rating,

should lead to a fairly-high
percentage of successful serves.

Okay, so now we're gonna test
this out by hitting in,

ten balls, into the
service court on the other side,

and we'll find out how many
I can actually make

out of ten balls on one take,
no re-dos.

(Dr. Brett chuckling)

(buzzer buzzing)

(bell chiming)

(buzzer buzzing)

(bell chiming)

(bell chiming)

(bell chiming)

(bell chiming)

(buzzer buzzing)

(bell chiming)

(bell chiming)

(triumphant instrumental music)

Okay, so my performance was
exactly as I predicted.

Although by adolescence,
and into adulthood,

people become pretty good
at estimating their ability

to complete activities.

Young children are not very good
at it,

and they tend
to overestimate their abilities.

Now that you know about
self-efficacy, and self-concept,

let's talk about self-esteem.

Self-esteem is
an emotional reaction,

to your overall evaluation of
yourself as a person of worth.

Basically, it's how you feel
about yourself overall.

These feelings are affected
by how good you are,

at what you value.

So, for example, if you value
academics more than physical,

and social abilities,

and you have
a low academic self-concept,

then you'll have
a lower self-esteem,

even if you have high physical
and social self-concepts.

Similarly, you may feel great
about yourself,

if you have
a high academic self-concept,

even if you have low physical
and social self-concepts,

if you don't value those.

As you can see,

our self-esteem depends on being
good at the things we value.

So what's the difference
between self-efficacy,

self-concept, and self-esteem?

Well, to summarize,

self-efficacy is your confidence
in your ability to complete

a specific activity,
such as a math problem.

Your self-concepts are your
perceptions,

about how good you are
in various domains,

such as math, tennis
or romantic relationships.

And self-esteem,

includes your feelings
about your overall evaluation

of yourself,
as a person of worth.

And your self-esteem is affected
by what you value.

As a final point,

self-efficacy can be changed
relatively quickly

if the activity doesn't take
too long to learn.

For example,
someone's self-efficacy

for solving double-digit
addition problems,

could be increased a lot
in a few hours,

if they knew how to add,

but didn't know how
to add double digits

in the problem shown here.

Of course, it would take longer,

maybe even several months,
or a year

to increase someone's
math self-concept

if they didn't believe
that they were good at math,

to begin with.

And because self-esteem is
dependent on self-concept,

it would likely take more time
to change someone's self-esteem

as well.

The main differences identified
in this video,

are summarized in this table,

and you can pause the video
to review them.

If you found this video helpful,
make sure to leave a like,

and subscribe to my channel
for more videos.

More information
about this topic is available

at my website,

and in the 'Essentials
of Educational Psychology' book,

which are linked
in the description below.

Thanks for watching!

(upbeat instrumental music)

[INTERVIEWER] How good are you
at quarterback?

[DR. BRETT JONES] Well,
compared to the Virginia Tech

quarterback,
I'm probably like a nine or ten.

[COMMENTATOR] Here we go!

Sorry drumline!