This article is an integrative review of empirical studies of cognitive self-efficacy
from childhood through old age. Issues of definition and measurement are addressed
and the relation of self-efficacy to personal mastery is evaluated. Research on
academic achievement in children and adolescents, complex decision-making in young
adults, and memory and intellectual functioning in older adults supports a variety
of theoretically driven hypotheses regarding the sources and effects of
self-efficacy. Percepts of self-efficacy are based on a variety of sources of
information, including personal mastery and perceived control beliefs. Self-efficacy
has predictable effects on a variety of task engagement variables (e.g. persistence,
effort, goal setting, strategy usage, chioce) that mediate the relationship between
self-efficacy and performance. Generalisations regarding the applicability of
self-efficacy to understanding cognitive development across the life span are
discussed in terms of age-relevant domains and it is argued that a life span
treatment of self-efficacy development is particularly compelling because both life
span theory and self-efficacy theory emphasise domain specificity.
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