Self-Confidence

Self-confidence is the belief that you can be successful; self-efficacy is the belief that you can successfully perform a specific task (Karageorghis & Terry, 2011; Weinberg & Gould, 2015). Confidence is multidimensional and can be impacted by your environment and expectations (Weinberg & Gould, 2015). It is also a cycle: expectations influence performance; performance outcomes influence self-image; self-image influences expectations (Weinberg & Gould, 2015).

Dimensions of self-confidence include (Weinberg & Gould, 2015):

• Ability (physical skills | psychological skills | perceptual skills)
• Current level
• Potential to learn

To be confident, notice that a performer needs physical abilities in addition to the other dimensions. So, a person couldn’t have genuine confidence if they lack the physical skills. That would be false confidence, which we usually term overconfidence; Albert Bandura said that overconfidence is just a way to explain failure (Weinberg & Gould, 2015).

Sources. Confidence has three domains: achievement, self-regulation, and social climate (Galluchi, 2014). That means, that we can get confidence from these three areas:

Source 1: Achievement- this is the best source because we’ve succeeded in the past, we feel confident about the challenge ahead of us:

• past experiences of mastery; Example: We passed the last biology test.
• demonstration of actual ability; Example: We passed all the biology quizzes.

Source 2: Self-regulation- this area helps us feel in control of our performance

• ability to prepare physically and mentally; Example: Backpackers feel confident because they have researched the trails and packed their equipment wisely (they also check multiple times!).
• the way we physically present ourselves; Example: A backpacker feels confident when she puts on her pack and heads off. (Note: this is not a source of confidence for everyone.)

Source 3: Social climate- our environment and social groups can influence our confidence as well

• Social support- comes from teammates, family, friends, coaches, etc.
• Vicarious experiences- seeing others similar to us succeed or using imagery to see success
• Leadership- knowing that your leaders believe in you to accomplish a task
• Environmental comfort- when you are in a place that you know (home field advantage)
• Situational favorableness- when you think “luck” is in your favor

Misconceptions about confidence include (Williams, Zinsser, & Bunker, 2015):

1. You either have it or you don’t...it is really a combination of many factors
2. Only positive feedback can build it...many other feedback types can (think of correction vs. criticism)
3. Success always increases confidence...this varies based on the genuineness of success, how the performer views their success, and if the performer focuses on positive or negatives of past.
4. Confidence is outspoken arrogance…you can be quiet and confident or you can be vocally confident
5. Mistakes decrease confidence...confidence results from how one interacts with events (mistakes and successes)

How can it decrease performance?

Genuine confidence would not decrease performance. A person could be overconfident and not prepare well enough, but that would not be genuine confidence; that would be false confidence (Weinberg & Gould, 2015).

How can it improve performance?

Higher self-confidence has multiple benefits inside and outside of performance (Galluchi, 2014):

• More positive emotions
• Increased concentration
• Continued goal-setting
• Increased effort
• Improved strategies
• Momentum
• Improved performance outcomes

Strategies to Pivot

Since we know the sources of confidence, we can increase confidence by obtaining more small successes. Using little steps we can change the cycle of confidence (see chart at beginning of lab). However, since confidence results from how one interacts with events, we can find very successful people who are not confident (Williams et al., 2015). This means that there must also be a cognitive/perspective element.

Prerequisites for confidence are (Williams et al, 2015):

1. Understanding that thoughts and performance interact.
2. Cultivate an honest self-awareness.
3. An optimistic explanatory style.

Since explanatory style can be learned and is closely related to self-talk, we can retrain our behaviors; changing our behavior can change our perception of confidence. Explanatory styles looks like this:

As you can see, taking credit for our contributions to success is important!

Lab Questions

Using your mental performance log, answer these lab questions. Remember that the more thought and effort you put into these labs, the more you'll get from the experience.

1. Can you think of a time when lack of confidence impacted your performance? Explain.

2. Can you think of a time when confidence positively impacted your performance? Explain.

3. Which of the strategies will you use to improve your future performances? Explain why you selected those strategies.