Self-efficacy
A facet of conscientiousness. Four items in the IPIP-NEO-120.
The first facet of conscientiousness is confidence in one's ability to get things done: feeling competent, expecting to handle tasks smoothly and to do them well. Competence is the older name. It is a self-belief, measured by what people say about themselves, not a measure of ability.
What it does not mean
A high score is not ability, and a low score is not incompetence. The items ask whether a person feels capable; some very able people doubt themselves and some less able people do not. Self-report measures the belief.
It is not self-esteem, which is about worth rather than capability, though the two travel together closely.
Four items make a short scale. A facet score moves more between attempts than the 24-item domain score, and it describes a tendency in ordinary life as the person reports it, not a diagnosis of anything.
High and low in daily life
High. People high on this facet say they complete tasks successfully, excel in what they do and know how to get things done. In daily life that shows as taking on new work without fuss, expecting to cope, learning from a failure rather than being stopped by it, and being the person others ask when something must be done.
Low. People low on this facet say they do not feel they handle tasks smoothly or excel. In daily life that shows as hesitation before a new job, over-preparation, a habit of crediting luck for success and themselves for failure, and a reluctance to volunteer that hides real competence.
Parent domain
- Conscientiousness: the broad trait this facet belongs to, with five sibling facets.
What the research says it predicts
Generalised self-efficacy, self-esteem, low neuroticism and an internal locus of control are so closely related that one large study treats them as indicators of a single core self-evaluation. (Judge, Erez, Bono and Thoresen, 2002)
Self-efficacy groups with achievement-striving and self-discipline into the industriousness aspect of conscientiousness, as distinct from the orderliness aspect. (DeYoung, Quilty and Peterson, 2007)
Among the conscientiousness facets, competence has the strongest link to life satisfaction and well-being. (Anglim and others, 2020)
Where people fall
The spread of scores
Curve height shows how common each score is; the darker middle holds half of all people. If you have taken a test on this device, your marker is drawn on.
IPIP-NEO-120, self-efficacy, 4 items
410,376 people
The other facets of conscientiousness
Sources and licence
Judge, T. A., Erez, A., Bono, J. E., & Thoresen, C. J. (2002). Are measures of self-esteem, neuroticism, locus of control, and generalized self-efficacy indicators of a common core construct? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83(3), 693-710. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.83.3.693
DeYoung, C. G., Quilty, L. C., & Peterson, J. B. (2007). Between facets and domains: 10 aspects of the Big Five. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 93(5), 880-896. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.93.5.880
Anglim, J., Horwood, S., Smillie, L. D., Marrero, R. J., & Wood, J. K. (2020). Predicting psychological and subjective well-being from personality: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 146(4), 279-323. doi:10.1037/bul0000226
Instrument: IPIP-NEO-120. Johnson, J. A. (2014). Measuring thirty facets of the Five Factor Model with a 120-item public domain inventory: Development of the IPIP-NEO-120. Journal of Research in Personality, 51, 78-89. doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2014.05.003 Key: https://ipip.ori.org/30FacetNEO-PI-RItems.htm.
Norms: Johnson, J. A. IPIP-NEO-120 public dataset (IPIP120.dat), OSF component wxvth of osf.io/tbmh5, https://osf.io/wxvth/.
Licence: Public domain (IPIP). Permission is granted automatically for any person to use IPIP items for any purpose, commercial or non-commercial. https://ipip.ori.org/newPermission.htm
Instrument: IPIP Big-Five Factor Markers. Goldberg, L. R. (1992). The development of markers for the Big-Five factor structure. Psychological Assessment, 4(1), 26-42. doi:10.1037/1040-3590.4.1.26 Key: https://ipip.ori.org/newBigFive5broadKey.htm.
Norms: Open-Source Psychometrics Project, IPIP Big-Five Factor Markers responses (IPIP-FFM-data-8Nov2018.zip), 1,015,342 responses collected 2016 to 2018, https://openpsychometrics.org/_rawdata/.
Licence: Public domain (IPIP). Permission is granted automatically for any person to use IPIP items for any purpose, commercial or non-commercial. https://ipip.ori.org/newPermission.htm