Presentation Outline
Slide 1 (Research Question)
I am interested in the dynamic behind how cultivating a participant’s confidence in their abilities (self-efficacy beliefs) will create an atmosphere among intervention participants that induces active program participation.
Slide 2 (Fieldsite)
I facilitate for an intervention dubbed PhotoClub, which is a program that targets female survivors of domestic violence.
PhotoClub is implemented at a domestic violence shelter where these women are currently in transition from leaving an abusive environment to obtaining a more safe and stable place to live.
PhotoClub is designed, through photography, to enhance the self-perceptions of these women in order for them to take an accurate inventory of:
1. Who they are now
2. How they think other people see them as
3. How they would like to see themselves as in the future
4. And the final step of making a step-by-step plan in order to achieve their goal or future self
Each step is the topic for each weekly session spanning five weeks
Through self-evaluation of their weekly photos, the participants may then begin to piece together an accurate picture of who they are, a sense of self that may have been diluted through prolonged abuse and exposure to a previously controlling environment.
Slide 3 (Current Research)
1. Self-efficacy beliefs are an enabling and protective function of belief in one’s capability to exercise some measure of control over traumatic adversity (Benight & Bandura, 2004)
The women that participate in this intervention are recent survivors of domestic violence and bring with them residual feelings stemming from that traumatic experience. These feelings and emotions can be a barrier from allowing these women to get past the trauma and become a more self-confident person. We aim, through this program, to strengthen their self-efficacy beliefs by allowing them to take a self-evaluative inventory of who they are and who they want to be. It’s our hopes that this step-by-step process will provide motivation for achieving that goal.
2. Across various areas of human endeavor, motivation and engagement play a role in adaptive pathways and desirable outcomes (Liem & Martin, 2011)
Through cultivating participants confidence in them-selves and their abilities by allowing them to follow a path of self-exploration and discovery, we hope that the participants will be more engaged through the prospect of new beginnings. The more engaged a participant is in developing a plan for their future self, the more the participant should be motivated to participate and complete the intervention. It’s our hope that each graduating participant will retain long lasting affects from the cultivation of their self-efficacy beliefs and utilize this new found confidence to achieving their future self plan.
3. An important, cognitively based source of self-motivation relies on the intervening processes of goal setting and self-evaluation (Bandura & Schunk, 1981)
This quote from Bandura and Schunk is at the heart of the PhotoClub program and states its principals precisely. We believe that through self-evaluation a person can take a clear and accurate self-inventory of their current living situation and life experience. Each step of the PhotoClub intervention allows for differing views of a persons self-concept to come together to paint that accurate self-portrait. Once a person has a clear sense of who they are, then they can begin down the path of figuring out who they want to be. Through goal setting the participant will map out a step-by-step process of achievable and realistic goals in order to reach their ultimate and ideal self.
4. Research Question: How does cultivating participant self-efficacy beliefs motivate active intervention Involvement?
Through the process of self-evaluation and self-actualization, a person will begin to develop, or in the case of a domestic violence victim, re-develop their self-concept. This intervention takes the person down a road of exploration, realization, and finally renewal, providing a new form of motivation that is a driving force towards change. The more motivated a participant is the more engaged the participant will be and hence the participant will be more active and involved in the program itself.
Slide 4 (Sources of Motivation)
1. Goal Setting and Self-evaluation (Bandura & Schunk, 1981)
2. Positive self-efficacy beliefs (Benight & Bandura, 2004)
3. Active engagement toward desirable outcomes (Liem & Martin, 2011)
Slide 5 (Future Directions)
1. Interventions like PhotoClub empower domestic violence victims and create the solidarity for change and enabling new future possibilities.
The continued implementation of interventions that target at risk populations and create atmospheres for growth and change by cultivating the participants’ self-efficacy beliefs should be replicated and studied across differing populations and social contexts to try and reveal its true empowering effects.
2. Future research on the positive effects of self-evaluation for achieving realistic and obtainable goals through goal setting.
3. Future research on the buffering effects of positive self-efficacy beliefs toward overcoming traumatic experiences and providing the stage for self-recovery (Benight & Bandura, 2004)
Slide 6 References
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Bandura, A., & Locke, E. A., (2003). Negative self-efficacy and goal effects revisited. Journal of
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Bandura, A., & Schunk, D. H., (1981). Cultivating competence, self-efficacy, and intrinsic
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Benight, C. C., & Bandura, A., (2004). Social cognitive theory of posttraumatic recovery: The
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Liem, G. A., & Martin, A. J., (2011). The motivation and engagement scale: Theoretical
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