Bandura's Self-Cognitive Theory

"People who regard themselves as highly efficacious act, think, and feel differently from those who perceive themselves as inefficacious. They produce their own future, rather than simply foretell it" - Albert Bandura

INTRODUCTION

Every child is born with certain natural and inherited endowments. These endowments are modified and sublimated for making the individual child a useful member of society. Tension and Stress have become a part and parcel of today’s life. The 21st century has been branded as the age of ‘stress and anxiety’. Stressful circumstances are encountered everyday and at every stage of human development. From the very trauma of birth itself, right through adolescence, the young meet unavoidable sources of stress. From weaning

Individuals exercise control over their thoughts, feelings and actions. (Bandura, 1986) states that people will be more inclined to take on a task they believe they can succeed in. People generally avoid tasks where their self-efficacy is low but will engage in task where their self-efficacy is high. A strong sense of academic self-efficacy enhances students ' academic accomplishment, quality of functioning and personal well-being (Adeyemo, 2001; Pajares, 1996). (Bandura, 1997) states that a sense of self-efficacy is an important contributor to the attainment of further competences and successes. There is sufficient evidence documenting significant relation between self-efficacy beliefs and achievement in academic settings (Bandura, 1997). Students who are high in academic self-efficacy are more persistent, determined, and have high academic achievement (Bandura,1986; Schunk, 1981; Zimmerman, 1989) Realizing the present day need in the area of education, where focus is upon mobilizing and directing the inner potentialities of students to cope with difficulties and achieve better, the present study is undertaken.

1.1 ACADEMIC

Stress has become an important topic in academic circles. Many scholars in the field of behavioural science have carried out extensive research on stress and its outcomes and concluded that the topic needed more attention (Agolla, 2009). Stress in academic institutions can have both positive and negative consequences if not well managed (Stevenson & Harper, 2006). Academic institutions have different work settings compared to non-academic and therefore one would expect the difference in symptoms, causes, and consequences of stress (Chang & Lu, 2007). It is important to the society that students should learn and acquire the necessary knowledge and skills that will in turn make them contribute positively to the development of the general economy of any nation. It is important for the institutions to maintain well balanced academic environment conducive for better learning, with the focus on the students’ personal needs. Students have different expectations, goals, and values that they want to fulfill, which is only possible if the students’ expectations, goals, and values are integrated with that of the institution (Goodman,