• The collective belief centers on the groups operative capabilities
• Interactive dynamics create an emergent property that is more than the sum of its individual attributes.
• Several factors contribute to interactive effects
• Mix of knowledge and competencies
• How the group is structured
• How well it is led
• How the members interact with each other (undermining or building)

GAUGING COLLECTIVE EFFICACY (478)

• There are two approaches to the measurement and evaluation of collective efficacy
• Aggregate members appraisals of their personal capabilities for the functions they perform in the group
• Aggregate members' appraisals of their groups capabilities as a whole
• Beliefs of personal efficacy are not detached from the larger social system
• For instance, a quarterback considers his offensive line, receivers, etc.
• The two indices of collective efficacy are at least moderately coordinated
• Perceived collective efficacy is not a monolithic group attribute
• Teachers at differing grade levels face different challenges that vary in amenability to personal control
• Individuals occupying different roles or positions in the same social system may differ somewhat in their in how they view their groups collective efficacy
• Collective efficacy is of course rooted in self-efficacy
• A group of elf-doubters is not molded into a collectively efficacious force
• A weak link that has to perform interdependently can spell group failure
• A group of highly efficacious individuals may perform poorly if they do not work well together
• Beliefs of collective efficacy predict level of group performance
• The stronger the beliefs they hold about their collective capabilities, the more they achieve
• Schools, organizations, and athletic teams
• Bandura (1993) did a collective efficacy study of 79 schools .
• The stronger the staffs' shared belief in their instructional efficacy, the better the school performed academically

Political Efficacy (483)

• Perceived political efficacy involve peoples beliefs that they can influence the political system
• Personal efficacy needed to produce results by effort and use of capabilities
• How amenable social systems are to change by individual and collective influence
• Individuals who judge themselves powerless effect little effort or change

Structure of Political Efficacy Beliefs (485)

• Social cognitive theory posits that political activity is better explained and predicted by particularized efficacy beliefs that bear on legislative activities
• Locus of control is non predictive of political action
• General, global measures are weakly predictive
• Human survival in the nuclear age requires the inhabitants of nations to challenge the military doctrines and justifications for nuclear weapons.
• Those who choose to get involved in nuclear disarmament activities have higher collective efficacy than those who remain inactive
• It is easier to exert collective efficacy in close knit communities

Participatory Dilemmas in Collective Action (488)

• Significant social changes are typically spearheaded by a minority bearing the full burden
• Social activism is a dynamic, not static affair
• Group success brings benefits to the participants
• People derive self-respect from challenging social practices that violate their ethical standards
• A strong sense of camaraderie provides sustaining interpersonal rewards at a time when the tangible benefits of social change may be long in coming
• The more a persons well being and identity are tied to a group, the stronger are the felt obligations to the cause.

Joint Impact of Efficacy and System Trust on Political Activism (490)

• People who believe that they can help to achieve desired futures will act on that belief regardless of whether they hold the political system in high or low regard.
• Those who are active within the political system believe they can influence it
• Research on political efficacy must therefore assess not only a multi faceted efficacy belief system, but also different forms of political activism at different levels of government systems.

Development of Political and System Trust (491)

• Beliefs that one can influence the government start early in life.
• Listening to adults model political attitudes
• Their ability to influence adults and/or teachers at school may play a part
• Adult females feel less politically efficacious than adult males

Electronic Campaigning and the Political Process (492)

• Political parties and commercial interests with a lot of financial clout are increasingly orchestrating legislative activities over the media airwaves
• Talk radio
• Television call in media
• The media coverage of campaigns has shifted from political issues to tactics of electoral races
• It is a negative state of affairs that frustrating peoples and see politics as manipulative
• Computer politicking does not regulate quality of political discourse or interchanges
• In this era of electronic campaigning, image politics orchestrated by pollsters, computer programmers, and image makers has become the major source for influencing the electorate
• It is easier to buy an image than to earn it through good deeds
• The more voters rely on television for their information the more their voting decisions are influenced by candidates image qualities rather than by their positions on issues

Collective Efficacy and Militant Social Action (497)

• It is often said that hopelessness breeds militant social action
• Evidence disputes this
• For people living under inequities, comparatively few take action
• The challenging question is why mos people subject to maltreatment and dismal living conditions acquiesce
• Magnitude of civil disorder is governed by three sets of factors
• Level of social discontent arising form economic decline, oppression, and social inequities
• Traditional acceptance of force to achieve social change
• Third factor is the balance of coercive power between military, police, industry and labor
• People are not empty vessels shuffled about by external forces
• People are proactive
• Groups resort to protesting when they believe the payoff outweighs the penalties
• Militant activism is instigated by detrimental conditions
• People who lead protests and who are activists are generally
• Better educated
• Have greater self- pride
• Have stronger beliefs in their ability to shape events
• Favor coercive measures
• *in most nations, protests are led by university students, not the underprivileged

Building Community-Wide Efficacy for Social Change (500)

• shaping the social future through institutional change is a long, tortuous process
• The challenge is to build a community wide sense of efficacy
• Alinsky was a masterful community organizer
• His approach to collective enablement was founded on self- reliance
• "Never do anything for someone that they can do for themselves" (500).
• Social power comes in three forms
• Political power
• The power of money
• The power of numbers
• The role of community organizer
• Not to solve their problems but to
• Help them develop capabilities to solve their own problems
• Serves as a community enabler
• Construct a self- directing community that unifies, enables, and motivates its residents

ENABLEMENT BY MEDIA MODES OF INFLUENCE (504)

• An uninformed public is apt to be an ineffective if not an apathetic one
• The media shapes how people think about issues
• The general public must be informed, motivated, and its collective efforts channeled
• Effective use of the media is, thus, in integral part of collective efforts.

Media Use for Policy Initiatives (505)

• The responsiveness of the media to the public interest will depend partly on the strength of the public voice. Therefore a good part of media advocacy is devoted to building coalitions and teaching community groups how to promote their policy initiative through a variety of media outlets.

• Entertainment Media in Social Change (505)

• Burgeoning population growth is by far the most urgent global problem
• Produces environmental degradation
• Global ecosystem cannot sustain the high consumption
• Curbing that growth is imperative for survival
• Many factors give rise to large families
• Children help support parents in later years
• Male resistance to contraception
• Efforts to bring down the population growth must include not only strategies and benefits relative to family planning, but must also include the role and status of women in societies in which they are treated subserviently.
• Dramatic serials are effective vehicles for reaching vast numbers of people

ENABLEMENT FOR SOCIOCULTURAL CHANGE (511)

• The benefits of change carry social costs...some entrenched customs are forfeited

Obstacles to Social Change (511)

• New practices usually threaten existing status and power relations
• If change were instantly beneficial change would be welcome
• Obstacles to change can be constructed by privileged social groups

Properties of Efficacious Model of Diffusion (513)

• If effective programs are to be adopted, people must be equipped with the
• Skills
• Beliefs of personal efficacy
• Incentives
• Successful models of social diffusion have (4) four phases
• Selecting an optimal sight for introducing innovation
• Some sectors are more receptive than others
• Creating the necessary preconditions for change
• Increasing awareness of benefits of change and innovations
• Implementing an effective program for change
• Mere attitude change is not enough and has met with little success
• Fostering the desired behavior is also desirable
• "After people behave in new ways, their attitudes accommodate to their actions" (513).
• Using successful examples to disperse innovations to other settings
• If new patterns of behavior are to be acquired, potential adopters must be provided with emulatable models to impart the necessary knowledge, value, and skills

Social Impact of Innovations (516)

• Innovations can have a profound impact on society
• Create new industries
• Alter institutional practices
• Restructure how people live their lives
• When new technologies are introduces without addressing the social conditions that control access to them, they may in fact exacerbate social problems
• Verdicts about the worth of an innovations ultimately rest on value systems.
• Self-efficacy theory approaches the issue of inequitable distribution of benefits in terms of creating equitable opportunity to make use of innovations
• Opportunities ought to be expanded to all members
• The structuring of social agencies to endure access to opportunities should be considered as much a part of the innovation as the technology itself

Communications Innovations and Social Diffusion of Ideas and Social Practices (517)

• Social cognitive theory analyzes social diffusion of ideas, values, and social practices in terms of (3) three constituent processes and the psychosocial factors that govern them
• Acquisition of knowledge
• Symbolic modeling by print media, radio and television
• Innovations that are difficult to understand are given less consideration
• Informal personal channels
• Adoption of behavioral practices
• Environmental inducements
• Adoptive behavior
• Modeled benefit increase adoption of new behaviors
• Necessary resources
• both personal and social well being are served by weariness to new practices
• Diffusion through various social networks
• Kinship, friends, colleagues, occupational colleagues . . .
• More likely to learn new ideas and practices from contact with different casual acquaintances than from the same, close circles.
• People with many social ties are more apt to adopt innovation
• Different social networks transmit differing innovations and news.

UNDERMINERS OF COLLECTIVE EFFICACY (520)

• The accelerated pace of informational and technological change and extension of global interdependence
• The need for shared purposes to keep the earth habitable is crucial
• Many factors undermine the development of collective efficacy
• Transnational interdependence (where people are affected by events very far away).
• The major challenge to leadership is to forge a national sense of self--efficacy to take advantage of globalization while minimizing the price to local cultures
• Modern life is increasingly regulated by complex physical technologies that most people neither understand nor believe they can do much to influence
• The social machinery of society is no less challenging
• Social fragmentation along racial, religious and ethnic lines
• Advanced telecommunications are spreading idea, values, and styles of behavior transnationally at an unprecedented rate

Factional Efficacy and Gridlocking of Social Initiatives (524)

• "Clearly there exists a paradox to be explained. The rise of narrow-interest groups flexing their factional efficacy does not jibe well with the diagnosis of growing public apathy and feelings of helplessness" (524).
• In the absence of shared imperatives, growing factional efficacy can be undermining of collective efficacy

Bidirectionality of Social Influence (524)

• Human influence, whether individual or collective, is a two way process
• Social transactions are rarely unilateral
• The less control that people bring to influence on their own lives, the more control they relinquish to others
• As a society, we enjoy the benefits left by those before us who collectively fought inhumanities and worked for social reforms that permit us better lives. Our own collective efficacy will, in turn, shape how future generations live their lives.