The Effect of Special Olympic Programs on the Self-efficacy of Individuals with Down Syndrome

In Bandura's system, self-efficacy is defined as the feelings of competency and adequacy in dealing with life, which in fact addresses the conviction that we evaluate our abilities based on various data sources. It should be noted that self-efficacy functions to some extent independent of individual's actual
abilities; i.e., with high levels of ability but low self-efficacy, the individual is unlikely to accomplish a task successfully. Besides, self-efficacy needs to be distinguished from expected outcome. Whereas self-efficacy refers to the individual's beliefs about his/her competencies, the expected outcome pertains to the individual's conjectures about the specific outcome of a particular task (Muris, 2002). ..