Developing a Game Design Self Efficacy Scale, Part 1

I just wanted to reiterate the importance of developing our self efficacy (our beliefs about our abilities to bring to pass certain results/accomplish certain tasks; a judgment of our capability in a specific area, Game Design). What we believe about ourselves plays a large part in what we choose to do and how well we perform in those things we choose to do. For example, Bandura (1997) explained that what we believe is more important and has a bigger influence on our motivation than what is "objectively" true. He further explains that self efficacy is a "major determinant of people's choice of activities, how much effort they will expend, and of how long they will sustain effort in dealing with stressful situations" (Bandura, 1977, p. 194).

Additionally, according to Bandura (1977), there are 4 sources of information, from which we develop our self efficacy: 1) mastery experiences, 2) vicarious experiences, 3) verbal/social persuasion, and 4) physiological states.

Mastery Experiences
These are the experiences that we have as we design games. As we are able to be successful, our self efficacy will increased. The more mastery experiences we have, the higher our self efficacy and the less impact failures tend to have on our self efficacy.

Vicarious Experiences
Sometimes we are able to see others and their successful experiences. These, "vicarious experiences," also have a positive impact on our self efficacy.

Verbal/Social Persuasion
Other people may "root" for us. Others may attempt to influence our behavior through suggestion, telling us that "we can do it!" Again, this would tend to raise our self efficacy.

Physiological States
Experiences that we have elicit emotional responses from us. We, sometimes, interpret those emotional responses as signs of personal competency. This in turn, can positively affect our self efficacy.

Each of these affects our self efficacy but at differing degrees. Mastery experiences provide the longest lasting, most resistant to change impact on self efficacy. The effects drop from mastery experiences to vicarious experiences, and so on. Each of the 4 has an impact, but having mastery experiences is the most impactful.

Game Designer Self Efficacy

In just a couple weeks I will finally, after almost 10 long years, be done with my schooling!! I will have completed all necessary requirements for a PhD in psychology!!!!!

My studies have focused on a couple of things.

First, I have tried to teach students in undergraduate psychology courses as much as I possibly could. I have a real desire to help people learn in the most effective way possible. Teaching students in those courses (Introductory Psychology, Psychological Statistics, Research Methods in Social Sciences, and Psychometrics) provided me with great experience in understanding how things work in a classroom, how to most effectively interact with students, etc. Overall, it was a great experience and I hope to be able to do it more in the future.

Second, I have been involved in evaluating programs, helping those involved and those who run the programs determine if the program is working as was envisioned, if those going through the program are gaining the desired learning and experiences, etc. In those efforts, I have spent a lot of time developing surveys and measures. I am currently engaged in developing a measure of self-efficacy (or as Albert Bandura [2006] puts it, our belief in our ability to produce particular outcomes or to complete given tasks).

I am always looking for a way of combining my school with my passion: game design (board/card/etc, not video)! So, what I would love to do is help others learn to improve their game design abilities, talents, whatever you would like to call them. I think self efficacy is a great place to start, as it helps us understand how we look at our own abilities. This can then lead to ways of changing our beliefs about our abilities, which will help us improve what we do. As Bandura (2006) says, "knowing how to build a sense of efficacy and how it works provides further guidelines for structuring experiences that enable people to realize desired personal and social changes" (p. 319).

On that note, I plan on developing a scale that will measure a person's game design self efficacy, in other words, a way of measuring a person's belief of his/her ability to design games, get games published, etc. To do this, I'll first be creating a bank of questions that ask people about their game design abilities. These will then be compiled into a survey type form. Then I'll pilot the survey with lots of people, analyze the data, revise as needed, pilot again, etc. I'm sure it will take a while, but hopefully there will be something of some value come out of the whole process at the end.

I think that a study of game design and those who engage in it is a worthwhile effort (like I said, game design is my passion). We've seen movement toward offering courses, writing books, etc. on the subject. Hopefully this will be a meaningful contribution of some sort.


Bandura, A. (2006). Guide for constructing self-efficacy scales. Self-efficacy beliefs of adolescents, 5, 307-337.