A conceptual artist staring at a blank canvas with a confidence meter over their head.
Your confidence in your abilities plays an extra-large role in creative tasks

How well you judge your own abilities to do a creative task is called your creative self-efficacy, sometimes referred to as CSE. And, it turns out your confidence in your own creative skills is really important.

In their 2017 paper, “Toward untangling creative self-beliefs”, Beghetto and Karwowski make some standout points about creative self-efficacy:

  • It’s the most readily changed of the three creative self-beliefs
  • Your psychological state (if you’re tired, sad, stressed, or excited) can change your sense of creative self-efficacy
  • Vicarious experiences — experiences you perceive through others — could also influence CSE

Your creative self-efficacy is an essential building block of the story you tell yourself about how creative you are. And now you know a bit more about it!

Reference

Beghetto, R. A., & Karwowski, M. (2017). Toward untangling creative self-beliefs. In M. Karwowski & J. C. Kaufman (Eds.), The creative self: Effect of beliefs, self-efficacy, mindset, and identity (pp. 3–22). Elsevier Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-809790-8.00001-7

This micro-post was part of the Okrēo’s “Learning in Public” series, where I explored questions and topics related to creativity in theory & practice.