Why the scope of our self-efficacy beliefs is important to understand self-efficacy?

I found Pajares’ article interesting because it explained how self-efficacy (SE) differs from other expectancy constructs, like motivation and self-concept, and provided ideas on how SE should be assessed. I think that these are topics that have fired up the discussions in our class. From my understanding, one distinctive feature of SE is that it is not only domain specific, but also task specific. Therefore, if we want to measure students’ SE in math domain through a questionnaire, the questions should specify both the content of the domain (e.g., algebra) and the type of task (e.g., problem-solving approach). However, I could not understand the theoretical reason of this level of specificity. I think that the author emphasized more how SE should be operationalized than why SE should be understood in that way. Though both things (i.e., operationalization and definition) should be related, they are not the same. I wonder if the theoretical reason is related with the fact that solving a task in a particular domain requires more than the knowledge about that domain. In the previous case, for example, the student not only needs to know about algebra, but also she needs comprehension skills to understand the problem.

Pajares’ article also helped me to understand what Professor Glassman calls microanalytic assessment. This author discussed the relevance of understanding SE associated to a specific domain and a specific task. But what about the role of time? From our discussion in class, I understood that one’s SE beliefs are affected by the environment. Therefore, it is possible that the strength of these beliefs varies over time, right?