Construct · 4 fields · 4 citations
One name. Different field. Different construct. One map.
● jingle · one word, four constructs Nearest construct by meaningself-efficacycompare the meaningsEvery construct on the map is compared with every other by the meaning of its definitions, and the closest one is surfaced here. The nearest construct to efficacy is self-efficacy.
Hold this as a prompt, not a verdict. Two constructs sitting close in meaning is a reason to read them side by side and decide for yourself whether they are one idea under two names. It is not proof that they are. Compare the meanings in the Collider.
Spokes are fields; dashed arcs are shared lineage. Tap a field for its definition, unit, and measures.
Drag to watch the word get claimed. Each field appears at the publication date of the earliest source cited for it. Tap a year to see which.
In pharmacology, efficacy is the maximal effect a drug can produce once it has bound to its receptor, the property Stephenson named in his 1956 paper A modification of receptor theory to separate a drug's power to trigger a response from its mere power to bind. A full agonist has high efficacy and can drive the tissue to its ceiling response, while a partial agonist may bind just as tightly yet produce a smaller maximum. This referent is a measured capacity of a molecule at a target, distinct from affinity, which is how tightly the drug binds, and from potency, which is the concentration needed for a half-maximal effect. It is not a person's belief about their own capability, a verdict on whether a treatment works in a trial, or a way of perceiving the world.[1]
In social and clinical psychology, self-efficacy is a person's belief in their own capability to carry out the actions a situation demands, a construct Bandura set out in his 1977 paper Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. It predicts whether people attempt a task, how much effort they sustain, and how they recover from setbacks, and it is judged task by task rather than as a single global trait. This referent is a judgment held in the mind about the self, and the site's self-efficacy page traces how the one name later split across general, computer, and entrepreneurial variants. It is not the maximal effect of a drug, a trial's verdict on a treatment, or a mode of perceiving the past.[2]
In clinical research, efficacy is whether an intervention produces its intended benefit under ideal, tightly controlled conditions, typically a randomised trial with selected patients and strict protocols, as distinguished from effectiveness, its benefit in ordinary practice. Singal, Higgins, and Waljee's 2014 primer A primer on effectiveness and efficacy trials lays out how explanatory efficacy trials maximise internal validity while pragmatic effectiveness trials favour real-world generalisability. This referent is a property of the evidence and its design, a statement about the conditions under which a result was obtained, not a drug property, a personal belief, or a philosophical account of experience. The site's effectiveness page holds the paired real-world meaning.[3]
In process philosophy, causal efficacy is the mode of perception in which we directly feel the world of the immediate past pressing on and shaping present experience, the vague but weighty awareness of being caused. Whitehead introduced it in his 1927 lectures Symbolism: Its meaning and effect, contrasting it with presentational immediacy, the clear but thin display of colours and shapes here and now. On this account ordinary experience fuses the two, and the felt influence of the body and the past is more basic than the vivid surface. This referent is a philosophical account of how experience registers causation, not a drug's maximal effect, a belief about the self, or a trial's verdict on a treatment.[4]
Next
See how efficacy sits against neighbouring constructs in the Collider, or export every reference on this page in one click.
Open in ColliderExport BibTeXReport this collisionCited on this page?
If your work is cited behind one of these entries, you know better than we do whether we captured the meaning right. Confirm it, suggest an edit, or dispute it, and your name goes on the entry as an author who has checked it, linked to your ORCID.
Claim your construct