Difference Between Autonomy and Self-Efficacy

The difference between autonomy and self-efficacy is autonomy is the desire to do something for oneself and self-efficacy is the ability and willingness to try a task. Self-efficacy means that people are more likely to participate in behaviors and be more successful at them when they believe they are capable of accomplishing behaviors of a task successfully. This is why it's important to allow a child to try things on their own because even if they aren't successful, they then know it may be something they may not be good at but it also helps them learn what they are capable of doing.

For example, for a few years my child took piano lessons. She was good at but it wasn't something she really enjoyed and she didn't like doing recitals and having to speak in front of people to tell them what songs she was going to play. The area of arts she likes is painting, drawing etc so instead of continuing her piano lessons she focused on art classes and developing her talent in drawing and painting etc which she is really good at.

This let her know she was good at playing the piano but it wasn't something she was particularly interested in and let her know there was something else she was more interested in and more talented in so it was her talent in drawing etc that was developed instead.