Which scenario exemplifies a mismatch between self-esteem and self-efficacy?

• A. High self-esteem and high efficacy in all tasks.
• B. Low self-esteem and low self-efficacy overall.
• C. High self-esteem but low efficacy in public speaking.
• D. Moderate self-esteem with moderate efficacy.

Answer: (C)

The main idea here is understanding how global self-esteem and domain-specific self-efficacy can diverge. Self-esteem is your overall sense of worth, while self-efficacy is your belief in your ability to do a specific task successfully.

So, someone can feel good about themselves in general (high self-esteem) but still doubt they can perform a particular task well—like public speaking (low self-efficacy in that area). This gap between a positive overall self-view and a lower belief in a specific skill is a mismatch.

In this scenario, the person’s high self-esteem plus low public-speaking efficacy shows that contrast clearly. The other patterns—high both in general and in the task, low both, or moderate in both—are aligned rather than mismatched, which is why they don’t illustrate this divergence.