ABSTRACT
Alan Turing began life as a cautious boy with some doubts about his work and his ability. But then he flourished in a particular field, and this was accompanied by a significant change in aspects of his personality, particularly regarding doubt. The mechanism of change can sometimes be feelings of self-efficacy, which refers to an individual’s belief in his or her capacity to execute behaviours necessary to produce specific performance attainments. In the domain of mathematics and abstract thought, Turing’s self-efficacy was high, but not in the interpersonal domain. The forced removal of doubt and the confidence that grows with it can be a problem, especially when this confidence infiltrates other domains, as it sometimes can do - without any real reason or justification. Doubt can be a great inhibitor, but it can cause one to act with more reserve and caution which is sometimes necessary in life. His self-efficacious beliefs meant that he felt himself capable of succeeding in strange social environments that he was not familiar with. He perhaps needed some doubts in these strange social contexts but unfortunately, they weren’t there for him in the end.
