PU505: Health Behavior Unit 3 Self Efficacy Theory

Question 1

What is the short and sweet or essence sentence of Self-Efficacy Theory?

Answer 1

People will only try to do what they think they can do and won’t try what they think they can’t do.

Question 2

What are the constructs of SET?

Answer 2

Mastery Experience - Prior success at having accomplished something that is similar to the new behavior

Vicarious Experience - Learning by watching someone similar to ourselves be successful

Verbal Persuasion - Encouragement by others

Physiological and emotional states - Effects of thinking about undertaking the new behavior

Question 3

What were the three shared characteristics that theories used to explain behavior?

Answer 3

1. That behavior is regulated physically at a subconscious level
2. That behaviors diverging from the prevailing norm are symptoms of disease or disorder
3. That behavior changes as a result of gaining self-insight through analysis with a therapist (Sure, people recognized their behavior more, but didn’t usually change their behavior)

Question 4

When was the alternative behaviorist approach to explain human behavior introduced which viewed behavior as a result of an interplay between personal, behavioral, and environmental factors rather than an unconscious process with psychodynamic roots, and it did not consider deviant behavior a disease symptom?

Answer 4

1960s

Question 5

Who proposed the self-efficacy theory and when did this happen?

Answer 5

Albert Bandura, 1970s

Based off of previous theories of behavior change. He found the underlying mechanism.

Question 6

What is a childhood book that is a representation of the self-efficacy theory?

Answer 6

The Little Engine That Could …. I think I can I think I can!

Question 7

What is self-efficacy?

Answer 7

It is the belief in one’s own ability to successfully accomplish something, achieve a goal.

It is a theory by itself as well as being a CONSTRUCT of social cognitive theory.

Question 8

What does self-efficacy tell us?

Answer 8

It tells us that people generally will only attempt things they believe they can accomplish and won’t attempt things they believe they will fail.

Question 9

What does a strong sense of self-efficacy do?

Answer 9

They believe they can accomplish even difficult tasks and see these challenges to be mastered rather than threats to be avoided.

Efficacious people set challenging goals and maintain a strong commitment to them.

In the face of impending failure, they increase and sustain their efforts to be successful. They approach difficult or threatening situations with confidence that they have control over them which, in turn, reduces stress and lowers the risk of depression.

Question 10

Alternatively, what does it look like if someone has low self-efficacy?

Answer 10

People who doubt their ability to accomplish difficult tasks see them as threats.

They avoid those tasks based on their own personal weaknesses or the obstacles preventing them from being successful.

They give up quickly in the face of difficulties or failure, and it doesn’t take much for them to lose faith in their capabilities… An outlook like this increases stress and the risk of depression.

Question 11

Self-efficacy theory introduces the idea that the perception of efficacy is influenced by WHAT four factors?

Answer 11

Mastery experience
Vicarious experience
Verbal persuasion
Physiological (somatic) and emotional states

Question 12

What is something you gain when you are successful in doing something new and they are the MOST effective way to boost self-efficacy because people are more likely to believe they can do something new if it is similar to something they have already done well?

Answer 12

Mastery experience. You have mastered something.

Question 13

What is a mastery experience some young women have growing up that prepares them to become mothers?

Answer 13

Babysitting

Fathers, however, typically do not have this mastery experience. They master their experience by raising their own children.

Question 14

What are OPPORTUNITIES that aim for people to gain mastery?

Answer 14

Workshops, trainings, apprentice programs, internships, and clinical experiences. This increases self-efficacy over time.

For example, hours in clinical practice areas provide opportunities for student nurses to master nursing skills, and internships provide public health students the chance to master the competencies needed for their professional practice.

Question 15

What is a caveat to mastery experiences?

Think smoking and autism.

Answer 15

Not all past mastery experiences are applicable to a person’s self-efficacy in a new situation, even if the situation is the same or similar to the prior one.

For example, mastery experiences from a previous attempt to quit smoking do not help people quit another time. They need new mastery experiences on a daily basis to support their self-efficacy.

Mastery experiences and self-efficacy show a reciprocal relationship (called an upward spiral) within smokers during a quit attempt in a day-to-day design, as well as contagion effects in couples when both partners try to quit simultaneously. (Warner et al., 2018).

Similarly, parents of children with autism, even if they have other children, usually do not have mastery experiences to support their parenting self-efficacy of the child with autism. The experiences gained from parenting children without autism are not applicable to parenting a child with autism (Raj & Kumar, 2010).

Question 16

What is the effect that occurs with behavioral change, self-efficacy, and mastery experiences when one partners’ mastery influence the others self-mastery and the partners’ self-efficacy influences the others self-efficacy?

Answer 16

Contagion effect

Question 17

Why would a strong sense of self-efficacy NOT develop when completing new tasks?

Answer 17

If the new tasks are always easy and similar to ones already mastered, and difficult, unfamiliar ones are avoided, then a strong sense of efficacy does not develop. To develop a strong sense of efficacy, difficult tasks also need to be attempted, and obstacles worked through

Question 18

What is another factor influencing perception of self-efficacy which includes the observation of the successes and failures of others (models) who are similar to one’s self?

Answer 18

Vicarious experience

Watching someone like yourself successfully accomplish something you would like to attempt increases self-efficacy. Conversely, observing someone like yourself fail detracts or threatens self-efficacy. The extent to which vicarious experiences affect self-efficacy is related to how much like yourself you think the model is.

The more one associates with the person being watched, the greater the influence on the belief that one’s self can also accomplish the behavior being observed

Question 19

What are some examples of vicarious experience?

Answer 19

This construct can be used to explain how group weight loss programs work. When overweight people see others like themselves lose weight and keep it off by following a sensible diet and exercising, this strengthens their belief in their own ability to do the same.

Watching friends who have taken a nutrition course choose healthy foods at a fast-food establishment may increase your belief in your ability to also choose healthy foods: “If they can do it, so can I.”

Not only do workshops and training sessions increase mastery, they can provide vicarious experiences as well. Watching others in a training session, a class, or during role playing can provide observational experiences that enhance self-efficacy, especially if the person performing or learning the behavior is similar to the observer.

This is what happens when vicarious learning is used to teach medical students how to communicate with patients. As it turns out, medical students learn as much and sometimes more by watching other students practice talking with patients as they do from practicing it themselves (Stegmann et al., 2012).

Question 20

T/F Vicarious learning situations can take place by watching others on a video.

Answer 20

True.

This approach was used for a pilot program aimed at promoting responsive feeding practices to a group of parents (Ledoux et al., 2018). Responsive feeding during childhood is the foundation for the development of lifelong healthy eating behaviors. It entails having the caregiver (parent, grandparent, childcare provider) respond appropriately to the hunger or satiety cues of children so they only eat when they’re hungry and only as much as they need rather than being pushed to eat when they aren’t hungry or to eat more than they want (McCarthy, 2017).

After viewing a responsive eating video in which actors demonstrated both unresponsive and responsive feeding practices in the same situation, parental knowledge about proper feeding practices increased. Perhaps more importantly, there was a decrease in the extent to which parents believed it was beneficial to encourage children to eat, pressure them to eat, and restrict certain foods (Ledoux et al., 2018).

Question 21

What is at the core of coach/trainer-student/client instruction where the coach demonstrates the skill, and the student/client then copies?

Answer 21

Vicarious learning

This is also how you learned to tie your shoes, brush your teeth, and eat with a fork. You watched, observed your parents or older siblings, and then copied what they did. Think about all the things you learned by watching others and how successfully accomplishing the skill increased your self-efficacy.

Question 22

What is the third factor in influencing self-efficacy when people are motivated that they can achieve or master a task?

Answer 22

Verbal persuasion.

It goes a long way in boosting their self-efficacy and making it more likely they will do the task.

Question 23

What is an example of verbal persuasion?

Answer 23

Coaches psyching up the team telling them they will win, they are stronger, faster, better prepared, and so on.

If a team performs poorly, the coach’s reaction is paramount in the effect the loss has on the players’ self-efficacy. For example, the coach saying, “We lost the game today because you are all lousy players,” doesn’t do much for self-efficacy, whereas saying, “We lost because we need more practice,” does (Brown et al., 2005).

Conversely, when people are told they do not have the skill or ability to do something, they tend to give up quickly (Bandura, 1994).

Verbal persuasion was one approach used in a program aimed at increasing the self-efficacy of women with hypertension to reduce their salt intake. The program consisted of two in-person 60–90 minute sessions and two follow-up phone calls. It was during these phone calls that participants were encouraged (verbal persuasion) to resist the temptation to use more than the recommended daily amount of salt (Cornelio et al., 2012).

In another program, participants who were successful in maintaining their diet and exercise changes and controlling their blood pressures were praised by the program presenters. Additionally, family members were invited to one of the four program sessions and urged to provide encouragement for their relatives in their blood pressure control efforts (Farazian et al., 2019).

College CHEF, a program intended to help students make healthier food choices by teaching them cooking skills, used verbal persuasion to increase cooking self-efficacy. This was done by having cooking instructors praise students (provide positive verbal feedback) in the class when they did something correctly (McMullen & Ickes, 2017). This praise addressed not only the construct of verbal persuasion but also vicarious learning as other students in the class saw what their peers did correctly.

Question 24

What provides clues as to the likelihood of success or failure when someone contemplates doing something?

Answer 24

The physical and emotional reactions that occur.

Stress, anxiety, worry, and fear all negatively affect self-efficacy and can lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy of failure or inability to perform the feared tasks. (Pajares, 2002). Stressful situations create emotional arousal, which in turn affects a person’s perceived self-efficacy in coping with the situation (Bandura & Adams, 1977).

People new to exercising at a gym, especially if they perceive that others are watching them, can become anxious in anticipation of an exercise session. This negative emotional or physical response can be detrimental to their exercise self-efficacy and, in turn, threaten their continued exercising. Faced with this situation, a fitness professional can help minimize negative responses by teaching relaxation techniques and encouraging the use of positive self-talk in an effort to reduce anxiety and support exercise self-efficacy (Jackson, 2010).

A classic example of how the emotional state affects self-efficacy and, ultimately, health behavior is fear of the dentist (Figure 2.4). For millions of people in this country, the mere thought of going to the dentist is associated with intense pain and anxiety. As a result, they cannot bring themselves to make appointments or keep appointments for even routine, preventive dental care. This avoidance behavior results in decayed or missing teeth, a poorer quality of life, the need for more extensive treatment, and the very pain they wanted to avoid (Heidari et al., 2017).

Being afraid of the dentist is also related to poor daily dental health habits, as a study of more than 8,000 university students found. Students who reported being very fearful of the dentist brushed their teeth once a day or less and used tobacco, as compared to those less fearful or not fearful at all who brushed their teeth twice a day or more and used tobacco less frequently or not all.

As it turned out, the more fearful students were at greater risk of dental problems, which was consistent with their need for frequent dental treatment or treatment at every dental checkup (Pohjola et al., 2016).

Question 25

What happens if emotional state is improved?

Answer 25

If the emotional arousal or stress is reduced–a change in self-efficacy can be expected.

Question 26

T/F Emotional state can help self-efficacy.

Answer 26

True. The arousal can be positive. Think about running and the runner’s high, in this case the emotional state is positive and that results in pleasurable rather than uncomfortable. This would positively impact self-efficacy and support continued engagement in the behavior that created it.

Question 27

In summary, according to self-efficacy theory, verbal persuasion, mastery experiences, vicarious experiences, and somatic and emotional states affect our self-efficacy and, therefore, our behavior

Hayden, Joanna. Introduction to Health Behavior Theory (p. 79). Jones & Bartlett Learning. Kindle Edition.

Answer 27

No Answer