Kin 494

Front 1

What is coping efficacy?

Back 1

One’s belief in their ability to cope with a certain situation (cope in challenging situations) (Example: “I feel that I can deal with whatever this school semester has for me!”)

Front 2

What is Barriers Efficacy?

Back 2

One’s belief in their ability to overcome barriers to behavior. (Example: “I believe I can find time to study even though I am working full time and travelling for half of the summer!” Time would be the barrier in this situation). Barriers can be social, environmental, personal, etc… Time is one of the most often cited barriers for behavior change (particularly with exercise). Time and money are also often cited as barriers to making dietary/nutritional changes. *Increases in barriers efficacy is good. If we can increase barriers efficacy, we can increase the person’s belief in their ability to overcome them; and their perceived barriers go down.

Front 3

Outcome expectations

Back 3

The beliefs of what the outcome of a given behavior should be.

Front 4

Efficacy Expectations

Back 4

One’s beliefs in their abilities to successfully carry out the given behavior (independent of the outcome).

Front 5

Level of efficacy

Back 5

Individual’s beliefs in their ability to successfully carry out a given task (like self efficacy)

Front 6

Strength of efficacy

Back 6

The degree of conviction the one can successfully carry out a given task (how strong is your belief?)

Front 7

Generality of efficacy

Back 7

The ability to generalize efficacy beliefs to predict behavior in related tasks or domains that require parallel skills.

Front 8

Past performance

Back 8

The strongest determinant of self efficacy. If a person has successfully completed something before, they are likely to believe they can do it again.

Front 9

Verbal Persuasion

Back 9

External feedback telling a person that “You can do it”; “You can push through”, etc…It is literally almost like persuading someone to complete the behavior/task. It can also be related to positive self talk; and/or positive feedback.

Front 10

Imaginal Experiences

Back 10

An imagined experience of success (works somewhat like past performance…) however, it is an image in the mind of successful completion. Further, imaginal experiences can be images of other people completing the task as well.

Front 11

Physiological States

Back 11

Feeling in proper physical condition for a task has influence on one’s belief in their ability to successfully complete the task.

Front 12

Emotional States

Back 12

Likewise, feeling emotionally/mentally prepared for a task has influence on one’s belied in their ability to successfully complete the task.

Front 13

Vicarious Experience

Back 13

The idea that watching someone else successfully complete a behavior/task can raise one’s own beliefs in their ability to be successful. Usually this has more of an impact if the both share the same characteristics.

Front 14

Determinants of Self Efficacy

Back 14

past performance, verbal persuasion, vicarious learning, emotional states, physiological states and physiological experiences.

Front 15

Self Regulatory Efficacy

Back 15

The belief in one’s abilities to produce a performance that will lead to desired outcomes

Front 16

Social cognitive theory

Back 16

) postulates that human functioning is determined by
(a) personal factors in the form of cognition, affect, and biological events
(b) behavior
(c) environmental influences

Self efficacy theory and social cognitive theory are closely related and often overlap and have many similarities. Social cognitive theory really adds environmental influences on behavior (modeling).

Hint 16

Tenet 1: Response consequences (such as rewards or punishments) influence the likelihood that a person will perform a particular behavior again in a given situation. Note that this principle is also shared by classical behaviorists.
Tenet 2: Humans can learn by observing others, in addition to learning by participating in an act personally. Learning by observing others is called vicarious learning. The concept of vicarious learning is not one that would be subscribed to by classical behaviorists.
Tenet 3: Individuals are most likely to model behavior observed by others they identify with. Identification with others is a function of the degree to which a person is perceived to be similar to one's self, in addition to the degree of emotional attachment that is felt toward an individual.

Modeling lies at the core of social cognitive theory. Modeling can be direct (from live models), symbolic (from books, movies, and television), or synthesized (combining the acts of different models). It can cause new behaviors, facilitate existing behaviors, change inhibitions, and arouse emotions. In learning from models, observers go through the processes of attention (observation), retention in memory, reproduction of the observed behavior, and motivation to produce the behavior in the future.