Exercise of Human Agency Through Collective Efficacy

Social cognitive theory adopts an agentic perspective in which individuals are producers of experiences and shapers of events. Among the mechanisms of human agency, none is more focal or pervading than the belief of personal efficacy. This core belief is the foundation of human agency. Unless people believe that they can produce desired effects and forestall undesired ones by their actions, they have little incentive to act. The growing interdependence of human functioning is placing a premium on the exercise of collective agency through shared beliefs in the power to produce effects by collective action. The present article analyzes the nature of perceived collective efficacy and its centrality in how people live their lives. Perceived collective efficacy fosters groups' motivational commitment to their missions, resilience to adversity, and performance accomplishments.     

Social cognitive theory of self-regulation

In social cognitive theory human behavior is extensively motivated and regulated by the ongoing exercise of self-influence. The major self-regulative mechanism operates through three principal subfunctions. These include self-monitoring of one's behavior, its determinants, and its effects; judgment of one's behavior in relation to personal standards and environmental circumstances; and affective self-reaction. Self-regulation also encompasses the self-efficacy mechanism, which plays a central role in the exercise of personal agency by its strong impact on thought, affect, motivation, and action. The same self-regulative system is involved in moral conduct although compared to the achievement domain, in the moral domain the evaluative standards are more stable, the judgmental factors more varied and complex, and the affective self-reactions more intense. In the interactionist perspective of social cognitive theory, social factors affect the operation of the self-regulative system.     

Effect of perceived controllability and performance standards on self-regulation of complex decision making

Tested the hypothesis that perceived controllability and stringency of performance standards would affect self-regulatory mechanisms governing performance attainments of a simulated organization. Ss who managed the simulated organization under a cognitive set that organizations are not easily controllable displayed low perceived self-efficacy, even when standards were within easy reach, and lowered their organizational goals. Ss who operated under a cognitive set that organizations are controllable maintained a strong sense of self-efficacy, set increasingly challenging goals, and exhibited effective analytic thinking. The divergent changes in these self-regulatory factors were accompanied by large differences in organizational attainments. Path analyses revealed that perceived self-efficacy, which was affected by prior accomplishments, influenced subsequent organizational performance through its effects on analytic strategies. After further experience, the performance system was regulated more extensively and intricately by Ss' self-conceptions of efficacy. Perceived self-efficacy affected subsequent organizational attainments both directly and indirectly through its influence on personal goal challenges. Personal goals, in turn, enhanced organizational attainments directly and through mediation of analytic strategies.     

Mechanisms governing empowerment effects: a self-efficacy analysis

This experiment tested the hypotheses that perceived coping and cognitive control self-efficacy govern the effects of personal empowerment over physical threats. Women participated in a mastery modeling program in which they mastered the physical skills to defend themselves successfully against unarmed sexual assailants. Multifaceted measures of theoretically relevant variables were administered within a staggered intragroup control design to test the immediate and long-term effects of the empowerment program and the mechanisms through which it produced its effects. Mastery modeling enhanced perceived coping and cognitive control efficacy, decreased perceived vulnerability to assault, and reduced the incidence of intrusive negative thinking and anxiety arousal. These changes were accompanied by increased freedom of action and decreased avoidant behavior. Path analyses of causal structures revealed a dual path of regulation of behavior by perceived coping self-efficacy, one mediated through perceived vulnerability and risk discernment and the other through perceived cognitive control self-efficacy and intrusive negative thinking.     

Self-efficacy conception of anxiety

Abstract

In social cognitive theory, perceived self-efficacy to exercise control over potential threats plays a central role in anxiety arousal. Threat is a relational property reflecting the match between perceived coping capabilities and potentially hurtful aspects of the environment. People who believe they can exercise control over potential threats do not engage in apprehensive thinking and are not perturbed by them. But those who believe they cannot manage threatening events that might occur experience high levels of anxiety arousal. Experimental analyses of the microrelation between perceived self-efficacy and anxiety arousal reveal that perceived coping inefficacy is accompanied by high levels of subjective distress, autonomic arousal and catecholamine secretion. Environmental events are not always completely under personal control and most human activities contain some potential risks. The exercise of control over anxiety arousal, therefore, requires not only development of behavioral coping efficacy but also efficacy in controlling dysfunctional apprehensive cognitions. It is not frightful cognitions per se but the perceived self-inefficacy to turn them off that is the major source of anxiety arousal. Analyses of the causal structure of self-protective behavior show that anxiety arousal and avoidant behavior are mainly co-effects of perceived coping inefficacy.     

Relative contributions of protection motivation theory components in predicting exercise intentions and behavior

A factorial design was employed to test the relative effectiveness of the four cognitive appraisal processes (severity, vulnerability, response efficacy, and self-efficacy) contained in the revised protection motivation theory (PMT). One hundred sixty undergraduate women read persuasive appeals for increasing exercise, which varied on these four dimensions. As predicted, both the vulnerability and self-efficacy variables enhanced intentions to exercise along with similar effects on self-reported exercising. Intentions were predictive of self-reported changes in behavior. The obtained interaction between vulnerability, self-efficacy, and response efficacy suggests that individuals employed a "precaution strategy": They intended to adopt the recommended behavior even though they held weak beliefs about its effectiveness and were not convinced of their at-risk status. These findings are compared to others obtained using the PMT, and the issue of main and interactive effects produced by the model is also addressed.     

Coach identity leadership behaviours are positively associated with athlete resource appraisals: The mediating roles of relational and group identification

BackgroundThere is growing evidence identifying the positive effects of sport and exercise leaders engaging in identity leadership. Yet we have limited knowledge of how identity leadership is associated with athletes’ resource appraisals (e.g., self-efficacy) and performance, the underpinning mechanisms that explain such relationships, and changes in relationships across a sporting season.MethodsIn Study 1, 412 amateur and professional athletes completed seven questionnaires directly prior to athletic competition in a cross-sectional design. In Study 2, 136 athletes completed seven questionnaires directly before competition, and one questionnaire directly after competition both at the start and the end of the athletic season.ResultsIn Study 1, relational identification and group identification mediated the positive relationship between identity leadership and self-efficacy, control, approach goals and social support. In Study 2, identity leadership at the start of the season predicted self-efficacy at the end of the season through relational identification. Group identification did not significantly mediate the identity leadership-resource appraisal relationship. Perceived social support at the start of the season predicted greater performance satisfaction at the end of the competitive season.ConclusionsFindings provide evidence that sport coaches’ engagement in identity leadership is key to forming a shared social identity, which in turn, is broadly adaptive for stress appraisals and performance satisfaction both cross sectionally and longitudinally.     

Concepts of bounded agency in education,work, and the personal lives of young adults

This paper traces the development of a series of Anglo‐German studies on how young adults experience control and exercise personal agency as they pass through periods of transition in education and training, work, unemployment, and in their personal lives. The overarching aim has been to develop an extended dialogue between ideas and evidence to explore the beliefs and actions associated with life‐chances under differing structural and cultural conditions. What kinds of beliefs and perspectives do people have on their future possibilities? How far do they feel in control of their lives? How does people's belief in what is possible for them (their personal horizons developed within cultural and structural influences) determine their behaviours and what they perceive to be “choices”? This research contributes to the re‐conceptualization of agency as a process in which past habits and routines are contextualized and future possibilities envisaged in the contingencies of the present moment. The paper concludes by explaining the concept of “bounded agency” as an alternative to “structured individualization” as a way of understanding the experiences of people in changing social landscapes.     

大学生使用BBS的心理因素研究

在理论分析基础上,构建了大学生使用BBS的心理因素及行为模型,并编制问卷,通过对137名大学生的问卷调查对该模型进行了验证.结果表明:1.使用BBS的行为意向和自我效能感对使用行为的预测作用极其显著.2.使用BBS的态度对行为意向有极显著的正向影响.3.使用BBS过程中体验到的实用性和积极感受对于态度有显著的正向影响,而在使用BBS过程中体验到的危害性对态度有负向影响.4.互联网自我效能感对使用BBS的自我效能感有极其显著的正向影响,但对使用BBS的态度无显著影响.5.使用BBS的自我效能感和控制感对使用行为的影响不显著.     

Social Cognitive Theory: An Agentic Perspective

This article presents the basic tenets of social cognitive theory. It is founded on a causal model of triadic reciprocal causation in which personal factors in the form of cognitive, affective and biological events, behavioral patterns, and environmental events all operate as interacting determinants that influence one another bidirectionally. Within this theory, human agency is embedded in a self theory encompassing self-organizing, proactive, self-reflective and self-regulative mechanisms. Human agency can be exercised through direct personal agency; through proxy agency relying on the efforts of intermediaries; and by collective agency operating through shared beliefs of efficacy, pooled understandings, group aspirations and incentive systems, and collective action. Personal agency operates within a broad network of sociostructural influences. In these agentic transactions, people are producers as well as products of social systems. Growing transnational imbeddedness and interdependence of societies are creating new social realities in which global forces increasingly interact with national ones to shape the nature of cultural life.     

Mutual Help Groups, Perceived Status Benefits, and Well-Being: A Test with Adult Children of Alcoholics with Personal Substance Abuse Problems

A field experiment was conducted to examine the potential effects of mutual help group participation on perceived status benefits, depression, and substance use among adult children of alcoholics (ACOAs) with personal substance abuse problems. Participants were randomly assigned to attend either ACOA-specific mutual help group meetings or substance abuse education classes during the initial month that they were enrolled in a residential treatment program for low-income substance abusers. Analyses were based on assessments made at baseline, a 1-month posttest, and a 6-month follow-up. Results indicated that participation in the mutual help group promoted perceived status benefits, which in turn led to reductions in depression and substance use. These findings have clear implications for consumers of ACOA groups and can inform research on the social psychological underpinnings of different types of mutual help groups.     

Self-efficacy pathways to childhood depression

This prospective research analyzed how different facets of perceived self-efficacy operate in concert within a network of sociocognitive influences in childhood depression. Perceived social and academic inefficacy contributed to concurrent and subsequent depression both directly and through their impact on academic achievement, prosocialness, and problem behaviors. In the shorter run, children were depressed over beliefs in their academic inefficacy rather than over their actual academic performances. In the longer run, the impact of a low sense of academic efficacy on depression was mediated through academic achievement, problem behavior, and prior depression. Perceived social inefficacy had a heavier impact on depression in girls than in boys in the longer term. Depression was also more strongly linked over time for girls than for boys.     

Predictors of mental distress and poor physical health among homeless women

Abstract

We tested a latent variable path model in which situational, personal, and social resources predicted several mediators and the key health outcomes of mental distress and poor physical health among 871 homeless women. Mental distress was predicted by risky sexual behavior, less social support, avoidant coping, less self-esteem, client abuse history, social support from deviant sources, less drug self-efficacy and health care utilization. Poor physical health was predicted by a client abuse history, less drug self-efficacy, fewer perceived rewards for drug use, higher perceived costs for drug use, and a doctor visit. Current risky sexual behavior was predicted by a parent drug abuse history, less drug self-efficacy, and more social support from deviant sources. Current drug use was predicted by parent drug abuse history, less drug self-efficacy, more social support from deviant sources and by high perceived costs for drug use. Implications of results for intervention and theory are discussed.     

Cognitive processes mediating behavioral change.

The present experiment was designed to test the theory that psychological procedures achieve changes in behavior by altering the level and strength of self-efficacy. In this formulation, perceived self-efficacy. In this formulation, perceived self-efficacy influences level of performance by enhancing intensity and persistence of effort. Adult phobics were administered treatments based upon either performance mastery experiences, vicarious experiences., or they received no treatment. Their efficacy expectations and approach behavior toward threats differing on a similarity dimension were measured before and after treatment. In accord with our prediction, the mastery-based treatment produced higher, stronger, and more generalized expectations of personal efficacy than did the treatment relying solely upon vicarious experiences. Results of a microanalysis further confirm the hypothesized relationship between self-efficacy and behavioral change. Self-efficacy was a uniformly accurate predictor of performance on tasks of varying difficulty with different threats regardless of whether the changes in self-efficacy were produced through enactive mastery or by vicarious experience alone.     

Self-regulatory efficacy's role in the relationship between exercise identity and perceptions of and actual exercise behaviour

Identity theory posits that when people endorse an identity they maintain or alter their behaviour in order to behave consistently with that identity. This assertion is supported in the exercise context where strength of exercise identity relates to exercise behaviour. Less is known about self-regulatory constructs that may aid individuals in behaving consistently with their exercise identity. Self-regulatory efficacy may mediate the relationship between exercise identity and exercise given the influence of this variable on exercise self-regulation; this relationship has not been examined. Exercise identity research has focused on the relationship between identity and behaviour; yet, identity theory recognizes perceptions of identity-behaviour consistency as theoretically important. Through influencing how identity-relevant information is processed, self-regulatory efficacy may also mediate the relationship between exercise identity and perceptions of identity-behaviour consistency.ObjectiveIdentity and social cognitive theories were used to examine self-regulatory efficacy as a mediator between exercise identity and i) exercise behaviour and ii) perceptions of identity-behaviour consistency.Method/designUndergraduate students (n = 311) were followed for 8 weeks. At baseline, participants completed demographic, exercise identity and exercise measures. After 4 weeks they reported their self-regulatory efficacy and after 8 weeks they reported their perceptions of identity-behaviour consistency and their exercise behaviour.ResultsConsistent with theory, self-efficacy mediated the relationship between exercise identity and both outcomes.ConclusionsFindings extend the exercise identity literature by providing empirical support for self-regulatory efficacy as a mechanism through which exercise identity strength leads to exercise behaviour and the perception of behavioural consistency with exercise identity meanings.     

Effects of a Self-Efficacy Intervention on Exercise: The Moderating Role of Diabetes and Cardiovascular Diseases

The paper examines the influence of a brief tailored intervention on exercise levels and self-efficacy beliefs in the context of participants' health status. We hypothesised that the effects of a self-efficacy intervention targeting more frequent exercise would be larger among people with diabetes or cardiovascular diseases (CVD), compared to the effects of the intervention among individuals without such diseases. The treatment was tailored to participants' self-efficacy and was delivered by e-mail. Data from 187 adults were collected at two measurement points, with a 6-month follow-up. Participants reported their exercise frequency and self-efficacy scores, along with several social-cognitive variables, such as risk perception and intentions. Besides the influence of the intervention on exercise and self-efficacy, we found that the treatment effects were moderated by diabetes or CVD: Participants with those illnesses benefited from the intervention, compared to people without such diagnosis. Among participants with CVD or diabetes the effects of the intervention on behavior were mediated by changes in efficacy beliefs. The results indicated that a parsimonious treatment may contribute to change in exercise over the longer term, in particular among individuals with a disease related to the respective behavior. Changes in behavior may be explained by changes in respective beliefs.     

社会认知职业理论:研究进展及应用

社会认知职业理论将心理、社会、经济等影响因素整合起来,动态地揭示人们如何形成职业兴趣,做出职业选择并取得不同的绩效。基于该理论,针对不同的人群已有大量的研究。在此基础上,该理论还对职业咨询提供了多种发展性、干预性的及补救性的策略。     

社会情境中的控制感

控制感是心理学研究中的重要概念。近年来, 研究者发现传统的控制感理论过分强调个体行为对环境的影响而忽略了环境中的限制因素(社会背景、历史文化、现实因素)对控制感的作用。次要控制理论、可协商命运观和控制感补偿理论分别从不同角度对社会情境中的个体控制感进行研究。次要控制理论主要强调在低控制情境下个体通过自身调节接受客观环境以获得次要控制; 可协商命运观则认为亚洲文化下的个体在承认不可改变的环境作用的前提下依然坚持自己有限的能动性以此获得控制感; 而控制感补偿理论则认为当个体处于低控制环境之中以致个体控制感受到威胁时, 个体会通过一系列方式针对控制感缺失进行补偿。本文在对三种理论分析的基础之上提出了对中国控制感本土化研究方向的思考。     

粤港澳大湾区大学生前创业行动及受到政策与心理因素的影响研究

对315名粤港澳大湾区大学生进行问卷调查,分析他们前创业行动的情况并采用logistic回归研究其影响因素。结果发现,大学生前创业行动的参与度较为积极,但仍有进一步提升空间。而且,大学生的前创业行动受到了创业效能感、创业意愿和个体背景等内部因素的影响; 以及受到了创业政策熟悉度、大学生家庭所在地创业环境等外部变量的影响。研究结果对高校针对性开展创业教育具有一定的指导意义。     

Path analysis of exercise treatment-induced changes in psychological factors leading to weight loss

Physical activity may affect weight loss largely through psychological pathways associated with eating changes, especially in obese individuals whose caloric expenditure through exercise is typically small. Direct testing of this is, however, lacking. Previously sedentary adults (N?=?114; 77% female; M(age)?=?43.3 years), with a minimum body mass index (BMI) of 35 kg/m2 (M (BMI)?=?42.0 kg/m2), participated in a 24-week treatment of cognitive-behavioural exercise support and nutrition information. A path model based on tenets of social cognitive and self-efficacy theory was constructed. It was expected that improvements in self-efficacy, physical self-concept, body satisfaction and mood associated with the exercise treatment would predict changes in self-regulation and increased physical activity. It was also hypothesised that improvements in self-efficacy and self-regulation for appropriate eating would transfer from these relationships and predict weight loss. After three theoretically viable paths were added based on modification indices, structural equation modelling indicated a good fit with the data, χ2(16)?=?20.53, p?=?0.20; RMSEA?=?0.05; SRMR?=?0.06; CFI?=?0.97; TLI?=?0.95. Associations of psychological effects linked to exercise programme participation with predictors of appropriate eating and weight loss were found, and may inform theory, research and treatments.