A Preliminary Report on the Effects of Videotape Preparations for Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery on Anxiety and Self-Efficacy: A Simulation and Validation With College Students

An experiment was conducted that used a role-playing methodology with college students to explore the relative effectiveness of three preparatory videotapes for reducing the anxiety and increasing the self-efficacy beliefs of individuals faced with the imminent prospect of undergoing coronary artery bypass surgery (CABS). All three tapes were designed to provide comparable, accurate sensory and procedural information. In one of the tapes, a nurse provides all information. In the other tapes, actual CABS patients describe their experiences in one of two manners. In the mastery tape, the hospital recovery period is portrayed essentially as a steady upward progression with little mention of problems. In comparison, the coping tape portrays the hospital recovery period as having more ups and downs, and the patients mention some concerns and problems with which they are coping. Subjects, via imagery induction, were asked to imagine how they would feel if they were hospitalized and scheduled for surgery the next morning. Results indicated that subjects randomly assigned to view any of the experimental tapes reported less anxiety and increased self-efficacy for performing the recommended recovery behaviors relative to no-tape controls. In addition, subjects in the mastery-tape condition indicated significantly less anxiety than those in either the coping-tape or the nurse-tape conditions, who in turn did not differ from each other. The possibility that the videotape effects on anxiety were mediated by self-efficacy beliefs was also examined.