Showing papers by "Albert Bandura published in 1983"

Self-Efficacy Determinants of Anticipated Fears and Calamities

Abstract: This comment analyzes the issues raised by Kirsch regarding the role of selfpercepts of coping efficacy in avoidance behavior. Evidence is reviewed that shows that people who perceive themselves as inefficacious in wielding control over potentially aversive events view them anxiously, conjure up possible injurious consequences, and display phobic avoidance of them. Self-efficacy theory postulates an interactive, though asymmetric, relation between perceived self-efficacy and fear arousal, with self-judged efficacy exerting the greater impact. This enables people to perform activities at lower strengths of self-judged efficacy despite fear arousal and to take self-protective action without having to wait for fear arousal to prompt them to action. In a recent article, Kirsch (1982) reported that college students who say they fear snakes raise their confidence that they could hold one if offered such hypothetical incentives as money ranging up to $ 1 million, saving someone's life, or even sparing one's own life. In contrast, a majority of these same students steadfastly maintain they could not toss a wad of paper into a wastepaper basket at an easy distance (54%) or at a distance of 50 feet (15.2 m; 76%) even if a million dollars, their own life, or the lives of others depended on it. When asked for their reasons for their hypothetical reluctance in these hypothetical situations, the reluctant snake handlers said they were deterred by expected fear and aversive consequences, whereas the reluctant paper throwers said they were immobilized by want of ability. Kirsch concluded from these data that people refrain from performing tasks they find threatening "due to expected negative consequences, including the expectation that they will experience fear" (p. 133). This type of interpretatio n simply begs the question because the causes of expected negative consequences and fear arousal themselves need explaining. This is one of a number of issues that the self-efficacy formulation addresses. People who doubt they can cope effectively with potentially aversive situations approach