Self-Efficacy Theory: Its influence on exercise and physical activity behavior

Answer these questions:

1. Do you believe that being physically active can reduce your risk for heart disease, cancer, and osteoporosis?
2. Do you believe that a sedentary lifestyle is linked to obesity, diabetes, and high blood pressure?
3. Do you believe that only ~45% of US adults get the recommended level of physical activity? (VA is at 47%!)

I feel that the media, school health & physical education classes, and many corporate wellness programs have been putting together a great campaign in making the benefits of physical activity known to the population.  That is, I do NOT think people are oblivious to what I like to call the "benefit buffet" of exercise...

So... why is it that less than half of the US population meets the physical activity requirements of the CDC?

I admit that during my undergrad, I was only focused on how I could use exercise science to help others improve their health, fitness, and overall quality of life.  No question about it, having a deep understanding about exercise science has been critical in both acquiring and assisting my clients in achieving their goals, but I am beginning to understand that initiating and adhering to regular physical exercise is more than just a great workout plan.  

I believe that a big part of the this "more" is the psychology behind exercising.  There are several theories or models that have been proposed to influence participation and adherence to physical activity, and I personally don't believe that there is only one correct model but, rather, that they are all involved.  

However, in this post I am going to be focusing on Self-efficacy Theory and its influence on exercise and physical activity. 

• Efficacy (def): producing or capable of producing an intended result
• Self-efficacy (def): belief in one's own ability to perform a task

Theoretical Overview:

Self-efficacy theory is a social-cognitive model of behavioral causation, which postulates that people learn by watching what others do and that human thought process are central to understanding personality.  Further, self-efficacy theory views healthy functioning as being determined by correspondent influence among the individual's physiological states, behavior, cognition, and the environment.  

A key point to understanding self-efficacy is that it is not concerned with the skill an individual has but, rather, with the judgments of what an individual can do with the skills he or she possesses.  Think of American Idol here.  I am not sure if the really bad ones are just set-up but, either way, these individuals "had" a high level of self-efficacy before auditioning (however, not so much after dealing with Simon...).  I might have even been able to sing better than these individuals, but I would never be seen on the show in the first place because my self-efficacy for singing is about as low as it can get.

Developing/Destroying Self-efficacy:

According to Mcauley and Courneya (1993), there are four major sources that can develop or destroy self efficacy [1] :

1. Mastery accomplishments is the most dependable and influential source of efficacy information.  A history of previous successes improves self-efficacy, while a history of previous failures will lower self-efficacy.
2. Social modeling is derived through observing or imagining others engaging in the task to be performed.  (e.g., We see commercials of people working out. We see our co-workers exercising. Etc...)
3. Social persuasion is a technique to bolster personal efficacy that could be compared to peer pressure. Although it is a commonly used technique, it is actually less powerful than information based on personal accomplishments.
4. Physiological states are proposed to affect behavior through the cognitive evaluation of the information conveyed by the anxiety arousal, fatigue, and muscular strain and tension.  An example of this is that the somatic, or bodily, sensations felt during exercises are often interpreted as an inability to successfully carry out the remainder of the session or to continue. 

Borrowing the concept of "idea architects" from Thaler and Sunstein's excellent and intriguing book, Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness, their are several of us who are in a position to be what I would call "self-efficacy architects."  As the architects of self-efficacy we need to plan strategically and carefully to make sure that we are building, rather than destroying, individuals' perception on their ability to be physically active.

Finally, their is much support for the notion that different levels of self-efficacy are needed at different "stages" of physical activity.  It appears that when situations or behaviors become more demanding, self-efficacy assumes a more important role.  Knowing this, it is important to understand that focusing on methods to improve self-efficacy in the "contemplation" stage of exercise is most critical.  Once exercise has been adopted, improving self-efficacy is still critical to make it regular.  After exercise has become a regular activity in an individual's life, a positive-feedback system seems to appear.  These individuals who are exercising regularly and plan to continually improve or reach a goal, rather than just maintaining, are shown to have the highest level self-efficacy.  At this stage, it is mostly important to prevent negative experiences from happening (e.g., injury, criticism, incorrect or judgmental assessments, etc...)

What to take from this post?  

The main thing I took from researching and writing it, is that getting people to engage in, or increase, physical activity goes far beyond the reach of just one educational focus.  If we plan to make an impact on the health and fitness of the world, extensive collaboration between multiple focuses of study must occur.  

If you are a "self-efficacy architect," I really hope that you are able to understand that extensive effects of your actions, and rather than running in fear from it, committing to understand on how to improve the self-efficacy of those that you influence.

If you are contemplating starting an exercise program, or you would like to improve your current level of physical activity (i.e., the subject of self-efficacy architects), I want to you realize that being unsure of your ability to exercise is very normal.  However, I hope that you noticed that once people started exercising regularly, their self-efficacy was the highest, meaning they strongly believed in their ability to exercise.  So if starting is the hardest part, seek out help from fitness professionals.  Or better yet, email me or post your questions, and I would be more than happy to help out!!

In the next blog post:

I plan to discuss a second theory that has been shown to influence physical activity behaviors: Theory of Reasoned Action and Planned Behavior...

I hope: This made sense...

I recommend: You post your ideas on how to improve self-efficacy!

1) Mcauley, E. and K.S. Courneya, Adherence to exercise and physical activity as health-promoting behaviors: Attitudinal and self-efficacy influences. Applied and Preventive Psychology, 1993. 2: p. 13.