Self Efficacy In Changing Societies

The volume addresses important issues of human adaptation and change.

Adolescents' beliefs in their personal control affect their psychological well-being and the direction of their lives. Self-efficacy in Changing Societies analyzes the diverse ways in which beliefs of personal efficacy operate within a network of socio-cultural influences to shape life paths. The chapters, by internationally known experts, cover such matters as development of personal agency in infancy, competency through the life span, and the role of familial, educational, and cross-cultural factors in the social construction of personal and collective efficacy. The volume addresses important issues of human adaptation and change that will be of considerable interest to people in the fields of developmental psychology, education, health, and sociology.

Do our expectancies about ourselves and about others have any effect on our actual experiences? Over fifty years of research studies suggest not only that this is the case, but also that our expectancies can shape other people’s experience in different contexts. In some cases they can help, but other times they can do harm instead. Interpersonal and Intrapersonal Expectancies provides a theory, a research review, and a summary of the current knowledge on intra- and interpersonal expectancy effects and related phenomena. Based on extensive study, and written by eminent experts from some of the world’s leading academic institutions, the book presents the most recent knowledge on social and psychological mechanisms of forming both intra- and interpersonal expectancies. It also considers how expectancies are sustained and what their consequences are, as well as discussing the latest theoretical concepts and the most up-to-date research on expectancy effects. This book represents the first review of the phenomenon of interpersonal expectancies in over 20 years, and the only publication presenting a complementary view of both intra- and interpersonal expectancies. It aims to open up a discussion between researchers and theoreticians from both perspectives, and to promote an integrative approach that incorporates both.

Covering over fifteen years of research, this compilation offers the first comprehensive review of the relationships between self-efficacy, adaptation, and adjustment. It discusses topics such as depression, anxiety, addictive disorders, vocational and career choice, preventive behavior, rehabilitation, stress, academic achievement and instruction, and collective efficacy. Psychologists concerned with social cognition and practitioners in clinical counseling will find this an invaluable reference.

Self efficacy, or the belief that one can self-manage one's own health, is an important goal of health care providers, particularly in chronic illness. This book explores the concept of self efficacy from theory, research, measurement, and practice perspectives. The core of the book is an international collaboration of nurses from the U.S. and the Netherlands who have developed tools for promoting and measuring self efficacy in diabetes management.

This insightful textbook asks the question: How do otherwise considerate human beings do cruel things and still live in peace with themselves? Dr. Bandura provides a definitive exposition of the psychosocial mechanism by which people selectively disengage their moral self-sanctions from their harmful conduct. They do so by sanctifying their harmful behaviour as serving worthy causes; absolving themselves of blame; minimizing the harmful effects of their actions; dehumanizing those they maltreat, and blaming them for bringing the suffering on themselves. Dr. Bandura’s theory of moral disengagement is uniquely broad in scope. Theories of morality focus almost exclusively at the individual level. He insightfully extends the disengagement of morality to the social-system level through which wide-spread inhumanities are perpetrated. This masterwork by one of the most influential psychologists and thinkers of our time is important reading for all Psychology students and is particularly relevant for Social Psychology courses.

This volume proposes that prevailing clinical approaches to treating addictive behaviors are actually best suited to a minority of the population with problems--in the case of substance abusers, those with substantial functional impairment and physical dependence. But what about persons with mild to moderate addictive behavior problems, for whom intensive treatment may prove unnecessarily costly, disruptive, and stigmatizing? Or those substance abusers who are unable or unmotivated to abstain, but want to reduce the harm associated with drug use? Contributors draw upon cutting-edge theory and research to examine ways that traditional therapeutic treatments can be supplemented by public health interventions that extend the reach and effectiveness of care. Timely and pragmatic, the book points the way toward necessary evolutions in the roles of behavior change specialists in today's challenging health care environment.